Case Study 2

The Home Hardware Dogs

The Brief
Since relaunching their premier stores as the Home Hardware group, John Danks has continued to use letterbox drops of catalogues as the major strategy driving selection and sales by customers.  This is basically the same strategy employed by major competitors Mitre 10 and Bunnings amongst others, so John Danks marketing management in consultation with Clemengers implemented an ongoing creative strategy that could relate to both male hardware and female homewares customers.  The Home catalogue became a ‘dogalogue’ and their spokespersons became the Home Hardware dogs, Rusty and Sandy.

At the time, Promoshop® managed the Home and Thrifty Link branded merchandise ranges, so we were briefed to provide a ‘cut through’ in store premium to reinforce the dogalogue strategy.

The Execution

Promoshop® conceived, created in Australia then sourced ex China the original large Rusty and Sandy dog figurines as ‘free giveaways with each purchase over $40’.  Rusty and Sandy were not only cute but importantly, they were BIG – 5 times the size of any free figurine that had yet appeared on the Australian market.    Character figurines that had been used to date were limited to small toys in cereals such as Weeties and Kelloggs Corn Flakes.

The Result
A container load of Rustys and Sandys duly arrived pre-Christmas 1990, with the store allocation expected to last all summer.  They sold out in a week; with the $40 purchase requirement stretching the ‘one time’ dollar purchase level such that Home Hardware enjoyed the largest overbudget Christmas catalogue sales ever.

Large Sandy and Rusty figurines continue to be sold in all Home Hardware stores all year round, backing the ongoing ‘dogalogue’ concept – they even grew a red nose and antlers one Christmas and in another year managed to have puppies to increase collectability by Home customers’ children.  Over one million dogs have been sold since their inception.