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Home Depot: Customer First
Marketing Audit
December 4th, 2013
MKTG 301.002
Horane Williams
Executive Summary
Founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, Home Depot is one of the biggest
retailers in the world today. Drawing from the company mission statement, as "to be one of the
most successful retailers in the next millennium”, you can see that they are well on track for
this. Management at Home Depot also vision the company to continue their plan to take the
existing success in areas where they have a base business and use this base to expand into
other markets this could include foreign investment as they have already established some
stores in other countries.
In trying to establish itself in the competitive market, Home Depot, has had some competition
in the past couple decades. These include Lowes, Garden Sea6le and etc. By reaching its goals
are expanding their sales, and market throughout the world, Home Depot will have to stay on
top of these particular companies. They also face the problem with trying to expand their base
in the Professional Business Segment of which they only hold about 4% of this market. Their
Marketing Plan 1
Competitors in this area are smaller businesses that have focusing on this market for some
time.Home Depot has in fact been on the move with the latest apps such as the Pro app, which
allows their most loyal customers to shop easier and complete their projects at a faster rate.
Home Depot overall is on the break of something big to come within the next few years, this
includes a ways on how to increase profit growth without worries.
External and Internal Environment
Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, with these two
included investment banker Ken Langone and a merchandising expert Pat Farrah. The :rst Home
Depot opened in Atlanta, Georgia on June 22th, 1979. The store was around 60,000 square feet
each and it was inside a warehouse. This warehouse also stored/stocked 25,000 SKUs which was
said to be more than an average hardware store around that time. Home Depot helps
customers through projects as lumber work, power tools, kitchen design and much more. The
associates of this company go under an intensive product knowledge experience when they :rst
join the company. The company also helps customers to improve on their product knowledge as
well as they host workshops every week, which various through regions. Home Depot stresses
providing great customer service and this is why it is the number 1 retail
Marketing Plan 2
company in the world. Home Depot current cost per share is $78.08.
Home Depot oBers many diBerent services. The company has many diBerent varieties of
products ranging from their departments which include appliances, bath, building materials,
décor, doors & windows, electrical, Eooring, kitchen, lighting &fans, lumber, garden, paint,
plumbing and hardware. These departments help customers with their everyday projects. Some
of the products that are oBered in these departments are available online and in store with a lot
of selection from diBerent brands. Some brand Home Depot carries is Bosch, Porter Cable,
Dewalt, Makita, Ryboi, Ridgid, Dremel, Behr, Martha, Echo, Black & Decker, and etc.
Home Depot uses a device it calls “First Phones” that is an integrated phone, walkie-talkie, and
handheld computer. This application manages the in-store process for pulling product
purchased by a customer online to be picked up in the store. Home Depot also uses the device
for cycle counting. Every morning, some store associates use their First Phone to scan every
shelf out of stock. If the store system says the product is available in the building somewhere,
the system will create a list for other associates to locate that product and put it on the shelf.
Trends in the environment that could represent opportunities for this company is the
amount of non-pro:t organization that are in the need of help with construction work or just
establishing their business. Home Depot could reach out more to the environment and build
upon their corporate responsibilities within their community. Reaching out to the community
also could establish Home Depot as a community friendly business and then eventually a6ract
more customers within. Another opportunity that could be presented to Home Depot is the
Marketing Plan 3
partnership with more suppliers to build even a more exclusive product selection throughout
the stores. When Home Depot does this it allows them to be even more competitive in the
market when it comes to dealing with Wal-Mart, Target and etc but not only are they selling
home construction materials but they are now also selling home decorations type materials as
well. A trend that can negatively aBect the company is the fact more and more customers is
buying online rather than shopping in the store. This threat is important because then Home
Depot would have to switch their a6ention to their “buy online”, “pick-up in store” option. This
threat can easily be handle buy stores being more aware of this and establishing within the
company a designated department that take care of these online orders, so whenever the
customers do come in they are ready to go with their order. Another possible threat to the
