It’s all about the mission

Since we first became aware of the impact of Covid and lockdowns on our industry, I’ve been talking about the influx of new consumers. It began with a trickle as consumers decided to use their now ample supply of spare time and money to improve their surroundings. By the middle of 2020 the UK just couldn’t get enough of DIY and Gardening and with tradespeople unavailable, we turned our hand to project after project.

These were not just millennials entering the market for the first time or renters doing a quick, low-cost makeover. These were homeowners, consumers of all backgrounds and ages, inspired by social media, guided by YouTube and influencers and with available cash, they were out there in their millions taking on Home Improvement and Gardening tasks every weekend.

The inspirational, lifestyle images of beautiful homes and gardens, now so widely available online and in the traditional media, have educated us to think in the language of a project, bitesize affordable tasks that can improve just one corner of a room or maybe the whole living space.

And the start-point of the project, the inspirational trigger, is the finished look. We see beautiful paint colours, amazing kitchens from retailers and manufacturers and then we see images shared by individuals like you and me, known as UGC (User generated content), persuading us that even with the basic of skills, we can make this happen in our own home, we can do it.

And these projects in and around the home and garden mean a lot to us, they’re part of the on-going process to improve our living spaces and in turn our lives. I’m sure we can all recall the positive feelings associated with the completion of a recent project. From simply looking out the window on a Sunday afternoon and the satisfactory feeling of seeing the cut grass and tidy garden that you’ve been working on all morning, through to the pride you feel when your new kitchen, bathroom or newly painted lounge is complete.

Images are known to strongly influence the way we act. Research has shown that we process visual stimulation at lightning speed and lifestyle images are likely to stir strong emotions within us, which in turn can lead to action.

Our so-called ‘visual cortex,’ which is responsible for processing visuals, is much more powerful than we previously thought. In a recent study by researchers at Michigan State University, they looked at which parts of the brain were active during a series of visual stimulations and found that the visual cortex controls more than just the interpretation of images, it has its own decisionmaking power.

There’s a key learning here for all businesses who are currently generating content to help sell their products. As you approach your marketing efforts and the choices we make every day regarding investment, don’t overlook the powerful element of the completed project and the lifestyle visual and ensure that your visual marketing is professional, strategic, and totally focused on motivating your audience to act.

But here’s where we have a problem.

We’ve all been conditioned to think in terms of projects, inspired to act upon that visual stimulation to improve our homes and our lives. Emotionally we’re fully engaged, we’re excited to achieve the result and we’re hungry for that feeling of pride. Our motivation levels are high, we are eager to get started and then we walk into a store.

The problem is that it feels like something has almost been lost in translation. The inspirational images have gone, there are no (or very few) completed projects on display, and we’re faced with aisle after aisle of individual functional products. Many of the new consumers entering our market have not completed these projects before, they are often clueless as to what products are required and without the clear guidance of a display or trained store staff, the shopping experience becomes painful. Just think for a moment of a standard project such as laying a wooden deck in the garden. The decking boards are often stored outside or in the covered garden centre, the other items required to complete the project; the screws, weed cover, sand, lighting, the tools, decking stain etc. are all located at different places around the store, often alongside a wide range of of alternative products, making the selection process incredibly difficult.

How do IKEA do it?

Now consider how IKEA do it. Inspirational project display is what IKEA do so well and is at the very heart of their success. Their stores are full of completed projects and inspirational room sets, displays that you can touch and feel and imagine inside your own home, with the list of the items you need to bring this to life in your own home. The images on their website and on their socials, have become reality and in the process, we uncover the true role of the store and its distinct advantage over a purchase online.

Unfortunately, it’s not practical to fundamentally change how we retail Home and Garden products and become more like IKEA; changing the layout of our stores would cost a fortune. But we also have a further challenge. When a customer walks into one of our stores and buys a product or transacts online, we just don’t know whether they’re buying these products as part of a broader project. We have no clues; we can’t talk to everyone as they enter the store and ask ‘Why are you here today?’ - although I guess we could experiment with this. Without knowing whether a customer is searching or buying to complete a specific project, as retailers and merchants we lose the opportunity to supply the entire project and in turn boost our basket spend, revenue and profitability. Not only that, but if we become the company that helps them achieve their own dreams, we help to improve their lives and the loyalty we generate will mean we’re the first point of contact for all their future projects.

The Wickes Mission Motivation Engine

The Home Improvement chain Wickes, with 233 UK stores, has spent the last two years trying to solve this challenge by investing in behavioural science, machine learning and building a deep segmentation of their customer base.

They started by digging into three years of historical data, including online and in-store transactions, search terms, browsing, any form of engagement a customer previously had with Wickes, combined with third-party data and insight into how consumers click on social, display and website content. The need to turn this huge amount of data into valuable insights for the business was first voiced by Gary Kibble, their Chief Marketing and Digital Officer. He joined the DIY retailer in January 2020 from his previous role as marketing director at Argos and he sees Wickes as having a distinct “competitive advantage” based on being “digitally led and service enabled.”

Working with partners Team ITG and data science specialist Emerald Thinking they began to identify patterns in browsing and buying behaviour associated with a range of specific DIY projects or ‘missions’ as they referred to them. The output was the Mission Motivation Engine, a machine learning model incorporating all possible data sources.

Gary went on to explain ‘You need billions of rows of data to look for the common products purchased within a mission. The minute you start to go back over three years, you start to get a real sense of the sorts of products consumers buy or browse within a mission.

That allows you to group into common missions.

Based on these insights and a new segmentation strategy, Wickes revamped the way it communicated with its customers. They decided to ditch product-focused messages in favour of motivational messages demonstrating how Wickes can help customers achieve their goals.

Communications are triggered when a purchase is ‘spotted’ by the model and timed to match the length of the project. The retailer combines email, app push, social and landing page channels to guide consumers through their DIY project. The tone shifted from talk of sales to friendly hints and tips.

And the result, from a financial perspective they believe this investment in machine learning and segmentation has generated £7m in incremental revenue in the first six months of implementing the Mission Motivation Engine.

Summary

It’s clear that as consumers, we think, and we search by project, and we’re constantly being inspired to take on Home and Garden missions for the first time. As a result, we need help and support, we need a retailer or merchant partner that understands how we think, what we need and to guide us through the process; not just present us with thousands of products that we must search through ourselves.

I genuinely believe that the companies that truly understand this, that like Wickes change their approach will have a competitive advantage like no other.