Marketing to home improvement retailers includes considering retail merchandising and packaging.
This is part two of a three-part blog series on marketing to home improvement retailers.
Part one gave a retail snapshot and provided the results of a 2011 survey on retail marketing practices conducted by the Construction Marketing Association. This part covers home improvement retail merchandising and packaging and gives visual examples of both. Stay tuned for Part 3 which discusses retail line reviews.
Retail Merchandising
Merchandising is the visual presentation of products in the store including all types of displays, signage, and in-store promotions.
Planograms are used to specify merchandise sets by department and stock keeping unit (SKU), and corresponding point-of-purchase (POP) signage.
Typical merchandise sets include in-line (bays for home centers), end caps and solution centers; promotional displays include in-aisle stack outs, quarter pallets (QPs), bin merchandisers, clip-strips and various dispensers.
Typical POP includes channel headers and posters, laminated how-to instructions, shelf-talkers, banners, ceiling danglers, floor decals. Each retailer has departments and guidelines. Sometimes a retailer will appoint a category captain to oversee category management. Following is an example of category management for The Home Depot “Tool Corral”.
Following is an example of category management for Lowe’s tool department, or “Tool World”
Following is an example of a category management planogram for power tool accessories from Vermont American
Following is an example of a merchandising planogram brochure for hardware chain Do it Best from National Div. Stanley, created by Construction Marketing Advisors.
Following is an example of a category management planogram for RIDGID jobsite and truck storage equipment by Construction Marketing Advisors.
Following is an example of a Home Depot end cap with quarter palette display, and “conversion cart” portable display.
Following is an example of a Home Depot clip-strip display, and a gravity-fed display.
Retail Packaging
Each retailer will have packaging requirements related to bi-lingual or tri-lingual, bar codes, and for some products, security strips (Sensormatic). Following are several examples of home improvement packaging including blister card packaging for Ideal Industries, Bosch and Vermont American.
Additional Resources
National Association for Retail Marketing Services
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To learn more, stay tuned for our final post: Marketing to Home Improvement Retailers (part 3).