The author’s views are entirely their own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
The definition of getting ratioed on a social platform like Twitter/X is when you post something that gets more pushback comments than marks of approval, as in the recent case of a popular account questioning Ace Hardware’s longevity and receiving 3.7k comments vs. just 2.2k likes (at the time of writing this). The original post not only elicited tons of chatter but sparked unthreaded responses, as well, and caused the brand to trend.
I seldom click on the “What’s Happening” trend shortlist on Twitter because it tends to make me grip my temples as if to prevent my faith in humanity from leaking out, but I’ll read almost anything with a local flavor, and I’m glad I waded in. I came away with a ton of valuable insights into the unique value proposition (UVP) Ace Hardware has successfully delivered on, earning serious loyalty from customers around the country who are willing to stand up and evangelize online at any hint of criticism.
If you’re running or marketing a local business, please share today’s column with your team or clients to start a creative discussion about how the brand you’re promoting would measure up to the standard Ace Hardware is setting.
Why customers love Ace Hardware
Ace Hardware is the largest non-grocery retail co-op in the United States. How did they get from their founding 100 years ago to employing 12.5 thousand people and bringing in a reported excess of $9 billion in revenue? The complex answer would include a century of smart decisions, but without a doubt, the major secrets to their success were all over Twitter earlier this month in response to the tweet wondering why they’ve succeeded when their inventory is perceived as more expensive than what’s on offer at Home Depot or Lowe’s. Consider it a local business intelligence leak, and check these out:
Access and proximity
The public has noticed how much more convenient Ace actually is:
Takeaways: At least in my neck of the woods, most of the Ace Hardware locales were built prior to the big box phenomenon that placed shopping on the outskirts of cities instead of near major residential areas, making gas mileage skyrocket for average Americans. If you run a small, nearby business that’s quick to get to and fast to get in and out of (compared to a warehouse-style enterprise in a vast parking lot), you are the more convenient and efficient choice. You save people time, stress, and gas. You should be marketing these attributes.
If you’re considering opening a new business/new location, factor in how both proximity and size will impact consumer choice. A little store in a big neighborhood could be better than a big one at the edge of town.
Expertise
A small sampling of the countless people praising the expertise of Ace’s staff:
Takeaways: When I was young, this level of expertise was the norm at nearly all stores. You expected staff to be well-trained and well-versed in inventory, and I’ve found it hard adjusting to big brand businesses with sadly under-trained employees.
Ongoing staff training is one of the most important investments any local business can make, and I think it’s worth noting how many people on Twitter referenced the age of the employees at Ace. Older employees whose work ethics were forged in a different economic era can be gems for both their earned wisdom and their people skills. Look at the age spread in your hiring practices and see if you are overlooking the value of seasoned staff.
Customer service
This section could be thousands of tweets long, but here’s a sampling of my favorites:
Takeaways: This brand truly lives up to its memorable slogan (quoted by tons of people in this thread) of being the place with the helpful hardware folks. The recipe for success is simple: having enough staff to help customers and having a friendly business culture. In a variety of tweets, people explained how neglected and overwhelmed they feel at competing hardware stores where they can’t locate inventory and have to wander all over the store trying to find an employee who then has to use an app to locate inventory. By contrast, Ace customers are cordially greeted and knowledgeably assisted as soon as they walk in the door.
While minimum staffing may be touted as an economic efficiency in our present era, it does not create brand love and loyalty. Are your customers being helped or hassled by the number and style of your staff? I couldn’t agree more with this account in celebrating that Ace Hardware has gotten customer service so right that their happy patrons made them go viral:
Variety and quality
Despite the comparatively small footprint of its shops, tons of customers think of Ace as having a high-quality inventory that fulfills a huge variety of needs:
Takeaways: Because these businesses are locally owned, there is a ton of opportunity to stock for local needs and to emphasize quality products. My local Ace has everything from hardware to kitchenware to very nice gifts, all in one small space.
Is your inventory reflective of real regional customer needs? If not, survey your community to find out what you aren’t carrying that local people want.
Economic localism
Readers of this column know that economic localism is one of my favorite topics and can picture my delight in seeing these savviest of customers choosing Ace because they want to support their own local economy and because they understand the emotional benefits of living within a connected community. Honestly, some of these stories are very touching:
Takeaways: It’s wonderful to know that if you build your local business around forming real relationships with customers and take a strong educative stance on explaining how shopping with you keeps money within your hometown for local needs, you can earn appreciation and loyalty from your most conscious consumers.
The above tweets show how Ace stores become a valued part of the communities they serve. What is your local business’s strategy for contributing to local life so that your brand becomes a trusted household name?
Something extra in the UVP
Some brands spend millions on outlandish marketing campaigns in an effort to distinguish themselves from the competition, but what if you could build a memorable unique value proposition (UVP) for the price of a bag of popcorn or by having a store cat?
Takeaways: Free popcorn and beverages, pets and treats, jingles… isn’t this all awfully old-fashioned? You bet it is, and it looks like these simple gestures still mean a lot to people and have become marks of distinction because they’ve been abandoned by so many big brands. Marketing’s central goal is to help you get found, chosen, and then chosen again, and the Ace case indicates to me that just a little something extra may be all that’s needed for customers to remember your brand.
I can recall, word-for-word, the local TV and radio jingles of nearby brands from the 1980s. I’ll never forget the beautiful jars of sugar sticks in flavors like sarsaparilla that they had at the neighborhood hardware store where my father shopped. Maybe you don’t need to fund a controversial political candidate or have an expensive app or a business locale the size of an airplane hangar. Maybe you just need a bag of popcorn and a sweet dog. Maybe you just need to make customers feel cared for, treated, and extra human to succeed.
Compete on experience, not price
One of the riskiest aspects of running a local business is that you get a very limited opportunity to make a positive first impression. In the past, I’ve written about how a task as simple as getting the basic information right on your local business listings is a surefire way to defend your brand from having its star rating eroded by negative reviews. But what if, because your business is small, your online reputation includes sentiment from customers saying your prices are higher than what they’ve found at the big box competitor?
Unless your entire town/city is utterly tied to getting whatever is cheapest (and the viral Ace thread shows this to be unlikely), some of the customers you earn loyalty from won’t be the ones you win on the first impression. Their first impression may stem from a years-old past experience that left them with the sense that your shop is pricey or from a general sense that smaller stores mean higher prices. But life is full of ups and downs that might lead to a once-lost customer happening to give you a second try, like this:
The Ace Twitter thread began with a profile expressing disbelief that the brand should still be operating if it couldn’t price-match larger competitors. The above anecdote shows that same mindset being transformed by an outstanding second impression created in-store when chance brought the customer into the shop. And now, having experienced the difference first-hand, this shopper changed their mind and their habits to shop at Ace first. What a victory!
Access, proximity, expertise, excellent customer service, variety, quality, ethical affinities like a shared value for the multiple benefits of economic localism, and a little something extra to make the UVP of the business memorable is the Ace playbook. Thanks to someone asking a question on social media and getting abundantly answered, the Ace playbook is now open for all other local businesses to work from. Study it well and build an experience at the local business you’re running or marketing that customers love to remember, share, and even champion!
