greenbranding.holbergdesign.com... The Stauffers of Kissel Hill Garden Center brand redesign

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A "Brand New" Garden Center

Taking Stauffers of Kissel Hill to the next level

What was the existing Garden Center brand? Customers viewed SKH as no-frills, friendly, fairly priced garden center stores. This translated in the consumer's mind as a place where they will not spend a lot of time or money... get in and out as fast as possible - very utilitarian in retail approach.

There was even a problem with the brand name. Were they "Stauffers", "Stauffers of Kissel Hill" or "SKH"? Did any of these three names have any higher brand equity in the marketplace... or did it cause confusion?

The visual identity matched this undefined brand aproach. The signage was done as quickly and easily as possible (sometimes by hand), the displays were non-inspiring, the colors of the stores were not brand consistent. The employees wore no uniforms, thus making them hard to find. The fleet graphics we bare bones... every visual element said "low budget".

First we defined the current attributes of the Stauffers of Kissel Hill garden center brand...

A. Convenient garden center locations
B. Friendly staff
C. Competitive prices
D. "No-frills" utilitarian decor and displays

This “convenient/friendly/low-priced/utilitarian" approach could be considered brand attributes... but they were consistently inconsistent. Next, something interesting happened when we reviewed the competition... we found that they positioned their brands the same exact way as Stauffers did (think big box stores). When we took a closer look at Stauffers, we found that they had, or could easily have, very different attributes than their competition. So, the Stauffers' brand strategy changed...

A. (before) conveniently located
(now) a strategically located, fun destinations

B. (before) a friendly staff
(now) a knowledgeable staff

C. (before) competitive pricing
(now) value added products and services -
extreme dedication to quality of products

D. (before) a "no-frills" utilitarian decor and displays
(now) having superior facilities - idea inspiring displays

Each one of these new brand touchpoints has increased value to the consumer. An employee should always be “friendly”, but a knowledgeable employee is worth more to your customers. A cheap product is good, but a visibly superior product is more valuable... you get the picture.

Now that we had a new brand strategy, we could define how to roll out the new brand.

First you must roll out the brand internally... to management and staff. Then, start to get your message out to your target audience through a great marketing plan.

This may sound simple to achieve, but it takes discipline, consistency and a plan. Everyone must be on board with the brand... or it will fail. Think about the current culture in your Garden Center... how easily would your business accept brand progress?

The following is a brief "before and after" of a few brand areas that were redesigned to enhance the perceptions and increase the value to Stauffers of Kissel Hill Garden Center customers. The full program addressed a total of 36 brand touchpoints.

Exterior brand image:

Before