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Mayfair Case Study

How to Build a Successful Retail Hardware Toilet-Seat Sales & Merchandising Program

In this case, Ace Hardware was stocking Magnolia-brand toilet seats and was looking for a way to increase their business and margins. Their mix was approximately 60% sales on the opening price-point wood seat. The challenge was to shift the mix to higher-end seats without losing current unit volume.

Langenfeld's team analyzed the current market, product offering, consumer demographics, price sensitivity, and features that consumers desired. What they found was that the current program was fragmented, lacked selection, was poorly displayed, and was not catering to the right audience. The team also used consumer research and found that toilet seats were not price sensitive, and consumers were willing to pay more for a better seat.

The Langenfeld/Mayfair team presented a program to Ace Hardware that eased the shopping experience through better merchandising to showcase the products and introduce channel-focused packaging. The proposed display concept placed high-end seats at eye level, included a full selection of seats from wood to plastic to padded, and offered P-O-P materials that featured product benefits. These enhancements would help attract the female shopper, who ranked very high in Langenfeld's intensive market research.

Based on an exhaustive analysis of all available market data, the team was able to present a new margin-favorable solution to Ace Hardware. It also demonstrated that Ace would not lose sales by changing its advertising mind set from an opening price-point seat to the higher-quality product.

Ace Hardware converted their program from Magnolia to Mayfair-brand and sales doubled in one year, while yielding higher margins for Ace Hardware and their retailers. Sales on the opening price-point seat decreased from over 60% to less than 30%, but total unit volume actually increased. The sales on all high-quality toilet seats increased, and the new advertising approach proved that price was not the determining factor in the purchase decision.  The Langenfeld/Mayfair team has continued to analyze market trends, introduce new seats, and update Ace Hardware's product mix, resulting in double digit increases each year.

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