Fighting Goliath

Since the 1920s, True Value has been the neighborhood hardware store. But the relentless expansion of big box home improvement centers threatened to squeeze out its member-owned stores, many of which are family businesses spanning generations. 

The steering committee decided to fight back with an aggressive marketing and growth strategy for improving sales and member profits, bringing in Big Red Rooster to reinvent True Value’s retail appeal and bring shoppers back.

Strategic Foundation

Shopper insights fueled the strategy behind the key phases of True Value’s retail reinvention. DIYers—inclusive of women—were identified as the target shopper. The target shopper’s project-focused needs led to opportunities for new and expanded lifestyle-driven product categories and services. A location strategy to best serve the target focused on urban and suburban growth areas.

Forward Thinking

Instead of starting with a re-image of what existed, our team created a vision for the “store of the future.” Planning and design pushed beyond limitations to illustrate what could be. The store was positioned to leverage knowledgeable and neighborly service as a differentiator and rearranged to create home project centers. Female-friendly décor lines were broadened and carefully merchandised to give them more emphasis without losing the hardware feel. 

Practical Practice

The Store of the Future was then tested against retail reality by adapting it to a full prototype set up in a True Value warehouse. Project centers and categories were accessed by a loop traffic aisle, which encouraged customers to shop the entire store. Colors, materials, and graphics established brand presence, reinforced traffic flow, and enhanced navigation. The cash wrap supported the service aspect of the store and highlighted each member’s unique relationship with the True Value brand. 

The design, plan, product offer, merchandising, and graphics system evolved for standardization and retrofit into existing stores. We detailed retail standards for the re-image package, which came in less expensive than the program it replaced.

Powerful Private Brands

Big Red Rooster worked closely with True Value’s private brand team to build a strong architecture that simplified the number of brands, leveraged the strongest equities, and defined the product categories and quality levels of each. Brand identities were created, refined, and demonstrated through packaging for more than 90 SKUs.

Romancing Paint 

As paint became the draw of a key project center, the décor appeal was amped up to better appeal to women. The new paint swatch fixture was designed to provide inspiration through the display of color choices, lifestyle graphics, romanced color-names (more than 2,000 color names were generated,) takeaway idea cards, and collection brochures.