Inspirations Paint stores has completed a refurbishment of its stores, including interiors, exteriors, and rebranding. There are 132 stores – all franchised except for 23 – throughout every state and territory of Australia. The new interior layout focuses around a project workshop, according to Inspirations’ head of marketing, Joel Goodsir. “We help people plan their projects and test colour. We actually get paint and brush it out onto boards and get our hands dirty. In the past, no one
really did that for you in a paint shop,” Goodsir said.
The workshops have been completed in April, the rollout having been initiated for the more than 100 stores in 2013.
This accompanies a new advertising campaign, also running up to April from 2013, which saw 20 months of continual month on month, year on year growth in a flat market.
“There was eight per cent growth over that first year,” Goodsir said. “However, for some of the states and some of the months it was in the high 20s – it was amazing.”
The relaunch in the marketplace involved new branding and the new tagline – ‘What’s your next project?’
This is tied to the new philosophy driven strategy for staff that underpins the rebranding, where more personal attention is given to customers’ painting projects – a service led distinctiveness.
“Our goal is to be number one in service, against all the discount sheds, and the other hardware and paint mobs, and head and shoulders above them in customer satisfaction,” Goodsir said.
Appropriate also to the tagline was the release of a new product called Brush Out Boards. Launched in late 2014, they are outselling sample pots on the website seven to one.
“They’re selling like hotcakes online on our new e-commerce site. We deliver them to your door for the same cost as a sample pot,” he said.
Brush Out Boards are large, sturdy 400mm x 400mm square boards (ie three times the surface area of an A4 sheet) that are hand painted with two coats on a sturdy board and have the same look as a painted Gyprock wall.
“You can hold them up or put them up with Blu Tack and move them around the room into areas of light and shade and really see how that colour will look,” Goodsir said. “Then you can take them shopping with you to check soft furnishings and lounges and carpet. We think they’re a real revolution.”
The stores’ interior change follows exterior changes, which accompanies the rebranding. The stores were royal blue, similar to Mitre 10, the new Masters, and a number of other stores in the space, so the stores have been repainted charcoal and all signage replaced in line with the new logo.
To understand its market better, Inspirations Paint undertook a large customer segmentation study, which segmented the market into six distinct groups, and chose one as its key target market.
“They’re super engaged in painting and prefer shopping in a paint store rather than a hardware shed. They also prefer talking with the experts and are very brand oriented,” Goodsir said. “They’re not as price sensitive as some of the other segments.”
Social media is a drawcard for Inspirations Paint. It has Facebook pages for all its stores. Particularly successful has been the community engagement work undertaken with Berger Paints and Legacy.
The ‘Paint for a Mate’ program has seen around 20 war widows homes painted, with the aim of completing 40. “Berger supplies the paint and we supply the muscle, and we go and paint these lovely old ladies’ homes,” he said. The latest one has attracted 70,000 views.
Further promotion within the digital space has seen the Inspirations Paint loyalty program – Paint Club – burgeon into 250,000 members. They can choose to be contacted by email or SMS, or not at all.
“If it’s relevant and tailored and has an offer with great value, it’s not seen as intrusive,” he said.
“We get some amazing reactions from people who walk into a store, hold up their phone, and say, ‘I want this offer. I just got it 20 minutes ago. I’m here to buy’.”
He sees the stores incorporating a greater integration with digital in the future.
“What I love is when stores are more engaged,” he said.
This story first appeared in Inside Retail PREMIUM issue 2043. To subscribe, click here.