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.

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

2010 Golf Tournament for Vendors & Contractors

Every year, we put on a golf tournament to bring together our vendors with our best contractor customers, for an afternoon of golf, a little business, dinner, and a lot of camaraderie.
Our slogan is "Shop Where the Builders Shop." For our tournament, I modified that in a playful, tongue-in-cheek way on our sponsor signs:  "Golf Where the Builders Golf."

To add an element of fun and competition to the afternoon, I designed a series of T-shirts that would be passed out to the golfers at the end of the competition. I selected vendor names that could be paired with appropriate colloquial verbs indicating victory.

As the event approached, however, the decision was made, while the shirts were funny and would be well-received at the dinner after the day of golf, the money would not be spent for further "giveaway" prizes.

Invoice Messaging

With the advent of eMails and electronic invoicing, a great portion of our invoices and monthly statements are now sent electronically. Unlike traditional printed "statement stuffers" in snail mail, tagging product messaging at the bottom of the email adds no cost, but increases the positive communication we can have with our customers.
Messages were designed for three types of communication: image building, time-sensitive events, and new product introductions, and fit at the bottom of the emailed communication.

New Product Introductions:

Banner ads could be timed for new product introductions, and can be targeted geographically if, for example, a product is rolled out a selected locations, such as North Main Lumberyards only, or due to contractual limitations, available in New York but not Pennsylvania.

Time-Sensitive Events:

Special deals can be promoted, such as a sale on smoke detectors to coincide with National Fire Prevention Month, or special events, such as our annual appearance at the Empire Farm Days.  The ads can be created ahead of time and placed into the queue. They can be turned on or off remotely, so if an event is doing better than expected, we can stop additional messages from being sent to avoid customers arriving when our stocks are depleted, or change an offer to reflect an evolving supply situation ("New Models now available.")

Image Building:

We can create messages for our vendors to send out to current and/or future customers. The message can tie-in with the vendor's existing campaign, or, more likely, we can create the message to enhance the vendor's image with our customers.

Signs, Signs, everywhere signs

A unique part of the 2010 Vendor Marketing Program were the billboards. This allowed us to present a variety of clients, and client messages, that underscored the broad range of products we offer, while presenting a Big Message in a stylish and timely manner.

This particular billboard was facing the traffic traveling towards the Big Box competitor just a few miles down the road, one that typically sells their CFLs for more than double the price at which we sell our CFLs, giving a nice double meaning.

The idea of the "twisty light bulb" was intriguing. The main thrust of the advertising was always the cost-saving and environment-saving aspects. But, they are just fun to look at, and play with visually. Here's one of the ideas that generated smiles from the client, but didn't make the final cut!

Keep On Truckin'

As part of our first-ever Vendor Marketing Program in 2010, we gave vendors the opportunity to use our trailers as a canvas on which to put their message. As we have 15 locations throughout central New York and northern Pennsylvania, our trailers travel widely along many major thoroughfares, and their message is seen by several thousands of people each week.

Several vendors opted in to the program, representing a diverse array of products. I designed a unifying look that was carried through all vehicles. It had to present the vendor's message without overpowering our own branding.

In addition to trailers, each store has a box truck that is used for local deliveries, and also available for vendor branding. As the majority of local deliveries are to contractor's job sites, the messaging on the box trucks is delivered both to prospective users of the vendor's product, as well as current users to reinforce the vendor's image.

2011 Ugly Bathroom Contest

This year we initiated the Ugly Bathroom Contest, which will run thirteen weeks, beginning on February 6.

Again, I designed a series of ads, posters and department signs and tent cards, to grab customer attention and let them know about the Ugly Bathroom Contest. The idea was to design distinctive-looking ads that playfully suggest your out-of-date bathroom would be a prime candidate for a bathroom makeover.

What's So Funny About Peace, Love & Flowered Wallpaper?

By naming decades or eras, the out-datedness was implied. The target audience (women) were more likely to want to "update" their bathroom, even though all the fixtures may still be in proper working order. 

The ads were introduced in two waves. The first wave appealed to women, usually the prime mover when deciding to update a kitchen or bathroom. The second wave, introduced five weeks into the contest, was more broadly posed at men, focusing on ugly and/or broken fixtures. To urge the customer to enter the contest, I used some not-so-subtle word balloons to illustrate that your bathroom's dilapidated condition is really a cry for help.

And, of course, you can't have humorous ads for an Ugly Bathroom Contest without indulging in a little "bathroom humor."

Again, the signs and ads were designed to mesh with a cable TV/YouTube campaign that could put a voice to the word balloons, using voices that would embellish dripping faucets, slow drains, toilet bowls, etc. Unfortunately, the decision was made against carrying the campaign across several media.