Home Depot: Marketing Strategy

The Home Depot store on 59th St in Manhattan uses its storefront to attract its customers. In his book Why We Buy, Paco Underhill points out “the front of a store has utmost importance in determining who enters.” When it comes to generating traffic, and attracting people to buy, the front of the store has the most pull. To attract people to its store, the Home Depot location took advantage of its bright orange colors against the surrounding bland cement buildings with bright orange balloons as flags. The bright color pop on the East side, drawing peoples eyes and attention towards their store.
This Hope Depot Location is appeal to a more feminine, woman-based market. This is apparent as soon as you walk into the store. One main thing that stands out is the surplus of female workers that are scattered throughout the store. The more female workers in a store, the more comfortable and at ease a female shopper will be, causing her to potentially spend more money. As we rode the escalator down to the first floor or merchandise, we arrived in the section dedicated to bathrooms. It was then that it became apparent that this Home Depot was targeting a female-market. Underhill states, the “infusion of female energy changes even how the stores displays their good”. Entering the bathroom section of the store was like walking into to a museum that was displaying mini bathroom models. Each small area was complete with a toilet, tub, sing, and faucet, maybe even a towel rack. This is a much different set up than that of the tradition warehouse format where, toilets, showers, sinks, etc. has their own different aisle. This is because in order to capture and keep and female buyer’s attention “instead of displaying a box of bathroom faucets, stores now have to show the whole tub, complete with shower curtains and towel.” This full display of merchandise could also be seen in on the lower level, in the lighting section, where fans and ceiling light fixtures are actually hung on