Local ad buys are made, customized to the demographic, and Hansons introduces itself. The key to making that messaging effective for a big, expanding company, says media director Eaman Gaggos, is to localize it. (For example, Gaggos, says, “We found out that Grand Rapids was a very religious town. Trust was huge for them. Being part of the community was huge.”)
Each part of Hansons marketing works in sync with, and feeds, the next.
THINK VIRALLY Some home improvement companies define themselves as construction service providers that also happen to be good at marketing.
Hansons is more than good at marketing. It’s in marketing — developing the right messages, focussing on the right demographic segments, following through on promises — where many companies could learn from this one.
With its 20,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter, the more than 200,000 email addresses in its newsletter database, the contests and sweepstakes it uses to glean ever more of those addresses, its jingle-suffused media ads, and its leading-edge website, Hansons can generate enough customer contacts to grow and profitably sustain itself. “Marketers are going to have to think virally,” Elias says. “As opposed to new ads, new ads, new ads.” That understood, the challenge is not marketing and selling, Elias points out, but “finding the right people so we can continue to expand.”
Neither that nor much else is left to chance. (The company employs a full-time recruiter.) Elias, ever attached to his smart-phone, has his eye on every important sales metric every day. But it’s in marketing where he feels most free to do new things and to do them before anyone else does. The strategy is to find prospects earlier in the buying cycle and to see to it that they’re hearing about Hansons daily, weekly, and monthly. “If there are 100 people out there looking to buy home improvement, between 2% and 5% may be ready to buy now,” Elias says. “I spend my time focusing on the other 95%.”
Hansons’ current contest invites schoolchildren to submit videos of themselves singing the company’s jingle. Parents assist, and friends are mobilized to participate in the online voting that determines a winner. Videos are posted on the company website. Cash prizes go to the budget-strapped schools of contest winners. This kind of promotion turns traditional advertising — bombard with messages, await response — into a feedback loop. “That gives me access to a customer I normally wouldn’t have,” Elias says. “They remember you in a fun way.”
The formidable reach of its online marketing effort would matter less if Hansons’ management hadn’t thought a lot about the message. Window companies — windows remain Hansons’ biggest product — typically attract buyers through one of several types of offers, such as Buy Three, Get One Free.
That gets back once more to those focus groups. Hansons aims to engage “Moms,” that is, suburban mothers wielding the power of the purse when it comes to home improvement purchases. The idea is to assure message receivers that Hansons will smother mother in service. Then, “we have to make sure that everyone from the person who answers the phone to the one hammering the last nail in the roof will satisfy the customer,” says human resources director Michelle Miller. “If they don’t, none of this matters.”
ALL ABOUT EMPATHY Contractors, Elias says, lack empathy. Homeowners know that — it’s one reason why they procrastinate when it comes time to renovate. Hansons at one time was “all about product,” then the company began to reexamine its systems so that it would deliver on the promise of installing a job quickly, efficiently, and to the customers’ satisfaction. “Large companies,” Shulman explains, “are customer-focused. Our focus is on satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.” In other words, Hansons cares. Caring takes the form of communication. There will be no shortage of communication once a homeowner is signed.
