Ashley HomeStore is the #1 furniture retailer in North America. The brand uses a unique structure as a manufacturer, retail owner-operator, and licensor to more than 150 licensees. The Northwest Ohio licensee owns six stores spread across five unique media markets.
THE CHALLENGE
Two of the six HomeStores in Northwest Ohio faced declining traffic. For years, they performed well under the overarching marketing plan developed to support the entire licensee group. However, it became clear a new approach was needed to support these stores at a hyper-local level.
THE APPROACH
The troubled stores’ metrics were closely studied to find trends and variances from the other locations. By removing them from the larger strategy and turning to hyper-local activation we utilized local media tactics and highly targeted digital executions. This allowed us to pinpoint people with signals of an intent to purchase furniture in those communities. The plan added outdoor billboards to drive awareness, a specific cable zone to drive brand recall, and targeted high index zip codes with high-impact digital video to drive traffic.
THE RESULTS
With a more localized effort to support these two stores located in smaller communities, a continual increase in foot traffic to each store was achieved and sustained. The revised plan was implemented in the second quarter of 2019 with demonstrative results for each quarter following.
