Awards

GD USA 2022
Hillman

Syncing the Screw with eCommerce Imagery

What We Did

  • Competitive Research
  • Photography
  • eCommerce Brand Standards
  • eCommerce Design & Development

The Deck Plus line of deck screws is one of many brands owned by the Hillman Group. The products are high-quality and serve a specific purpose and type of project. Until recently, none of these features were well-articulated or illustrated online. As a result, consumers were confused, products were returned and Lowe’s asked Hillman for help.

When Lowe’s called on Hillman to improve their ecommerce assets, the team at Hillman called on Porchlight. As is the case with many retailers, Lowe’s ecommerce standards were vague. So, the team at Porchlight set about to define a standard that would set the Deck Plus brand apart online while also serving as a guide for Hillman’s other brands.

Heather Elmlinger

Digital Content Manager

We hired the Porchlight team to help us with a big eCommerce project and they certainly delivered! The team is creative, responsive, open-minded and invested in helping us to continue to elevate the standards for eCommerce in the hardware space. With their help on this project, the retailer now considers Hillman to be the gold standard for eCommerce digital assets.
Hillman

The Solution

Our work began with an in-depth audit of ecommerce assets both in the home improvement industry and beyond. We needed to solve Deck Plus’ immediate needs, but we also wanted to provide them with room to grow. That meant designing assets that could be used at Lowe’s, Walmart or Amazon.  

When it came to photography, we focused on quality and context. The product needed to look gorgeous and make sense. But we paid close attention to online reviews and questions, looking for opportunities to address user concerns with imagery. Because deck screws are project-specific, our shots included building materials and tools so that shoppers could easily see the range of Deck Plus’ features, benefits and performance.  

In addition to scoping out the list of imagery needed to experience the product, our team developed a system for branding the Deck Plus ecommerce library. Real value comes not from compelling, high-quality imagery alone, but from imagery that is branded and consistent and integrates systematically with branded graphics. A key test we like to use is to visualize the images without a logo at all and see if they still look branded. We think the Deck Plus images shown here do just that.    

The Results

  • Deck Plus is a “Best Seller” at Lowe’s and ranked 4.8 out of 5 stars.
  • eCommerce imagery was created for 141 SKUs.
  • Final assets totaled over 1,000 unique deliverables.
  • eCommerce brand standards were created for four Hillman brands including Deck Plus, Power Pro, Gorilla Grip and OOK.
Hillman
Hillman
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Hillman

Implementation

Once you build a great brand, the day-to-day work begins. It’s time to send that brand out into the world, to interact with the retail world, that is. Implementation is where the creativity and strategy come together to yield brand touch points. Each touch point is a branded connector between your audience and your brand. From shelf to social, the right implementation strategy and creative yield results.


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Foundation

Brands need a firm foundation to be successful in the market. They need solid footing to rally engagement, both internally and externally. Strong foundations are built – and rebuilt – through careful evaluation and response to the different factors that impact success, including the market, the offering and the audience.


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