Keep Calm and Carry On

October is National Kitchen & Bath Month, so at HEP Sales/North Main Lumber that is cause for celebration. So, I made posters for all the stores to post in their Kitchen areas capitalizing on the "Keep Calm" meme.

It's a Tankless Job, but Somebody's Gotta Do It

Tankless water heaters are great. Instead of heating a whole container of water (as much as 40-50 gallons), a tankless water heater heats small amounts of water as it passes through your water pipes. The downside is, they cost a lot more than the traditional tank water heater. So, selling tankless water heaters to the public involves an educational process that falls to the salesperson.

Advertising's job is to catch the eye of the public with an immediate benefit.
We wanted to put signs up in all the stores to draw their attention to the tankless water heaters, and we needed something to catch the consumer's eye.

The advantage of the Tankless Water Heater is the "unlimited" hot water: you are no longer tied to a 40 gallon limit. No more "cold showers" if you are the last one up in a large family.

The advantage of the Tankless Water Heater is that it is an "on-demand" system: it heats the water when you use it. This appeals to the dollar-conscious consumer --  "Why should I pay for something that I'm not at home to use?" 

Again, an appeal to the dollar-conscious consumer --  why repeat unnecessary actions
when a Tankless Water Heater only heats the water when you use it! 

Another more colorful restatement of the benefit of the Tankless Water Heater -- it heats the water when you use it. Putting it into temporal terms of "Tomorrow Morning" and "This Afternoon" drives home the point of the traditional water heater's inefficiency for modern life.

Selling Refrigerators to Eskimos?

A few years back, the Coen Brothers made a movie in which a man was charged with a murder he did not commit. His lawyer came up with a defense based on a scientific theory he had heard once, about how you can tell where an atom is but you can't tell how fast it is moving, or you can tell how fast it's moving, but not pinpoint it's position. I thought, only the Coens would use Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle as a plotpoint in a movie. And the best part about it, the lawyer (played by Tony Shaloub) couldn't remember the scientist's name. So those in the audience who knew of Heisenberg, got it, but they didn't have to toot their own horn about it.

So, I thought Heisenberg's buddy Schrodinger deserved a little love for his thought experiment, popularly known as Schodinger's Cat.

How Do You Make Hardware Sexy?

For the most part, what we sell at a hardware store and lumberyard are commodities.
Screws are screws, 2x4s are 2x4s, and 1-1/2" diameter PVC p-traps are 1-1/2" diameter PVC p-traps.

And, for the most part, the names of the manufacturers of commodity products mean nothing to the consumer.

In our market, the top manufacturer of sheet metal ductwork is Gray Metal Products, so to have a little fun, I wanted to tie in to the craze over the book "50 Shades of Gray" and show how to make commodity hardware sexy.

We got a big bump in our FaceBook views as we rolled this out over several weeks.

FaceBook Photos

On FaceBook, the unusual item is what piques interest. At HEP Sales, your Hometown Hardware store, we wanted to bump up our FaceBook following and reinforce our advantage over the Big box stores: the depth of our product line and the deep knowledge of our counter staff. We found a series of unusual looking items that we would run as a series, "Hit Like if  you know what this is."

The series is turning out to be very successful, raising our following by over 500% (and growing!) and our Talked About status has jumped 300%!

"Check Out My PEX" T-Shirts

T-shirts are a perennial favorite "giveaway" item for hardware stores and lumberyards -- contractors love 'em and the free advertising to have your name on a human billboard is priceless.

One contractor can carry your name all over the county (what we call "reach" in advertising terms) or work at the same job site for several days in a row (what we call "frequency.")

So, when ZURN wanted to do something different to advertise their line of PEX tubing and fittings, I suggested a t-shirt. We had recently had  great success with t-shirts in "safety green" an almost fluorescent yellow-green t-shirt. I suggested we use this for ZURN along with the phrase "Check out my PEX" on the chest, a play on words that I thought would be appealing to plumbers and general contractors everywhere.

To tie this into ZURN, we are giving away the t-shirt FREE to customers spending $250 (or more) in ZURN PEX tubing and fittings. Results have been very gratifying.

A lot of plumbers in New York and Pennsylvania are proud of their PEX!

The Auburn Ladies' Open House

At our Auburn branch, Lydia, our Certified Kitchen Designer, wanted to have an event to highlight our Kitchen & Bath Showroom and let people know about the wonderful resource they have right under their fingertips. We promoted the event in our monthly sales flyer, on radio in the Auburn market, with color signs that were distributed to local markets, and through Social Media, specifically our FaceBook account.

We wanted something consistent, recognizable, and funny that would appeal to our women followers. I put together a series of "ads" that could run the week prior to the event, reminding people of the upcoming event, and keeping the awareness up.

Monday morning's ad

Tuesday morning's ad

Wednesday morning's ad

Thursday morning's ad

Friday morning's ad

Saturday morning's ad