Home Depot, Lowe's Ratchet Up Do-It-Yourself Clinics

What does wreath decorating or bobsled building have to do with home improvement?

Plenty.

Such how-to sessions are a key part of strategies by Home Depot and Lowe's to attract customers and build loyalty and sales, even if those customers are in some cases only 9 years old.

"They're seeding the market and investing in it for the future," said Michael Levy, professor of retailing at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.

Clinics have been a tactic for years at Home Depot and Lowe's, as well as at a host of other retailers such as Whole Foods, Williams-Sonoma, REI and Archiver's scrapbooking store.

"It's an implicit quid pro quo — we've done this nice thing for you so that when you go to build your bookshelf the least you can do is shop our store," Levy said. "They're also trying to build a relationship and loyalty with customers, and once they've got them, they've got them unless they tick them off."

But as competition stiffened for the same customers, Home Depot and Lowe's began broadening the reach of their clinics.

In recent years, they began aiming them at specific types of customers, such as women or kids. Home Depot added do-it-herself workshops, and Lowe's began offering wreath and tree decorating "how-to" clinics. Both also offer the how-to workshops in Spanish to reach a growing Hispanic base of consumers.

Home Depot last month upped the ante by offering clinics aimed at older baby boomers, including "preventive home maintenance to protect your asset."

"It's one of our growth segments," said Roger Adams, Home Depot's senior vice president of marketing. "They'll generate about half of the growth in home improvement spending over the next five to seven years. That's why they're a VIP segment."

AARP research shows about 89 percent of people over 50 hope to remain in their homes. More than half may make changes to their homes. AARP is sponsoring the workshops with Home Depot.

Kids, too, are not to be ignored. They not only influence household purchases but if Home Depot or Lowe's can earn their loyalty at a young age, they could become a lifer, or lifelong customer. Home Depot began offering kids workshops in 1997, and Lowe's followed suit in 2000.

It's a battle of kids clinics at the two giants on some Saturdays.

Lowe's hoped to attract the younger set — and their parents — by offering a build-a-pumpkin session last month and, a few weeks later, a clinic on home safety. Home Depot carried out an Olympic-themed clinic on how to build a bobsled, with the Torino, Italy, Olympics coming up in the winter. The chain also let kids build wooden boxes and media racks.

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