Female influence at all-time high as home improvement industry booms

BY JANE VAN DER VOORT

Canada's multibillion-dollar home renovation industry is turning its attention toward a long-time market that has begun to flex some muscle - women.

Female influence on remodelling decisions is at an all-time high as the renovation industry enjoys a booming market. Across Canada, homeowners spent $20.4-billion on renovations and repairs in 2001, a 37 per cent increase in two years, according to Statistics Canada. That's an average $2,580 a home spent nationally, and $3,070 spent on average in Ontario.

" We found that 80 per cent of decisions about painting and decorating were female influenced, and almost half of the choices were made by women themselves," said Michael McLarney, publisher of Hardlines Quarterly, a home improvement industry Web site - www.hardlines.ca . He refers to a total 2,300 people who were queried in two Nielsen Media Research surveys in late 2001.

Kitchen and bathroom improvements were found to be 75 per cent female influenced, with women making all the decisions in 37 per cent of the cases.

" We see the trend as only increasing," Mr. McLarney said. "The whole market for renovation and repair is growing. You have to give credit to the marketing efforts of the big box stores such as Home Depot that are more directed to women."

At Home Depot Canada Inc., president Annette Verschuren sees more women in her stores and greater numbers of single female homeowners who are investing their hard-earned equity "into something more satisfying than a portfolio."

" We are doing much more direct marketing to women," she adds In Home Depot's "What Women Want" courses, Ms. Verschuren says she has "sell-out crowds in seminars teaching women how to use power tools." Courses for children have drawn 300 kids and their parents on Sunday mornings.

Drawing women into her stores and putting the decisions in their hands is good for business. Ms. Verschuren notes that sales research shows a 20 per cent greater tendency to purchase when couples shop together.

" Women buy projects. They see a closet or a bathroom and they want the whole thing 'done'," Ms. Verschuren adds.
Shirley Tse, 34, of Scarborough, Ont., says she enjoys the new prominence given decor details in home repair stores. "Now, when my husband is down the aisle looking at pipe, or trim, or a new hammer, I can figure out which rug will work when we're finished painting.

" With the way they've designed it, so the paint and window treatments and flooring and lighting are close, it's easier for me to see how the pieces will come together.
And it's easier for me to show him," says Ms. Tse.

Home Depot's colour palette choices are ruled by fashion runways. "There's a correlation between the colours of spring fashion and how long it takes to get into the stores. For us it's six months to get into tablecloths and draperies and then it goes to carpeting and paints," Ms. Verschuren adds.

The emotion of colour sets women apart when they're choosing paint and decor, say awardwinning interior designers Jane Hall and Ian Levack. At their Toronto store, The Voice of Color, the couple watch women choose more reserved shades of warm greens and golds, and orange for their homes - "the colours of food, spice, sunshine." Men "are more comfortable with deeper tones of confident, saturated colour," Ms. Hall says.

" Definitely women are more tactile, women want to touch the fabrics and the man will like the colour or the shape," she says, pointing to a velvet couch lined backed with textured, tulle sheers. "She'll see the detail on the cushions and he'll see the broad stripes."

" Emotional branding" is the marketing approach taken by Ms. Hall and Mr. Levack to touch a consumer's five senses - rich paint colours and textures, newage music, incense and chocolate offerings.

The resulting sensuality of their shop has drawn a greater number of women walk-ins.
" We hear it over and over, they want to make a change in their homes and usually it's to say more about them," Ms. Hall says. "Then, when the painting is done, it's not so much that the house looks different or better, but women will say, 'I feel better.' "
Meanwhile, at Hardlines, publisher Mr. McLarney notes the 2001 Nielsen survey also showed 54 per cent of women questioned had participated in home painting projects. Another 24 per cent said they'd worked with new bathroom fixtures.