Home Depot Pumps Up Advertising

Atlanta, GA, Nov. 3--While the nation's top college football teams were making big plays during Survival Saturday last weekend, Home Depot was making a big play for fans' attention, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The chain's bright orange logo was featured prominently throughout the day on ESPN's "College GameDay" program. Those watching the Georgia Bulldogs lose again to the Florida Gators saw the logo several times throughout the Southeastern Conference game on CBS. The high-profile exposure during sports events is part of the Atlanta-based home improvement retailer's game plan. Home Depot's new marketing philosophy centers on emphasizing bigger events and programs such as the Olympics and ESPN's "College GameDay" program, said John Costello, executive vice president of merchandising and marketing. At the same time, Home Depot continues to sponsor numerous regional and local venues and teams. "The Home Depot is all about empowering consumers to improve their homes, and sports is all about empowerment and achievement," Costello said. "What we find is that sports provides very attractive media as well as an opportunity to create excitement for consumers and associates." Costello declined to say how much Home Depot will spend this year on sports marketing, but it will be a large part of the $950 million or so the company expects to lay out on advertising. In its intense battle with Lowe's for home improvement dollars, Home Depot believes it can reach customers and potential customers by targeting viewers of sports programming as well as home shows. Ramping up its sports marketing is a wise move by Home Depot because it often leads to a consumer transferring its good feelings about a sports hero or team to a business or brand, said Ken Bernhardt, regents professor of marketing at Georgia State University. "Sports sponsorship is very important in that it gives you something you can't get with just straight media advertising--the halo that comes from being associated with sports teams or sports events that people feel passionately about," he said. "It's brilliant marketing as long as you choose organizations to associate with whose fans are loyal." But Home Depot would be better off pumping up its customer service, rather than its sports marketing, one analyst said. "If they don't get more people in those stores helping customers and cleaning up those aisles, it's not going to do any good," said Barbara Allen, an analyst at Natexis Bleichroeder. Moreover, she said, Home Depot is an icon and does not need to spend millions building its brand the way Lowe's had to do when it expanded into the Northeast. Home Depot entered the arena of big-time sports marketing in 1992, when the company announced it would sponsor the 1994 and 1996 Olympic Games. Home Depot has continued its Olympic sponsorship and has employed 330 athletes through the U.S. Olympic Committee's Olympic Job Opportunities Program. Under the program, Home Depot employees who are training for the Games get full-time pay for flexible 20-hour weeks. "Without OJOP, I wouldn't have been able to skate after 1998," said long-track speed skater Derek Parra of West Valley, Utah. "I would have had to retire." The "halo effect" definitely occurs with sponsoring the Olympic Games and athletes, marketing professor Bernhardt said. Same with NASCAR, whose fans are intensely loyal to companies that sponsor cars, Bernhardt said. "Race fans are the most passionate sports fans," he said. "They are, and have been, the ones who reward the brands who support the drivers." Despite its new focus on fewer, bigger events and broadcasts such as the Oscars and Grammys, Home Depot will not advertise during the 2004 Super Bowl, Costello said. "The Super Bowl can be very attractive if you're launching a new product or service for companies like Home Depot that already have broad-scale awareness," Costello said. "While we have no plans to advertise on the Super Bowl at this time, we're always on the lookout for new, exciting things."

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