HOME DEPOT COMMUNICATION

STRATEGY CASE STUDY

NAME: AASTHA MISHRA

ENROLLMENT NO.: 50417703520

BBA LLB

CLASS: 2M

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

SUBMITTED TO: MS. ARIKA DUGGAL

 INTRODUCTION

Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in the United States (Wikipedia, 2020)
bringing in more than $108.2 billion in revenue in 2018 alone (Trefis Team, 2019).
The retail giant has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in e-commerce operations and
successfully synchronised offline pick-up and delivery with its numerous retail outlets..
Home Depot has transformed itself to be more than just a retailer providing home services and
supplies, into a lifestyle brand with a loyal community with forums and reviews.
 HOW DID IT DO?

The company has done so through the workshops, guides, ideas and inspiration for home
projects, decor and renovation easily found on the official website, making Home Depot a one-
stop shop for anything home related.
The company has gone one step further by forming a deeper more authentic relationship with
new and returning tech-savvy millennials through easily shareable content on social media,
personalized ads and email newsletters.
Home Depot has a unified multi-channel marketing communications in place that clearly
communicates the brand’s history, values, service, products and mission through compelling
images and written and video content.
While the company’s overall brand image is consistent, it is also very tailored in the brand
messaging, taking into consideration individual characteristics. Home Depot has decided to cut down
on print which now only comprises of 10% of the advertising budget compared to 36% of digital.
For example, Home Depot has managed to go viral on TikTok, which has surpassed Facebook and
Instagram in downloads in 2019. The brand went viral with the Home Depot theme song.

According to Sprinklrs’ vertical leaderboard (2015), Home Depot’s social media won the top spot for
impressions and engagement among 18 retailers. Home Depot has successfully maintained it leading
market position in the home improvement industry by shifting their marketing communication
dollars to digital assets and building a loyal community of doers through social media. Home Depot
is named one of the world’s most innovative company in 2017 because revenue has increased
without opening more stores in 3 years (Fernando, 2019).
 OVERALL GOAL OF HOME DEPOT
THROUGH MARKETING COMMUNICATION

The overall goal of Home Depot marketing communications is to build a solid relationship with
mostly American home enthusiasts through online engagement by producing games,
challenges, discounts, contests, memes and theme songs on social media and through
influencers that can go viral easily.
The Home Depot mobile app facilitates the customer’s buying process by helping indecisive
buyers with visualization technology to match colours and shades to rooms and furniture.
Home Depot employees on the floor also double up as content creators for the company’s blog
so there is consistency in the customer service experience virtually and face-to-face.
Home Depot has blended content creatively including user generated content creating
something novel and dynamic in the process. Fans submit home improvement videos and
photos to Home Depot social media challenges which are featured prominently on company
own assets.
 ELECTRONIC
COMMUNICATIONS USED BY
HOME DEPOT
E-mail: uses the Internet to transmit and receive computer-generated text and documents. Its growth
has been spectacular, and its use is now so pervasive it’s hard to imagine life without it. E-mail
messages can be quickly written, edited, and stored. They can be distributed to one person or
thousands with a click of a mouse.
Social Networking: Nowhere has communication been more transformed than in the rise of social
networking. The company used it as a platform to expand its popularity through “challenges” on
social media channels. An easy way to get “known”.
Blogs: Is a Web site about a single person or company. Many organizations and organizational leaders
have blogs that speak for the organization.
FACEBOOK
Home Depot experiments on Facebook with games to
entertain consumers and its recruitment effort on
Facebook garnered more than 100 resumes over the
summer and was considered successful enough for
Home Depot to continue in the future. The company
has set up a career section on the Facebook page
YouTube
Home Depot has a community of over 293,000
subscribers on YouTube. Existing customers and new
viewers can get to know Home Depot better through the
company’s video content about yearly reviews,
employee showcase, mission, and useful How To home
improvements and commercials branded with the
company’s trademark “Big Orange”.
INSTAGRAM
Home Depot photo challenges and meme engage and
grow the community through Instagram hashtags and
build the brand virally.
TikTok
Now the number one social media app surpassing
Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. Home Depot has
successfully gone viral on TikTok with the company
theme song.
BRAND WEBSITE
https://www.homedepot.com/ is a user-friendly one-
stop place for the home improvement doers congregate.
The e-commerce platform provides a diverse product
offering of home supplies and service to customers.
The website also has a forum for the DIY community
to ask questions and give answers
(http://community.homedepot.com/) as well as a
section to find inspiration and how-to-guides for home
renovation, repairs and decor
(https://www.homedepot.com/c/diy_projects_and_idea
s).
Users can engage with the brand even more by
subscribing to the company’s blog for updates
(https://blog.homedepot.com/).
OTHER WAYS TO COMMUNICATE
WITH THE AUDIENCE..
 Events
 Mobile App
 TV
 Advertising
 Print
 Billboard
 CONCLUSION
An indispensable—and in about 71 percent of cases, the primary—medium of communication in
today’s organizations is electronic. Electronic communications include e-mail, text messaging,
networking software, blogs, and video conferencing.
Throughout this presentation it was quite clearly visible how Home Depot reached its goal through
electronic communication through social media platforms, e-mail and websites.
Home Depot is named one of the world’s most innovative company in 2017 because revenue has
increased without opening more stores in 3 years (Fernando, 2019). This was possible only through
electronic mode of communication, keeping its brand image consistent.
Home Depot’s social media won the top spot for impressions and engagement among 18 retailers.
Home Depot has successfully maintained it leading market position in the home improvement
industry by shifting their marketing communication dollars to digital assets and building a loyal
community of doers through social media.
Electronic media is definitely a faster and an easier way to communicate a message or to receive
feedback much more efficiently when the audience is huge. All this came in favour of the company
to grow and achieve its goals.