Chapter 4

 How Homedepot placed their brand on top of the consumer's taxonomic category

By Dean

This section is about impression and being “the brand” on top of people's minds when they’re thinking of something to satisfy their needs. When something gets broken in the house or apartment people think of going to Home Depot to buy parts. That’s when you know a brand is at the superordinate level, It’s the level in the taxonomic category where consumer classifies it as the pioneer in that sector. Home Depot was able to position itself in the knowledge structure of their target consumers by being consistent with their marketing communications and by defining key schemas.

One of the most identifiable schema that Home Home Depot has is its brand image; it's favorable, unique, and easy to remember. Since designing a brand image is not an easy task

The company has gone through ample time of research and iterations. 

SOURCE:https://corporate.homedepot.com/newsroom/orange-sign-building-home-depot-brand

As you can see, the company needs to define how they want to be perceived, they’re core values, what makes them unique and on top of that the brand image needs to be simple enough for people to remember it and stand out from the rest of the competition.

Another key schema that Home Depot defined that’s essential to its brand is having a well-crafted brand personality. Which can also be defined as the values that they want to practice and the brand's personification. By defining their brand consumers are able to identify with the brand because those values are relative to them.

SOURCE:https://corporate.homedepot.com/about

How Home Depot has maintained it’s Brand Image and Personality

By Marycruz 

Home Depot has other competitors, yet they still manage to keep having customers, why? Well let’s use Lowe’s as an example. If you have ever been to Lowe’s or Home Depot you can see the difference inside their stores. Lowe’s has a clean white and bright approach as well as a do it yourself vibe, something that makes females comfortable. Home Depot, the larger of the two, counted as the favorite home improvement/hardware shop for about 33% of men and women, according to Prosper Insights & Analytics. Another study found that 55% of customers at both stores are male, while 45% are female. Stereotypically, Home Depot is seen as catering more to men, than women.

At Home Depot you can notice that you can buy what you need in bulk or many sizes. When you walk through certain sections you can find a bit of sawdust on the floor. The difference between the two is that Home Depot appeals to contractors, builders, plumbers, painters,and other home improvement experts who need materials for projects, and can easily access it. When looking at Home Depot’s image you can see that their color scheme is orange, their homepage features wood and it gives it a “rugged” view. But even then, Home Depot continually has costumers who want to improve their homes, they just market it differently.

SOURCES: http://www.covalentmarketing.com/blog/2012/12/05/home-depot-vs-lowes-building-brand-image/

https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/05/25/who-is-home-depots-favorite-customer.aspx

Knowledge Flexibility

By Alejandra Gonzalez

When consumers are shopping they are usually shopping to buy something in the same category as things they already have at home which is called a goal-derived category.  For example, if someone goes to Home Depot to buy soil for plants they most likely already have the plants at home and gardening tools to go with their goal of planting these plants. Another example could be someone shopping for a paintbrush, a drill, and carpet cleaner although they are different items they are still in the same goal-derived category for the consumer’s goal to have these items for their home. 

Advertising and Marketing Stimuli 

By: Niousha Khosrowyar

Marketing stimuli are factors orchestrated by marketers that influence people’s consumption choices. The stimulus is the process the buyer goes through to make their purchase. Marketing stimuli manipulate our 5 senses pushing and pulling us to certain products or brands. Needless to say, businesses that take advantage of marketing stimuli increase sales opportunities. It is the marketer's job to figure out what the consumer is thinking before they make these decisions. Marketers and advertisers increasingly acknowledge that a large proportion of human decision making is intuitive, automatic, and often without conscious control or effort. For example, Home Depot has found that by giving a distinctive brushed typeface used for pricing on shelves, which is exclusive to the store and has shown a positive correlation with purchases made as it gives their large store more of a mom and pop feel and that the prices are well thought out. Furthermore, the size of the font for cheaper items tends to be bigger as they like to emphasize the price of cheaper products. However, studies have shown stylish, and elegant fonts can hurt purchase decisions as ornate fonts make people assume a task to be more time-consuming than when the same task is explained in a clearer font. This could make your products or services seem slow or even tedious--and no one wants a purchase that'll take forever to assemble or start using.

Moreover, the smell is another tenet of marketing stimuli that plays an important role in our purchase choices. Home Depot has a nostalgic and intoxicating smell with notes of lumber, yellow pine wood, sawdust, plastic, metal, rugs, paint, and soil which is a perfect concoction to take you back to memory lane which gives it’s very large cement store a more homey and personable feeling.