Glidden Paint Media Plan
Context
The following is an assignment for a Media Strategy and Planning course. The assignment was to develop a rough idea of an adequate media split for a campaign promoting interior paint to DIY consumers, specifically those between the ages of 35 and 44. The requested end materials included:
Custom images for this project were created by Quinn Pierce based on my concept.
Supplementary infographics will be included in the gallery.
This media plan intends to increase brand awareness for Glidden paint. Glidden has been a serious competitor in the paint industry since its founding in 1875. Glidden has been at the forefront of innovation in creating eco-friendly paint since 1948. The purpose of this media plan is to reach specifically DIY enthusiast individuals who are looking to purchase paint for home improvement purposes. This 12-month campaign intends to increase brand awareness among these individuals, so they are seeking out Glidden products for their next DIY project.
Within this media proposal, the advertising campaign’s target demographic is U.S. DIY enthusiasts ages 35-44. These consumers consistently engage in DIY-related content and are invested in taking control of projects within their homes to improve them and complete sustainable and aesthetically pleasing renovations. These individuals are motivated by environmental awareness in their purchases and are likely to stick to a budget for products and consider their purchases seriously. We have researched the media habits of this demographic and devised a plan to maximize our available budget. With our budget of $40 million, we have determined a way to reach around 75% of the target demographic at least four individual times during the year-long campaign.
This plan outlines the various types of media selected to use our budget efficiently and reach the most people possible. We’ve designed this plan around putting the Glidden brand in the customers’ minds while they consume online DIY-related content and refreshing that awareness by supporting traditional media ads.
Glidden Paint’s desired target audience is U.S. residents aged 35-44 interested in DIY home improvement. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 41,027,000 men and women between the ages of 35 and 44 live in the United States. 77% of people in the U.S. within this age range are employed. Their median income is between $45 and $50,000 per year.
DIY enthusiasts within this age range attribute taking on their home improvement projects to a lack of funds or the belief that if they do it themselves, they can ensure that the job is completed correctly. This motivation coincides with what Venveo’s DIY Consumer Marketing Trends Report discovered about customer priorities: that reviews and pricing information influenced brand choices. DIY enthusiasts pull inspiration for projects from Pinterest, Television, YouTube, and Magazines most reliably. A shocking 76% reported looking at home-improvement inspirational tools like Pinterest and magazines regardless of whether they want to renovate.
DIY enthusiasts report planning their projects a few months ahead and extensively researching techniques and products, primarily via YouTube. These individuals are highly motivated to purchase eco-friendly products and are 65% more likely to buy a product labeled that way. For many of our target demographic, renovation is partially motivated by increasing sustainability within their own lives and creating an enjoyable and beautiful home environment. DIY enthusiasts are most likely to hire a contractor to complete a bathroom or kitchen project; only 8% report that they’d hire a contractor to paint. Painting is an endeavor that most DIY enthusiasts consider an excessive task to hire someone else to do.
Since its conception in 1875, Glidden has been investing in providing value to DIY consumers. Their track record speaks for itself. Although Glidden spent its first decade manufacturing industrial varnishes, after its first consumer color varnish, Jap-A-Lac, whose marketing campaign made it an undeniable competitor, marked the beginning of over a century of consistent innovation within the consumer paint market.
In 1948, Glidden put the first consumer water-borne latex paint, Spred Satin, on the market. This alternative to toxic and harmful petroleum-solvent interior paints was groundbreaking for the entire industry, and the sales figures reflected this after a successful Life magazine September issue advertisement. Glidden introduced more innovative products with consumer and environmental welfare in mind over the years, including the first eco-friendly low-odor paint, Spred 2000. Honoring its namesake four decades prior, Spred 2000 influenced the paint industry and began the industry shift to a focus on environmental safety.
While Jap-A-Lac, Spred Satin, and Spred 2000 are entirely individual products emerging decades apart from almost unrecognizably different company structures, they demonstrate another critical aspect of Glidden. Glidden’s advertising campaigns for each product were standouts in the industry. In 1903, promoting Jap-A-Lac, Glidden invested an uncommon $60,000 in advertising for the product, a value of over two million dollars today adjusted for inflation. In the 50’s, it was Glidden’s placement of clever advertisement in Life magazine that catapulted Spred Satin to success. In 1991, with their release of more innovative eco-friendly paints, Glidden doubled their advertising budget and created a series of spots that won their ad agency a prestigious award.
Reviewing over a century of Glidden’s achievements reveals its brand image. Glidden is committed to keeping its finger on the pulse of consumers’ needs, creating innovative paints to address them, and consistently producing ethical and consumer-friendly products. Glidden knows how to make what consumers want and sell it to them.
Among the top-selling Paint Companies in North America, a select few make a serious percentage of their profits selling paint directly to consumers. Within PCI Magazine’s list of the top twenty-five Paint Companies in the U.S., only four could be considered direct competition to Glidden. Many brands offer similar products at drastically different prices, and their messaging is entirely dissimilar to Glidden’s. To analyze the competition, we’ll briefly address branding and pricing differences, using a gallon of standard white semi-gloss paint as a benchmark.
Kelly-Moore Paints made a considerable profit from DIY paint sales in 2021. They brand themselves as a quality-centric specialist company, and being employee-owned is one of their most significant selling points. They don’t emphasize eco-friendly products or easy access to the standard consumer. This may be due to the fact that their simplest paint is priced at $67.99 per gallon. Due to differences in branding and the large gap in pricing, Kelly-Moore Paints shouldn’t overlap with Glidden’s messaging.
Unaffiliated with Kelly-Moore Paints, Benjamin Moore emphasizes high-quality paint and stresses that it “crafts its own” paints. Benjamin Moore’s basic semi-gloss paint sells for $98.99 per gallon. This price difference is so severe that Benjamin Moore should not overlap with Glidden Paint’s consumer base.
Behr is a significant competitor. Not only do they heavily promote their commitment to creating environmentally friendly products, but they vigorously pursue DIY consumers. They are in many of the same storefronts as Glidden at a competitive price. However, a gallon of their standard semi-gloss paint costs $39.98, which is still considerably more expensive than Glidden’s $27.98.
The strongest competitor in DIY consumer paint sales is Sherwin Williams-owned Valspar paint. Valspar’s branding appeals to consumers by positioning themselves as helping consumers succeed in whatever home improvement project they’re tackling. However, with a gallon of standard semi-gloss paint priced at $68, their products are significantly more expensive than Glidden’s, which could tip the scales for a casual DIY consumer.
Current events have created unstable conditions within the paint industry. A multi-year pandemic caused production inconsistency problems within the factories manufacturing the paint and supply-chain issues in procuring necessary materials. Consumers at home responded to the pandemic with significantly increased interest in DIY home improvement products. These competing phenomena led to a sharp increase in the price of paint. While inflation has created more price sensitivity for consumers, the paint industry has, unfortunately, had to raise its prices. The incongruity between supply and demand creates an opportunity for a uniquely impactful advertising campaign. Many companies struggle to keep up with product demand and are pricing middle to low-income DIY enthusiasts out of their consumer base.
There has also been a recent movement within North American and European regulations to limit VOCs or volatile organic compounds. These regulations restrict companies without a considerable number of low-VOC paints and, due to the nation-specific nature of these regulations, create new opportunities for U.S.-based paint manufacturers to reclaim consumers who may have been loyal to international brands with different regulations. As consumers treat the search for paint with more care due to low availability and spiking prices, many paint companies are attempting to shift further towards environmentally friendly production and messaging. This shift presents a challenge to companies that previously neglected eco-friendly growth. There is a considerable opportunity within the current market for companies with reasonably priced paints who have already invested in said growth.
While the significant spike in DIY enthusiast purchasing in 2020 died down, many in the industry predicted growth to stagnate. However, the growth of the interior paint industry has continued at a consistent pace, and projections promise an upward momentum in the future, according to Future Market Insights. While the significant spike of interest has waned, issues within the industry maintain a competitive environment for eco-friendly, reasonably priced paints.
The optimal plan for the year-long media campaign promoting Glidden paint is to use a media concentration approach with the primary medium being digital. In addition to digital media, the second most prominent medium will be television, followed by magazine advertisements. This will result in a combination of a solid online presence on the websites frequented by DIY enthusiasts when planning their projects. Supplemental advertisements correlated with topically relevant magazines and television programs popular with U.S. residents between 35-44 will bolster this effort.
Below is an account of the media tactics involved in this 12-month campaign for Glidden paint. While this plan utilizes traditional and non-traditional media, it strongly emphasizes internet advertising. Due to the increased use of online resources by those within our target demographic and the tendency to favor online research and entertainment among DIY enthusiasts, the most efficient split of our budget heavily leans toward internet advertising.
The first media type in the campaign is digital media. People within our target demographic repeatedly report spending significant time on their computers and phones daily, which takes up over half of their media usage time. Furthermore, DIY enthusiasts report researching their home improvement projects via the internet and being inspired to complete new projects due to Pinterest, YouTube, and search engines as their top three sources. This provides an extensive reach and the ability to target DIY home improvement content for advertising spots.
This demographic gets inspiration and information about DIY projects through the internet. Brief advertising videos will be placed on Pinterest and Instagram, targeting those viewing DIY-related content. We will create single-image advertisements for Facebook. We will purchase 30 YouTube pre-roll ads to reach those utilizing YouTube for DIY project research. Finally, we will use Google AdWords to increase search ranking, another prominent way of researching DIY projects. This strategy will take advantage of active participation in DIY content to increase brand awareness when an individual is likely to purchase paint.
Google AdWords Cost: 2,198,624 clicks $2.32 each $5,100,808
Social Media Advertisements: 3,400,560,000 views at $3 CPM $10,201,680
YouTube Ads: 250,000,000 views at $20 CPM $5,000,000
The second media type chosen for this campaign is television. Television will receive less focus than digital media because between 66% and 74% of individuals within our target demographics utilize streaming services as their primary source of entertainment. This means that television advertising, while still effective for those who watch traditional television, is less effective than digital advertising. However, for a product that lends itself to visual advertising, like paint, television is an excellent medium for broadcasting crisp and compelling product images.
As the secondary medium, television still provides a high reach to the 35-44 demographic, specifically in highly rated shows that our target demographic makes up the primary audience of. We will place 30-second advertisements during three primetime shows that match this description: The Masked Singer, Saturday Night Live, and Abbott Elementary.
Cost: 48 individual 30-second spots $8,102,080
The final media type chosen for this campaign is magazines. While magazine popularity has declined over the years, it comes in fourth in the list of inspiration sources for DIY enthusiasts. With this in mind, not only can advertisements be targeted by interest, but the glossy and high-quality imagery available for magazine ads lends itself to advertising an aesthetically focused product like paint.
Ads placed in magazines will span physical and online versions of the publication. These slots will directly link through to the online store within online versions. This proposal has intentionally selected magazines favored by DIY enthusiasts for inspiration and recommendation.
Cost: 40 full page four color ads $9,494,690
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