Stihl Power Tools: Can’t Find it at Home Depot or Lowe’s

A few years ago I was reading though a magazine and come across the following ad from Stihl Power Tools. The ad surprised me because I thought that any tool you would need you should be able to purchase at Home Depot or Lowe’s.

So why would a Stihl not only “discount” people who shop at warehouse hardware stores, but cut themselves off from a customer channel.  As I explored the product I found out the Stihl was a high-end product, the designer equivalent of power tools.  What was so smart was they played up ex exclusivity and quality of their product, since you could only purchase their products from a dealer.

The media was exclusively print, and appeared in men’s magazines.  Typically these ran more heavily during holidays (Christmas, Father’s Day, etc).  The budget was relatively cheap since they only ran print ads.  The estimated cost could not be any more that a million per ad run.

Stihl’s biggest issue was people thought they could buy their product form the warehouse stores, the campaign was able to show people that Stihl was more special.  The company probably judged their success based off the customers being more educated about where they could purchase their products.

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