Glidden Makes a Comeback

It was one of the paint industry's greatest success stories: In 1875, Francis Harrington Glidden started a varnish-making business in a small one-story building near Ohio's Cuyahoga River. The Glidden Company, as it came to be known years later, played a pivotal role in Cleveland's industrial boom. It reached its peak over the next several decades, despite steep competition from Sherwin-Williams, selling everything from varnish and paint to margarine and soybean products. The company emerged from the Great Depression with $50.17 million in sales and then tripled in size through acquisitions to more than $170 million in 1945.

In 1947, it revolutionized the consumer paint industry with the introduction of its first water-born latex paint, Spred Satin. Geared toward homemakers, the product spiked Glidden's paint sales yet again to $188.61 million in 1950.

Fast forward to 1984, the Glidden Company distributed paints and related products through 350 company-owned outlets as well as independent dealers and retail chains. It was the third largest producer in America's $9 billion a year paint and coatings industry.

And then suddenly in 1986, the Glidden brand literally fell off the map. Slowly, Glidden outlets were rebranded as ICI stores to reflect the brand's new UK-based parent company, and due to a lack of investment, the brand lost its relevance among consumers.  

By the time the Glidden brand was acquired again in 2008 -- this time by AkzoNobel, the largest global paint and coatings company -- its market share had eroded 40 percent since 2003.

"Glidden has a great heritage dating back to 1875," says Rob Horton, vice president - Marketing for Akzo Nobel Paints LLC, the company's U.S. paint business. "However, over the past decade, the brand had lost its relevance. Although Glidden has always enjoyed high brand awareness, sales were steadily declining; marketing investment dried up; and probably most damaging, Glidden's paint quality was not competitive."

AkzoNobel's only option was clear: it had to undergo a comprehensive and holistic re-invention of the Glidden brand and restore it to its former glory through various innovative efforts. 

Painting a New Picture

Regardless of which brand AkzoNobel is working on or how large the initiative, the company has instilled a culture within its marketing teams to always start with end user insights. So, when it embarked on the journey to re-invent Glidden, Horton and his team spent a considerable amount of time and energy methodically listening to the consumer. AkzoNobel set out to understand the market landscape, including where competitors were positioned, and identify the unmet end user needs and weave them together into a compelling, differentiated and meaningful brand proposition.

"We relied on qualitative tools like focus groups and ethnographies to ensure we got every element of the re-invention right. Quantitative measures were also employed, especially during the concept testing phase. Together, these helped us gauge if we were true to our insights and delivering upon them in breakthrough fashion," says Horton.

The company partnered with its largest retail chain customer The Home Depot to gain additional insights. Focus groups were conducted to learn how a store associate interacts with a consumer in the paint aisle. Their feedback dramatically influenced the direction that AkzoNobel took with the transformation project. Afterward, store associates were trained on the new features of the Glidden products through in-store activities and additional events.

What emerged from this work was a sizeable market opportunity that was being under served by both AkzoNobel and its competition: a large segment of the do-it-yourself (DIY) population lacks the confidence to get a paint project started and is overwhelmed by all the products and color choices.

"We found a niche that just wanted simplicity -- which became the foundation of our re-invention," says Horton.

A Total Makeover

Armed with insights about the DIY population's wants, needs and requirements, AkzoNobel launched the following initiatives to improve the brand's basics:

• Improving Product Quality: AkzoNobel invested a significant amount of resources to enhance the Glidden paint formula. Benefits include improved hide so fewer coats are needed, better leveling qualities for a smoother finish and an increased ability to fight burnishing in high-traffic areas. In a move toward environmental responsibility, the VOC content was lowered to less than 50 grams per liter.
• Simplifying Color Choices: A new condensed color palette is made up of 282 hues selected by color experts based on extensive research, trending and analysis. In addition, Glidden color experts will regularly offer the Top 10 Colors -- from Top 10 Retreat Colors to Top 10 Sunrise Colors -- to help consumers achieve a certain look, emotion or feeling.
• Enhancing the In-Store Experience: New color centers found in all Home Depot retail locations reflect the brand's new promise to make paint selection easier. Color groups are arranged intuitively so a consumer can quickly review related hues in one, user-friendly area. There are also dedicated sections to the Top 10 Colors. For fast and easy confirmation, pre-mixed, ready-to-use testers complete with a built-in brush are available within the new color centers in all the colors in the Glidden palette. 
• Redesigning the Package: Redesigned labels streamline sheen and color information for the consumer as well as store personnel, making it easier to locate and select the right product.

An independent study commissioned by Morgan Stanley in August 2009 surveyed more than 2,750 DIY consumers and validated AkzoNobel's decision to re-invest in the Glidden brand. Just three months into the initiative, approximately 8 percent of respondents were aware that Glidden had recently been updating and rebranding its range of paints. When asked if they would consider buying Glidden paint in the aftermath of the rebranding, 66.2 percent of those surveyed either agreed or completely agreed.

The Finishing Touches

To celebrate the new Glidden paint, the company launched the "Glidden Gets You Going" campaign nationally in June 2009. Under this tagline, the campaign looks to disrupt paint industry conventions with an integrated approach aimed at inspiring consumers while also educating the Home Depot associate.

The multi-platform campaign was created by DDB New York and was supported by a team of agencies, including Liggett Stashower, which provided public relations and special event marketing services, and Hitchcock Fleming and Associates, which managed Web and social media activation. Advertisements featuring nuns, Eskimos and fashionistas using Glidden paint popped up in print and on television to communicate the brand's new position to inspire DIY consumers from all walks of life. 

The campaign also kicked off with a free One Quart Giveaway in any of Glidden's new 282 colors. Consumers could register for their free quart online with no strings attached at www.glidden.com from June through July. Some consumers even took to YouTube, providing personal tours of the spaces they recreated with Glidden paint.

In the social media channel, quality test kits were mailed to influential bloggers in the paint community, which in turn ignited chatter about the new brand's quality and exceptional value.

Glidden paint also debuted its new products and tools in Manhattan's Union Square, where dozens of Broadway dancers, with paint cans and paint brushes in hand, converged for a colorful dance. Combined with a Glidden consumer exhibition, the event aimed to demonstrate how "You Don't Have to be a Painter to Love Glidden" paints.

Glidden is Back

By all measures, the campaign is a success: "The No. 1 reason was that the campaign was holistic," says Horton. "Every touch point -- from the excellent quality paint in the can to our color centers in the store and PR events -- was consistently designed to deliver on our target's needs."

Quantitative results were impressive, especially when you consider the overall DIY market declined to single digit percentages in 2009:

• Year-over-year market share jumped 1.5 percentage points.
• Year-over-year Home Depot point-of-sale comparative sales jumped nearly 50 points.
• Household penetration increased by 26 percent.
• Repeat purchases increased by 10 percent.

The re-invention also earned AkzoNobel two industry awards. Last June, the "Glidden Gets You Going" campaign earned AdWeek's 'Ad of the Day' honors. And more recently, AkzoNobel received a Gold Effie Award, signifying excellence in marketing strategy, creative execution and sales performance as judged by a panel of executives from advertising agencies and Fortune 500 marketers.

While AkzoNobel will continue to innovate and invest in the brand, these early results prove that, after a slight detour, Glidden is back on the map. In fact, in addition to a stronger presence in The Home Depot, you'll see it reclaiming real estate across the country as ICI stores are converted back to the Glidden banner.

By effectively aligning the brand with its new target audience's core values, the new Glidden is well on its way to being a great success story.