Challenge

Homebase was emerging from a turbulent period when we were appointed. It had been owned by Wesfarmers since 2016  but the Australian company had no knowledge of UK retail nuances, UK audiences and the brand’s heritage as a style and design-led home improvement outlet. 

It went for a ‘pile em high, sell ‘em cheap’ approach focusing on hardware tools that made it look like a discount warehouse. By the time the chain was sold to Hilco for £1 in 2018 the stores looked as lacklustre as a lounge decorated with a five-year-old colour scheme, the website had been voted Worst Retail Website by Which? Magazine and annual sales had dropped off a cliff.

Which gave us a heck of a renovation job that would take more than a lick of paint. The organisation needed a brand led business innovation strategy that worked from the ground up and gave it a reason for its existence in the eyes of potential customers. In a highly competitive market rivals, ranging from Howdens to B&Q and Dunelm, had clearly defined and compelling propositions in the market, so what could we do to bring consistency and meaning to Homebase and move it upmarket?

Feels Good To Be Home…

Our insight started with the truth that your home is fundamental to a happy life, but it’s easy to fall out of love with your home. This chimed with recent changes to working patterns and work-life balances even before the arrival of the global pandemic. More people were spending increasing time at home where they connected and engaged with every facet of their lives and Homebase  was wonderfully placed to capitalise on this increased focus on the home environment. 

We used this insight to develop a brand framework and inform the consumer facing through-funnel creative platform ‘Feels Good To Be Home.’ The aim was to make it clear to stakeholders and the target audience that Homebase offers everything people need under one roof to help transform their surroundings quickly and cost effectively.

This positioning provided an organising platform for Homebase’s ‘brand journey.’

i)               It informed all awareness-building  and performance marketing activity

ii)              It could be summed up clearly - Homebase was now the home and garden expert with a mission to make it easy to bring homes and gardens to life.

iii)             It helped in establishing a brand tone for marketing comms based on the idea of ‘effortless, warm and encouraging

iv)            It provided individual stores and employees with a guiding North Star to get behind

Execution

This platform allowed us to create fully integrated campaigns for the brand, including populist, emotionally led TV, combined with activation campaigns that where more effective at driving response than ever before. 

The fresh look marketing communications rooted the brand in the lives of customers by being based entirely around specific customer journeys. Every home project is different, so we aimed to portray these journeys with activity that encapsulated the recognisable, everyday feel-good moments that happen when home is brought to life. We brought consistency and clarity to the brand – essential to embedding saliency in the target audiences.

We helped the business  rationalise and strengthen its ranges, optimise its retail estate, implement a world leading ecommerce platform, establish best in class exclusives and partnerships and tap into new revenue streams like bathrooms.

We also collaborated closely to bring ‘brand theatre’ to the physical store. The physical space is where a retailer can manifest all the best aspects of its brand – it’s a showcase to excite and inspire which can be amplified on other channels.

We also had the responsibility of being ‘brand and communications guardian’ as Homebase had made comms missteps in the recent past that led to bad publicity. We put in place quarterly agency session and stakeholder training/coaching and provided branding comms guidelines.

Our 2020 Christmas campaign was voted Top 3 best retailer campaign in the UK on 1/10th of the budget of its closest two rivals, John Lewis and Sainsbury’s.

And our recent campaign ‘Kitchens’ for 2021 has helped contribute to an overall 100% increase in ROI.

How does it work?

Our platform and accompanying branding and marketing activity played  a huge part in restoring brand trust, developing the customer experience, motivating demoralised staff and ultimately driving revenue. We rebuilt the brand and persuaded people to consider Homebase as a great place for home improvement shopping once again.

In February 2020 Homebase returned to profit with nearly all outlets showing profitability – it recorded an EBITDA profit of £61m, a like-for-like sales increase of 11.3%, and a gross margin increase of 2.6%.

Marketing communications contributed around £132.4 million in incremental revenue. Performance media generated an ROI of £11.64 in 2021[BJ1] , equivalent to approximately £37.4m in incremental sales for the year while advertising  contributed an ROI of £3.52 for every £1 spent.

In terms of brand tracking the Homebase Brand Advantage Score in 2018 was 28.8% (source Savanta data) and lagged behind all competitors. Its score strengthened by 5.3% points over the period – almost double the category average for the period and significantly better than any of the competitors. 

We are proud to have provided Homebase with this sturdy foundation for its brand to take forward into the future.

 [BJ1]What's the source? Can we say "Homebase's own data shows…."