In Denver, advertising plan earns buzz

Denver – True Value unveiled big plans for its advertising in 2015. In President and CEO John Hartmann's words, "the changes will be transformational, and I mean like we haven't advertised in over a decade."

Hartmann left it up to SVP & Chief Customer Officer Blake Fohl and SVP & Chief Merchandise Officer Ken Goodgame to deliver the news of an expanded national TV branding campaign. They described a national television program with ten times more spend in 2015. 

The program will jump from 8 weeks of airtime last year to 21 weeks on more prominent platforms. That's all without adding to the National Ad Fee for 2015, or changing the local co-op reimbursement amount of 1%.

According to Fohl, these commercials would be weighted approximately 40% brand messaging and 60% price-and-item messaging.

Five free national event circulars are also part of the effort -- a combination of circulars and broadsheets during the peak selling season. The co-op will cover the cost of printing and distribution as a way to make it easy for retailers to participate.

“We have a goal to get every True Value store – not 700, not 1,500 not 2,500, but every store to participate in our National Events Program,” Fohl said.  

As Fohl told HCN after the General Session, the brand messaging would continue to emphasize the emotional connection the company forges with consumers, particularly millennials, who are not as familiar with the brand.

"We enable customers to complete their projects through emotional connections," he said. "Having a strong emotional connection with retailers and consumers is a compelling point of differentiation for us. There's a generation of people who were brought up thinking that the big box was the hardware store of the town. I think when you see the creative, you're going to think 'that's very different for a hardware store.'"

Fohl and Goodgame stipulated that the National Events would be incremental to any circulars that retailers were already distributing.