Lowe's builds a new brand strategy

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Following a disappointing second quarter and a pledge to improve going into the second half of the year, Lowe's has launched a new brand strategy to help better position itself as a market leader in home improvement retailing. The company's new tagline, "Never Stop Improving," will replace "Let's Build Something Together," in a new advertising campaign that launched Monday.

The "Never Stop Improving" campaign coincides with the soon-to-be-launched MyLowes, an online tool to help customers manage their homes and home improvement projects through every stage.

“‘Never Stop Improving’ is not just a tagline – it reflects our customer’s mindset about their homes and their lives,” said Tom Lamb, SVP marketing and advertising for Lowe’s. “Never Stop Improving is our promise to them that we will constantly be innovating and improving at Lowe’s so we can satisfy their ever changing needs. Our new campaign is our brand promise and our rallying cry for employees as we bring a continual stream of innovations to market over the next several years, like MyLowes.”

Lamb noted that market research found that Lowe's new campaign helped better showcase the retailer's commitment to helping customers find the best solutions for their home improvement needs.

The new television spot, which can be previewedhere, essentially tells the story of a female moving from young and single, to newly married, to parenthood and finally to retirement, all the while showing all the improvements she and her husband make to their home to adapt to their ever-changing lifestyle. Unlike previous Lowe's campaigns, the commercial makes no indication it is for the company until the very end when the new tagline and Lowe's logo are displayed on screen.

The commercials will feature the song "Don't Stop" by new artist Gin Wigmore. According to the company, the song "shares the energy and uniqueness of the new, refocused Lowe’s."

Lowe's new brand strategy comes just about a month after Lowe's senior executives outlined a series of initiatives they intend to implement -- or in some cases, accelerate -- to address some “gaps” they’ve identified through a critical analysis undertaken earlier in 2011. “We will go to market differently beginning in the second half of this year,” CEO Robert Niblock said at an analysts' conference call on Aug.15.

For its second quarter, Lowe's reported an earnings decline, revenue growth of only 1.3% and essentially flat comp-store sales.