Company Overview
Within the last three years, Home Depot has led many positive initiatives, won awards, and released quarterly reports as scheduled. Majority of their news pertained to sustainability and what Home Depot can do to improve its CSR and help the environment.
In 2017, they released a report that stated their strategy in order to strengthen forestry protection and improve chemical standards in that year. It was named the “Responsibility Report” because they want to lead the way towards a more environmentally friendly future and by doing this, they can inspire other major retailers. The report stated that Home Depot would no longer be accepting any wood products from The Amazon and Congo Basins, which are two main areas that aid in the manufacturing and distribution of wood across the world. Unless wood products are approved by the Forest Stewardship Council, it would not be accepted.

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On October 9, 2018, they appointed Manuel Kadre to its board of directors. Kadre had been the Chairman and CEO of MBB Auto Group, a high end, luxury, automotive group that has many dealerships throughout the Northeast.  (Home Depot, 2018). Kadre was assigned to the Board of Finance and Audit Committee, being that he has a lot of experience in finance, strategy, etc.
July of 2019, released another “Responsibility Report” discussing their progress and what they can continue to do in the future. In 2018, they had made 3 commitments – Operate Sustainably, Focus on People, and Strengthen their Communities. Home Depot wanted to focus on those three commitments as well has gradually reduce carbon emissions by 50% in 2035. This mission statement also implies that Home Depot is focused on its Triple Bottom Line: Social (People), Environmental (Sustainable), and financial (monetary benefits).
Situational Analysis
Since Home Depot is retail store, they sell a myriad of home improvement products, while providing other services for their customers. Aside from the basic products, Home Depot has special services that tailor to the specific needs of the customer or contractor. Those services include, Tool Rental, Pro Desk Ordering, Key Making, etc. The Pro/Service Desk are two areas on both ends of the store that deals with special orders, deliveries, normal transactions, and returns. Most contractors and DIY customer take advantage of this due to its efficiency and convenience. They would purchase a product online that would then get shipped to the store within 7-10 days, where they pick it up after receiving an email confirmation. Home/Site Deliveries is an add-on promo if you purchase the item online and are mostly used by contractors. Many contractors use this because they don’t have enough time to leave their worksite so by adding this bonus, they can have their product delivered. This service is advantageous because it’s convenient to the customer and it prevents them from leaving important projects unattended.
Home Depot carries many respected brands like Milwaukee, DeWalt, Ryobi, etc. This gives the customer a wide variety of products to choose from. They all might look the same but the differences between them can be quite staggering when actually put to work. Some differentiating factors include, ease of use, performance quality, price, quantity, promotional bonuses, etc. By having many to choose from, you can narrow down what you like based on your previous experience with the brand.
Home Depot’s primary target markets are Professional Customers (Pros) and DIY Customers. Professional Customers are experts in their line of work whether that be renovators/remodelers, general contractors, handymen, property managers. They’ll have extensive knowledge on the product that is needed for a specific project and make frequent returns throughout the day or week. Professional Customers are predominantly Caucasian with an age range of mid 20’s up to early/mid 50’s. Other demographics would be Hispanics with a similar age range.
Home Depot, the largest home improvement retail store in the United States, has been successful in the expansion of their franchise to other countries. They have increased their presence in countries like Mexico and Canada, effectively placing 2,200 in all three countries combined. Home Depot used the multi-national company strategy, which requires an extensive amount of research on the country.
The main environmental factors that Home Depot faced during their product expansion was Language and Business Relationships. The citizens and business executives place these two aspects on a very high pedestal as it’s imperative that any company seeking any ventures in Mexico must implement these values into their strategy. Home Depot sells products that aid in home improvement, because of this, it’s unnecessary for the company to change their product. All of their products are quality based meaning, if you want to build a better deck then you must purchase the best lumber and tools to provide that.
Lowes’ is Home Depot’s biggest competitor in the Home Improvement Industry. These two companies have been competing with each other since their inception. Lowes’ was picked because it sells the exact same products and provides similar services like Home Depot. They have consistent sales, and continue to compete for customers despite being a lower industry ranking than Home Depot.
Creative Strategy Traditional and Social Media
Home Depot’s advertising is fairly consistent throughout all their media outlets. Focusing more on their local paper/web ads, they use a perforated border that allows the customer to tear out the promotional price for the week/weekend. The size of the ad is a small box shape with the product in the middle and the price on the bottom left corner of the space. It has a considerable amount of white space to focus on the picture of the product, and while the price shown is in big bold font, it doesn’t take away from the picture.
The headline of the advertisement displays the price in bold, black font. Besides the picture, it’s extremely visible to customers as price is usually the first thing that most would look at. The sub-headline is the full description of the product for example, “Home Accents Holiday 9 Ft. Pre-Lit LED Spruce Artificial Christmas Tree with 3,900 Warm White Micro Lights” (Home Depot,2019). Home Depot uses as many words as possible to describe the contents of the product so the customers know what they’re buying.
As for color, the consistently use orange which is the most recognizable color of the brand. The color orange means fun, cheerfulness, warmth, health and youth. Home Depot is most famous for its employees wearing their bright colored aprons. The founders picked this color because its bright and it stands out to public eye. They keep their message consistent by using their slogan “More Saving, More Doing” throughout their ad campaigns and local papers.
ON HOLD: CREATIVE STRATEGY