True Value trolls the paint aisle

Denver -- True Value isn't trolling us with its latest big paint announcement -- at least not in the traditional sense.

Among the co-op's big announcements at the Reunion in Denver last weekend was its partnership with DreamWorks as it gets ready to hit the box office this November with its new animated feature film, Trolls.

In promotion of the film, True Value will be rolling out 24 exclusive EasyCare paint colors related to the movie, which will come in paint cans bedecked in a promotional Trolls label.

"Trolls is expected to be a box office smash," said chief customer officer and SVP marketing Blake Fohl at the General Session. "Trolls could be the most popular movie this holiday. You can leverage this unique sponsorship."

The partnership is mainly aimed at driving customers with young kids into True Value stores, but beyond that, SVP and COO Abhinav Shukla believes the partnership is a strong fit for True Value.

"It’s young, got a positive message, got a lot of positive energy behind it," said Shukla. "It’s obviously about finding your true colors, so there’s a direct correlation with paint and a direct correlation with colors. Our target demographic is the young achiever, young families, so I think this partnership makes a ton of sense for us."

The idea to promote the movie, says Shukla, began with a DreamWorks executive who had grown up in Wisconsin and shopped at a local True Value store. He was the one who initially made the connection between "true colors" and True Value paint.

According to senior director paint manufacturing John Vanderpool, there will be an exclusive Trolls color card (the main characters will each have 3 of their own colors, comprising 24 colors total).

"It ties perfectly into our strategy related to engagement," said Vanderpool. "We’re engaging the young achiever to get into our member store, we’re engaging with our members to make sure they have the right materials. It’s gonna absolutely help grow the business. It’s also very efficient because we make the paint. We do this in our factory. We’re working with the RDCs, and the paint's actually being shipped out on Sunday, and we’ve had a great response from our members."

In addition to the exclusive EasyCare paint colors, True Value will also launch circulars in the coming three months promoting the alliance, as well as on-air commercials.

Though over 1,500 members are participating in paint (and over 1,700 are participating in paint and POP kits), retailers that don't stock paint will have an opportunity to participate as well: Trolls-themed chia pets, lawn ornaments and keychains are also at the ready.

The other big paint announcement: True Value has scored a new alliance with Benjamin Moore and will now be stocking its Coronado paint brand. Not only does this lend the credibility of a national brand to the co-op, but it also expands its coverage of the market with a wider range of price points in the paint aisle.

"Paint for us as a company has largely always been about selling EasyCare paint," said VP and chief merchandising officer Heath Ashenfelter. "We manufacture it, It’s a great business for us, our retailers love the fact that we own our own paint factory. There’s a high level of passion around this business. But the reality with the EasyCare program [is that> we're only capturing about 25% of the price points that exist in the marketplace."

The Coronado by Benjamin Moore program will hit price points in the mid-$30s to low to mid 40$ range, which Ashenfelter says allows True Value to hit 75% (or more) of the price points that exist in paint.

But here's where things get innovative: True Value has coordinated the EasyCare and Coronado color palettes so that dealers can implement the new brand without having to purchase any additional equipment or materials.

"The color center itself, the chips and the color cards, and all the equipment is the same," said Ashenfelter. "It’s significant in the respect that nobody else in the industry has the ability to do this. With an average of less than 10,000 sq. ft, space is at a premium. So having launched a national brand and you need to invest in another 20 ft., you need to invest in equipment and new color chips -- that starts adding up quick. And the reality is the investment for the retailer is largely just the product itself."

True Value calls this its "2-4-1" concept: two brands, four price points, one color system -- and also one color center, one colorant, one equipment, and one invoicing from its RDCs.

"It’s an industry first from a capability standpoint," said Shukla. "We are uniquely poised to make that happen. Because to have a single colorant system is really just the fulcrum piece. It can really be done because we’ve got the R&D lab and we’ve got the chemist and the manufacturing capabilities to make sure those colorants match, and we’re able to use a unique set of colorants. And then, from an efficiency standpoint, you're enhancing store productivity because you’re not tying up space with four color centers, which only make it confusing for consumers to shop for color. And then it also reduces the complexity from a store support standpoint, because now they don’t have to be experts on 3 color centers."

"I think we’ll inspire a lot of customers that didn’t consider us a paint retailer in the past to consider us a paint store in the future," added Ashenfelter.