Do it Best Details How Its Fine-Tuned True Value Ad Campaign Cultivates Next Generation of Potential Customers

Do it Best Group President & CEO Dan Starr (left) speaks with Do it Best Foundation's Curtis Smith on June 17 at the Global DIY-Summit in Amsterdam (Craig Webb photo)

By Craig Webb

Reviving the True Value brand led Do it Best to adjust its typical ideas about customers and take advantage of social media to reach the next generation, all while retaining Do it Best's core values, the President and CEO of Do it Best Group told an international audience June 17.

“Authenticity is a big issue for them," Dan Starr said during the Global DIY-Summit in Amsterdam. "A sense of local is big. Buying local was important. These are all things we can relate to and make our own.”

When Do it Best acquired True Value in November 2024, it took over a brand with 74% unaided name recognition, vastly better than Do it Best's 9%, Starr told 1,200 participants from 50+ countries gathered for the Global DIY-Summit. The problem was that True Value's name recognition was vastly higher among Boomers and Gen X than among Millennials and Generation Z. “We needed to target that younger generation and make sure we capture that younger cohort," Starr said, responding to questions from Do it Best Foundation's Curtis Smith during the session.

This required a slight shift in attitude regarding what brands appeal to traditional customers at Do it Best member stores. With the help of a consultant, Do it Best identified the qualities historically valued by those customers. The two key tones for the brand--Caregiver and Citizen--are identified in the chart above. "Those historically were the lanes Do it Best lived in," Starr said.

Millennials and Gen Z respond to slightly different brands, as the shift above suggests. “They are willing to chart their own course," Starr said. "They want assistance on their project. They have a sense of completing a project and making it their own."

So, in crafting promotions for True Value, Do it Best sought to position itself to people who see themselves as creators and rebels. Its "Your Product Your Way" campaign, launched about six months ago, includes videos featuring actor Nick Offerman and cheeky print declarations that True Value is "the official sponsor of grass."

Do it Best's challenge was to promote True Value's brand to new customers without alienating old customers. It does that by taking advantage of the myriad of narrowcasting options in which you can deliver your message to a particular audience type. For instance, Starr said that if he and his wife were to listen to a streaming music service, it might tune to the Frank Sinatra channel while his children might focus on contemporary pop. The True Value ads will be on the channels the children listen to, not the Frank Sinatra channel.

Promotions historically had to be aired over a channel in which, for the majority of the audience, the message would fall on deaf ears. With narrowcasting, you can deliver an ad to a particular audience and repeat that message 10, 20, or 30 times to build brand familiarity, Starr said. He said people his age might dislike being hit with promotions as soon as their websites and smart phones recognize a new search term or new location. But he said one 30-year-old in his office thought of it differently. "It's not creepy; it's helpful," Starr said of the staffer's view.

Starr said the first goal is to track whether the ads build brand awareness among the young. Then Do it Best will shift to boosting sales. Early returns are being analyzed now. Ultimately, “we want to see that the average ticket going through retail is increasing, especially as we promote particular products in particular areas" he said. "And we’ll modify as we go.”

Offerman not only is a media figure; he's also a longtime woodworker as well as someone who grew up in an Illinois town with a True Value store. Those qualities help make his messages authentic--a quality that, combined with independence and trust, are regarded by Starr as part of Do it Best's DNA.

"We’re an organization committed to the independent dealer," Starr said. "It’s a servant-led culture. … It’s almost a calling. ... Fundamentally, we are committed to our members and our communities. We’re not going to commit to a gimmick to get a temporary increase in sales.”