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No doubt about it. DIY is big business. Just take a look at the phenomenal growth of retail behemoth The Home Depot....
The big box home improvement retailer markets itself to the DIY customer, home improvement professionals and contractors alike. Just go into one of its stores on the weekend, and you’ll see couples and entire families shopping for appliances, paint, whole new kitchen and bath design plans, windows and doors, decking materials, on and on. But you’ll also see many single women. The fact is: in many American households, there isn’t a “man of the house” and many women are the heads of households.
Now take note of the fact there is a brand new cable channel uniquely devoted to all things DIY—home improvement inside and out, gardening, carpentry, furniture making, plumbing, electrical work, planning and executing additions, painting—the topics are endless. Women, as well as men, are plugged into this network in a big way. And HGTV (Home and Garden Television) has been a huge hit with women since its inception.
I have to admit I’m fascinated by The Home Depot. In 2005, The Home Depot’s sales exceeded $81.5 billion, making it the largest home improvement retail operation in the world, the second largest U.S. retailer behind WalMart, and the third largest retailer in the world, after WalMart and French supermarket giant Carrefour.
When retail operations are this large, how do marketers go about building and retaining relationships with their customer? Especially women?
John Costello, former EVP of merchandising and marketing for The Home Depot, once observed that even though the company knew that 50% of its transactions were with women, the company still continued to market itself far more aggressively to men! Interesting, isn’t it? After all, so many women orchestrate home improvement projects, plan them and bring them to fruition, purchasing the necessary components of the projects, working on them in concert with friends or family members, and even by themselves. . .why wouldn’t The Home Depot do more to appeal to women?
Apparently, The Home Depot finally got it and did just that. “Do-It-Herself” classes, initiated in 2004, specifically targeted women. 280,000 women have signed up for these classes in the past three years, and when surveyed after the first year, a whopping 97% enjoyed the experience and indicated they would sign up for more! The Home Depot publicizes its workshops for women in local media and on its web site. It’s easy to sign up for workshops and to give feedback on them.
Just go to www.homedepot.com and go to the drop-down box titled “Know How,” then click on Clinics. Once you get there, you’ll also note that The Home Depot offers Kids’ Workshops, Emergency Preparedness Clinics, Weekly Clinics and even Event Weekends, as well.
All of these workshops and clinics are great ideas, and perfect for the DIY crowd. I’m betting lots of women are deriving a great deal of satisfaction out of learning how to do their own projects. I’m also sure that their experiences widely vary from clinic to clinic and store to store, but this is a solid start. I applaud The Home Depot for making a commitment to some of its most important customers—women.
Given the fact that according to the National Association of Realtors, 21% of all homes sold last year, or 1.76 million properties, were purchased by single women, I expect many more DIY programs to be developed and particularly target women. The Home Depot’s chief rival, Lowe’s, has reacted to its research that 95% of female homeowners consider themselves DIYers by brightening its stores, lowering shelves, offering tools made for smaller hands and they’ve begun offering clinics for women, as well. Ace Hardware has likewise offered smaller tools and DIY clinics for women.
This makes me wonder: how many more community-based programs could be developed to serve women’s needs? How about the locally owned and operated hardware, paint and home improvement stores out there? Are they paying attention to their customers, male and female? Or do they merely attribute their slowing sales to the larger assortments and lower pricing in the big box stores in their area that they can’t compete with?
Why don’t they market themselves with stellar service, better information and product knowledge and workshops for their customers—especially the women in their area? Maybe it’s time for them to take a cue from The Home Depot. They might be surprised by their ensuing success.
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Comments
It's good to see the home improvement industry taking women seriously. They do indeed make many more of the decisions on what and how things are done in the interior and exterior decorating of their homes and now more are actually following this up by taking up skilled manual trades. The only place to find them all is at http://www.saferservices.co.uk a web directory site dedicated to female tradeswomen and businesses.
Posted by: Jon Clarke | 12.19.06
>Though I am writing from Canada I thought it appropriate to tell our story about Home Depot. I am not one to complain and have been very patient but when a huge conglomerate like Home Depot doesn't take care of messy business it becomes a buyer beware situaiton.
After much deliberation and shopping around for a supplier for our
> kitchen.
> We finally settled on working with Home Depot. From what we could see they
> would be able to accommodate our plans for our kitchen and in a reasonable
> time span. Ordered in November of 2006 with an expected arrival date mid
> to
> end of January 2007. That allowed us to get over the Christmas hump before
> gutting the kitchen. So the gutting began in January. Relocating and
> packing
> up all the kitchen stuff with the intention of being able to unpack it in
> early to late February seemed only a slight inconvenience for having a new
> kitchen. But guess what-its July 5, 2007 and we still do no have a
> kitchen.
> It took until early May to get somewhat of an explanation other than "it's
> coming." In May we were told our kitchen has been coming in in pieces
> which
> would help explain why every time a piece arrived I would receive a phone
> call telling me my cabinets were in and I could pick them up. This
> concerned
> me that I was expected to hike over to Home Depot and personally pick up
> my
> cabinets-I understood the cabinets would be delivered. But to no avail
> they
> weren't all in anyway and to date they still can not firmly say they have
> everything for our kitchen. Maybe it will be ready in another three weeks.
> Maybe!
>
> While Annette speaks of happy employees and a great atmosphere I would
> hesitate to say that there is probably a lot of grumbling when employees
> have to deal with issues such as ours. A company needs to be able to stand
> behind what it is selling. At no time was it ever divulged to us that
> there
> would be a problem getting what we ordered. Yet at the time of our order
> Home depot's supplier was being bought out by another company. So why is
> Home depot dealing with a company that doesn't deliver its product?
>
> So let me express the extreme stress of living in a household of six to
> eight people without a functioning kitchen. Oh I still have the sink
> in-that
> God for that. But the stove and dishwasher sit nakedly in the middle of
> the
> floor. The floors are ripped out and thank God again that we don't have
> any
> little ones running around as it would be too hazardous.
>
> Now let me tell you about the embarrassment and avoidance of inviting
> anyone
> to our home. Which is truly unfortunate as I run my own business from home
> but could never let clients see this mess we are in. So what has home
> depot
> done about this?? I am aware that we are not an isolated situation and
> that
> there are more kitchen-less people across Canada that happened to order a
> kitchen at the time we did. But you would think a large company like this
> could or would do something extraordinary for compensation.
>
> Here is where it stands so far. First they wanted us to be patient and go
> ahead with the kitchen and after it was installed then they would talk
> about
> compensating us. Sound fishy? We were almost ready to do this but it
> nagged
> away at us considering we still couldn't get a firm date on when or if
> this
> kitchen would ever arrive. Still they didn't want to state a
> discount-finally one employee broke the hold and said he could go to
> 20%-but
> that's nothing now considering since that time there is still no kitchen.
>
> In the course of discussion we mentioned doing our flooring and they were
> more than happy to help us out with new flooring. So we picked a carpet
> and
> hardwood that was in stock so that it could be done rather soon. The
> wagons
> circled a few more times before we found out that the always in stock
> hardwood could not be gotten. But after having us pick a new floor which
> was
> more expensive suddenly while putting things off for another three weeks
> the
> in stock was now in stock again. We have received 20% off of the carpet
> and
> it has been installed. But it will now be another 3 weeks for the hardwood
> and our kitchen should be ready by that time. Sound fishy?
>
> At this point I think Home depot should be doing everything in their power
> to supply us with our goods at cost. Why are they making money on us for a
> deal that has gone so bad. Sure they are having trouble with suppliers but
> I
> am not dealing with the suppliers I am dealing with Annette and her Home
> Depot. Why can't they answer questions straight. Giving 20% off is nothing
> when you consider everything is usually 10% off anyway.
>
> In a month and a half summer will be over and we have lost valuable time
> and
> been immersed in total chaos. We are still not getting definitive answers
> and somehow Home depot is going to make a buck out of all of this.
> Needless
> to say in a booming market where selling your house can be a cash cow our
> house has lost value and couldn't be sold.
>
> I'd be curious to know how Annette would have dealt with a company that
> performed this way. Thanks for lending your ear "we could do it" if Home
> Depot really could help!
>
> Susan Taylor
Posted by: Susan Taylor | 07.05.07