For those of you interested but ignorant when it comes to Home Improvement…
A friend of mine, Will Spann, at the Weather Channel, has been working on this interactive Home Depot Project of the Week tool. It won’t blow your mind with wacky algorithmic serendipity, but its just a very nice organization of multi-media information. Very easy to use and covers a project from all angles: written directions, downloadable shopping lists and project guides, a video segment with Danny Lipford (from the Saturday show on the Weather Channel), and of course a Home Depot store finder.
A recipe for building customer loyalty?
One Comment
It’s a nice mini-site. It’s also pretty curious from a brand perspective.
While WC and HD are busy sharing users’ eyeballs, I wonder what users are supposed to divine from the partnership. By what path do they get to this home improvement content on the Weather Channel site? What does it mean to *my* brand relationships as a customer that these two brands have a relationship with each other and express the relationship in this way?
Frankly, I think it’s a little dissonant: it suggests these companies have agreed to some kind of value system that I’m not privy to. It’s like two of my friends talking in a secret code or telling a private joke. I’m not exactly paranoid about it, but it’s not doing much to add value to my relationship with either of the friends.
What’s even more interesting to me, though, is that HD throws some weight behind a fancy-pants, trans-branded, media-rich marketing thingamajig like this—but at the same time are completely failing in customer-serving fundamentals; just try searching their site for a light bulb!