Positioning a new outdoor tool range in a shared aisle

The question

A new range of outdoor tools was headed for big-box stores, made for homeowners but sold in aisles where owners of small landscaping businesses shop too.

The brand had to settle how the range would present itself: whether to call it professional, how to describe its power, and what its displays and packs should say. Whatever it chose had to win homeowners without putting off the professionals beside them.

Our approach

We brought the aisle to both kinds of shopper, so every reaction stayed close to the moment of choice.

Each group saw the display routes as they would meet them in store, set beside a competitor’s display, and pack options that described power in different ways, with homeowners in online groups and activities and business owners in activities and a one-to-one interview.

The brand’s team had interim reads before the final report, so the evidence could feed the positioning while it was still being shaped.

What the team came away with

Every display route and pack option came back evaluated by both groups: the homeowners the range was made for, and the professionals who share their aisle.

The report set out what each group expects from a tool described as professional, how each wants power explained, and how the displays and packs read in store, with tool-by-tool detail across the range and a view of where its positioning could go next.

Because both audiences saw the same stimulus, the brand could weigh each route with both sets of reactions side by side.

That gave the team one basis for the words on the bay, the claims on the pack and the way the range would talk about power.