Home Depot partnership with campaign considered prime example of "Social Marketing" in Stanford's Best of Breed

Social Innovation Review, a journal published by Stanford Graduate School of Business, featured Water – Use It Wisely's "100 Ways in 30 Days to Save Water" promotion with Home Depot in their most recent issue. The following is an excerpt from the article:

Even before the drought in the American southwest, now in its sixth year, water conservation was a major policy goal of city governments in Arizona. Without conservation, consumer demand in the rapidly growing sun destinations could overwhelm the water-supply infrastructure, leading to increased taxes or water prices, or both. Already, people in Tucson pay twice as much for water as people in Phoenix, due to disparities in delivery capability and water resources. Now, the drought, with no end in sight, has intensified the need to foster a universal ethic of water conservation.

In September 2003, all 40 of Home Depot's Arizona stores participated in a collaborative effort with Water – Use It Wisely, a $1.8 million water-conservation campaign founded in 1999 by the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the cities of Phoenix, Mesa and Scottsdale, and now including 143 public and corporate partners throughout North America. "Water – Use It Wisely approached us because they needed a product and knowledge partner," says Stephanie Martin, Home Depot's manager of external affairs. "We have the products that enable water conservation and we can teach people how to use them."

The issue of water conservation dovetailed well with Home Depot's longstanding commitment to its communities and the environment. Decision makers at Home Depot were also motivated by the visual quality and overall intelligence of the Water – Use It Wisely materials. Developed pro bono, but at an estimated "cost" of $300,000 by Park & Co, a Phoenix marketing firm that specializes in environmental issues, the multi-media package, including print, radio and television ads, broch

ures and a website, is centered around "100 Ways in 30 Days to Save Water." Especially important, says Martin, is that the tips, such as sweeping the driveway rather than hosing it down and installing low-flow showerheads, are easy to remember and implement. They're easy to market, too: For each of the 100 tips, Home Depot uses in store signs to advertise a relevant product. For example, to be a water-conscious gardener, Home Depot recommends Western Organics mulch, which reduces watering needs by 25%. "Most environmental messages appeal to broad themes, rather than the individual," says Martin. "But to change behavior you have to engage a person."

To that end, Home Depot ran hour-long in-store workshops on water conversation every Saturday and Sunday during September, 2003, dubbed, not surprisingly, "100 Ways to Save Water" month by the Phoenix-based Water – Use It Wisely coalition. To promote the event, Home Depot invested $100,000, mainly for public relations, including arranging television appearances by its employees to demonstrate water conservation, and in-store signage. The retailer also benefited from television and print ads sponsored by the Water – Use It Wisely partners, which featured Home Depot's logo.

Each weekend workshop was devoted to a different topic: Water conservation basics; repairs and retrofits; drought-resistant gardening; and irrigation. In total, 3,120 consumers attended. One aim of the workshop format was face-to-face contact with customers, including children for whom special activities were planned during the first workshop. Another aim was to provide basic hands-on training, which general awareness campaigns lack. The approach is derived from the findings of behavioral science, says Martin, citing, among others, Albert Bandura's social learning theory, which stresses the importance of modeling a behavior you wish to see replicated , and L.R. Kahle's and P.M. Homer's ideas concerning possible selves, which suggest that once a person has internalized a message, he or she becomes a vehicle for that message. "If you're trying to market products based on behavior change, this is what you have to focus on," says Martin.

On another tack, Home Depot also incorporated its traditional emphasis on community service into its water conservation effort by supporting employee volunteers who used water-saving products to retrofit and re-landscape a housing complex for low-income seniors in South Phoenix.

All told, the month's activities resulted in 12.5 million impressions from television and print ads, 4.5 million impressions from signage, and the distribution of 40,000 Water – Use It Wisely guides to Home Depot customers. In addition, surveys conducted by Home Depot after September 2003 showed a marked shift in customer attitudes toward the importance of water conservation. "You can't do behavior change in a second," says Martin. "But we've had a great beginning."

Importantly, Home Depot's various water-conservation activities show that social marketing can co-exist with other types of social initiatives, such as volunteering. But in so doing, they also highlight the superior marketing power of the former. An example: Home Depot's social marketing is likely more effective than volunteering in terms of brand preference – a consumer's predilection for choosing specific products from a lineup of similar ones. After all, when Home Depot not only teaches the importance of water conservation but also how to use Home Depot products in order to conserve, it creates a strong and positive familiarity with its products among consumers. "Our goal is to get to the point where saving water is second nature and the water-conservation product is the one people ask for," says Martin.

To compare, the volunteer effort generates goodwill in the community and loyalty among employees; demonstrates Home Depot's values; and, perhaps even encourages neighbors to help one another conserve water – all of which reflects favorably on the brand. But it does little, if anything, to turn a consumer into someone who voluntarily – even instinctively – saves water, with all of the potential product and service needs such behavior implies.

Home Depot's experience also demonstrates that retailers can leverage the behaviors they are seeking to influence into increased traffic in their stores, which can lead, in turn, to increased sales. After the workshops in September, Home Depot tallied the sales of its water conservation products and showed an increase over previous months. The specific results are proprietary, but the company is considering plans to repeat the Arizona effort in April 2004 followed by water-conservation social marketing programs in other markets. So something is obviously working well. As Park Howell, the president of the firm that created the Water – Use It Wisely campaign, says: "This cause needs their products. What better marketing is there?"



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