You may have seen the recent series of new Homebase TV adverts in recent weeks and months, in which they advertise their wide range of home improvement products as “life improvement” products. Here is one of those recent adverts:
Their approach that their products don’t just improve their property, but the lives of those who live in that property. It’s a novel approach, and appeals to the aspirational and hopeful side to people’s nature. I wrote about it in a post in March, which you can read by clicking right here.
It’s a great concept. So is it one that can be stretched to include windows and doors?
Life improvement products?
How many of you out there believe that a window or a door is just that, a window or a door? That these are just products doing a job, that look nice sometimes and that pays your wages? I bet there’s a few. I can also bet that for every person who thinks that, there is a person who believes that new windows and doors are far more than just products doing a job.
The idea behind “life improvement” products is that they go beyond just doing what they’re designed to do. As in the Homebase advert above, the paint used in the teenage girl’s room is more than just painting a wall, but a way to create pride in a room.
I believe that this principle can easily be extended to window and door products. Especially now given how much the quality and standards of products have improved in recent years.
A good example would be a home owner changing their windows throughout their house. The reasons being they may be old, worn, tired and leaking heat. They know they’re cold and the right thing to do is to upgrade them. So they get new windows. They look better, they perform better and they keep much more heat in than before. Those are the factual benefits. The “life improvement” bit comes into play when the home owners benefit from a warmer home, making them feel more comfortable all year round, which has a positive effect on them as people.
It’s this link between window and door products and the positive effects they have on home owners that perhaps is an area of marketing that our industry has yet to explore. When you watch the Homebase adverts, they are rather effective. There’s no mention of prices, sales or discounts. That sort of thing would only serve to detract from the message of the advert, which is that their products not only improves homes, but the lives of those living in them.
This is the direction the window industry should replicate, and if it does, I think it could go some way to changing the perception of our industry with the general public.
