Asocial experiment

Meet Katie Bower, the self-described “Jersey peach” who got married in 2007, moved to Atlanta and bought an old house she’s been fixing up with the help of her husband Jeremy. Bower’s numerous DIY projects have included removing paint from exterior brick; installing a kitchen tile black splash; revamping a drainage ditch; and making a headboard for the guest bedroom out of lumber, poster board, batting and fabric. She’s chronicled each step of the renovations on a blog, where readers can also follow Bower’s pregnancy, find out what happened when her boss came over for dinner and vote on whether she should paint the interior of a bathroom storage cabinet “caliente red” or “atmospheric grey,” both from the Benjamin Moore color palette.

Bower is one of five bloggers that True Value sponsors on houseblogs. net, an online community of enthusiastic homeowners who like to do their own renovations and share the results with other DIYers. There’s also Layla and Kevin Palmer, a design consultant and a musician who live in a beach-style cottage in Prattville, Ala.; and Brian and Paul, who call themselves “The Handy Guys” because they like to post online videos about all the household repairs they do for their wives. They also take requests from strangers; one of their most popular episodes—how to fix a broken Kenmore Elite dishwasher—was prompted by a reader pleading for help. Dozens of viewers wrote in to thank The Handy Guys for saving them an expensive visit from the appliance repairman.

Members of the “DIY Blog Squad” are compensated by True Value for their time and project materials, and the Chicago co-op reaps the benefits of being associated with a group of young, hip homeowners who like to scrape paint, caulk windows, set tile and give each other the latest cordless power tools as Christmas gifts. The bloggers are only one part of True Value’s social networking campaign, which also encompasses Facebook, a viral marketing contest and text messaging promotions.

“We’re trying to reach that first-time homeowner in the 25-to-34-year-old range,” said Carol Wentworth, VP marketing for True Value. “They’re doing most of the work on their houses themselves, and they’re learning as they go along.”

Reading through the postings of the True Value bloggers, it seems as though they are actually having fun refinishing old furniture or replacing dirty grout. “They each take a different approach,” Wentworth said. “Some are more design-oriented and others are functionally oriented. But they’re all hands on, and they all said they felt an affinity with the True Value brand. They liked the [idea of a] neighborhood store and the relationship you can build with the associates.”

These relationships were at the fulcrum of last year’s “Masters of All Things Hardwarian,” an offbeat media campaign that spoke to the expertise of True Value employees and their sometimes-clueless customers. The radio commercials and the TV spots were presented like episodes in a soap opera, adding a touch of theater that also ran through True Value’s “DIY Drama” contest last fall. Once again, True Value combined humor, storytelling and social networking in an effort to appeal to a younger audience of fixer-uppers.

DIY Drama contestants were asked to submit photos or videos of “projects that turned out nothing like they planned, [or] ones they never finished, [or] ones that went totally awry.” True Value advertised the contest on its Facebook page and through its bloggers. A group of finalists were chosen by the co-op, which posted their hard-luck stories on StartRightStartHere.com for public viewing and voting. Getting your friends to vote multiple times was not only allowed but encouraged as part of the viral marketing campaign.

The winner, announced in January, was Melissa Mautz from Hartland, Wis., who was still living with her father’s 10-year-old temporary fix for a leaky shower faucet: strips of duct tape holding the loose tiles in place. Mautz’s prize was a $5,000 True Value gift card and an in-home consultation with a “Master of All Things Hardwardian”—in this case, Biebel’s True Value in Hartland, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee.

Store owner Sue Biebel, who is already working with Mautz on the bathroom project, is comfortable with younger homeowners; the majority of her customers are 30 to 45 years old. When asked to compare them with older consumers, Biebel said, “They’re more open to suggestions and will ask for help.”

At the same time, these customers typically do a lot of research (usually on the Internet) before they embark on a project, according to Wentworth. “The Gen Y and Gen X customers educate themselves before they come into the store,” she explained.

But people of every age love to save money, and a peek at True Value’s Facebook page confirms this. Among the several hundred postings are several people who want to know how they can get their hands on a $5 off coupon. Other Facebook “friends” (2,404 have signed up since the page was launched in November) are just customers who want to say how their local True Value store “rocks,” or dealers giving a shout out to other True Value members. The co-op has posted some content—project ideas, winterizing tips—but this being Facebook, the online community has steadily infiltrated the page with photos of store cats; reminiscing from former True Value employees; and personal postings from people who own, shop, work in or simply walk by a True Value store.

Although True Value has clearly jumped on the digital bandwagon, the marketing department is being selective about which avenues it pursues. Although Twitter is all the rage right now, Wentworth has decided not to bombard the airwaves with True Value tweets. She’s also taking a cautious approach to text messaging promotions, having tested them in Minneapolis and Boston last November and December. Consumers who had signed up online for a Web promotion received, via a phone text message, a $5 off any $25 purchase coupon. True Value is still evaluating the response rate.

Wentworth also discovered that the U.S. Postal Service has a Web-based change-of-address form that, not surprisingly, younger people prefer over the forms you fill out at the post office. “Our current new movers program doesn’t reach homeowners until 60 days [after they move in] because we use a third party,” Wentworth explained. The U.S. Postal Service’s program, which the co-op is testing in 10 markets, allows new residents to print out a $5 off coupon and a map to the nearest True Value store. “It’s the perfect opportunity to start a relationship with younger customers moving into their first home,” Wentworth said.