BERNIE MARCUS He co-founded HOME DEPOT and was the company’s first CEO. He served as Chairman of the Board until retiring in

2002.

ARTHUR BLANK Co-founder of HOME DEPOT. Today he is known as his ownership of the Atlanta Falcons in the National Football League. Committing himself to

give at least 50% of his wealth to charitable causes.

Home Depot founded in 1978 with Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank Along with investment banker Ken Langone and merchandising guru Pat Farrah, the founders’ vision of one-stop shopping for the do-it-yourselfer came to fruition when they opened the first two Home Depot stores on June 22, 1979, in Atlanta, Georgia.

The first stores, at around 60,000 square feet each, were cavernous warehouses that dwarfed the competition and stocked 25,000 SKUs, much more than the average hardware store at that time. Empty boxes piled high on the shelves gave the illusion of even more product.

Home Depot is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services. The company sells a wide variety of building materials, home improvement, lawn and garden products.

- The company is the largest home improvement retailer in the United States, ahead of rival Lowe’s. - The store operates out of large warehouse style buildings averaging 105,000 ft2 with megastores operating in larger facilities -The company largest store, is located in Union, New Jersey ( 225,000ft2)

Home Depot Values

Stores

The Home Depot has more than 2,200 convenient locations throughout the United States (including the territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands), Canada, China and Mexico. Stores average 105,000 square feet with approximately 23,000 additional square feet of outside garden area.

Products The company sells a wide assortment of building materials, home improvement, lawn and garden products such as patio sets, kitchen, doors, windows, grills, bath, lighting, fans and appliances.

The Home Depot stores are always stocked with merchandise that is localized to match your area's specific market needs. We even offer a low price guarantee to beat anyone's advertised specials. And if for some reason you can't find it in the stores, we offer 250,000 other products that we can special order for you.

Price

Home Depot offers discounted prices via its online Savings Center where it cuts up to 20% off products such as play sets, kitchen faucets, and professional saws.

The company has established “special buys” prices on appliances offering 25% discounts on products such as Washer & Dryer sets, and 20% off on Water & Ice Refrigerators.

Place

- The Home Depot’s main office is located in the US, in northwest Atlanta, Georgia.

- Home Depot has 3 stores in Georgia, 5 in Florida, three in California, as well as locations in Tennessee, New Jersey, and Indiana.

- The company has stores in Mexico, Guam, the Virgin Islands and Canada.

The Home Depot store layouts are tailored to appeal to professional customers such as contractors and tradesmen. The big-box warehouse stores contain large shelving units stacked with numerous hardware materials that usually are taken down with a fork-lift and you will occasionally find traces of sawdust on the floor; these along with other elements give a “rugged” dynamic to Home Depot stores.  While they’ve tried to soften this lately with more staff and better accessibility to items, the store still has its maleness.

STRENGTH

Brand awareness

WEAKNESSES

Negative Comparable Store Sales Figures Product Recalls

OPPORTUNITIES

Reorganization Initiatives Increased demand in Power

ToolsGrowth in Online Purchasing

THREATS

Rise in customer service complaintsGovernment Investigations and Litigation A slumping US Economy

Home Depot Marketing Strategies

Customer service is the lynchpin of the HD Marketing efforts. Besides marketing its customer service, the company market different programs according to its three major customer.

Catch ‘em young

Home Depot’s regularly organizes workshops and clinics. These are targeted at mostly the do-it-yourself customer. Workshops and clinics provide both a learning experience and an emotional connection for customers.

The company boasts the world’s largest garden club. Over a million children have attended its kids workshops. These are potential future Home Depot customers.

Loyalty programs

In 2013, the company introduced a new loyalty program called Pro Xtra. This program exclusively targets professional customers. Its benefits include product discounts, exclusive product offers, and a tool to track purchases and receipts online. It also enables tracking purchases by job via multiple payment types.

Product exclusives and customization

Home Depot attracts customers by selling innovative and exclusive products. It’s launching a new Color Solutions center for paints this year that will include Behr from Masco ( MAS), Glidden (PPG) and its own Home Decorators Collection brands.

The company’s also planning to rollout exclusive tools targeted toward professional customers from brands like Milwaukee, Makita, and Dewalt. Exclusive launches of new grills from brands like Nexgrill, Weber, and KitchenAid are slated to hit stores this spring.It also has exclusive deals on patio products with Brown Jordan. Offering customization for products like patios boosts sales.

Who are Home Depot customer?

HD primarily caters three types of customers:

1. Do it yourself such as home owner. These customers buy products and install them themselves using online or in- store resources.

2. Do-it-for-me customers include those looking for third parties to provide installation services. HD provides several installation services including flooring, cabinets, countertops, water heaters, and sheds. The company also provides in-house consulting and installation services.

3. Professional customers include contractors, builders, traders, interior designers, and renovators, among others.

Click-and-collect programs are doing extremely well. Nearly 40% of online orders were picked up in-store in fiscal 2015. This gives HD the ability to leverage its physical stores network, reducing the need for greater investments in logistics.