This Hardware Store's Creative Marketing Idea
Was Its Ace in a Hole

Sometimes just one great, creative marketing idea can make all the difference.

Here's how one neighborhood hardware store is holding its own against the twin giants: Home Depot® and Lowe's®.

You've heard the horror stories: the “big boys” come into town, leaving in their wakes, a ghost town of Mom & Pop shops.

What marketing idea did Ace Hardware in Dunedin, Florida, come up with that helped increase their annual sales at a 10 percent clip for four years in a row, with current sales running 14 percent jump over the previous year?

Their ace in the hole was their USP

They set themselves apart — that's what a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is all about.

The driving force behind their success is, well… driving traffic through their store. One bright marketing idea was adding a contract post office. That increase in traffic got 9,000 people enrolled in their frequent shopper program, triple the national average for this buying-cooperative network.

But they didn't stop there.

That boring, old marketing principle — again?

Yep, it's baaaack. It never really left — except for some businesses that think they need gimmicks and razzle dazzle, when all that customers want is good, old-fashioned CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Ace “wired” their employees with headsets for easier communication among departments when a customer needs help. (What? No more wandering, searching, exasperated souls, lost in Aisle Limbo? I was just starting to accept this as the “new” way to do business in retail.) That was Marketing Idea Number Two.

Want to sell them? Show them

And then, since the marketing ideas seemed to be flowing, they decided to show off the Christmas decorations they were selling by turning the trim-a-tree department into a “lighted holiday fairyland.” The result: $200,000 in sales.

Want to keep them? Value them

This business took care of business at both ends of the spectrum: customers and employees. When the store beats rivals or sales goals, managers don the aprons and cook free steak and chicken lunches for workers.

Know your place in the marketplace

Ace isn't trying to go toe-to-toe with the big boys. They saw a problem of survivability and applied creativity to come up with sound marketing solutions. They developed their own niche. And so, they “survive” (quite nicely, thank you) on an average sale of $14 as a neighborhood store offering convenience and good customer service from employees who are valued.

Yes, sometimes it's just that simple.

Source: St. Petersburg Times

 

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