Staples, Inc.

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Staples, Inc.

THAT WAS EASY CAMPAIGN
YEAH, WE'VE GOT THAT CAMPAIGN

500 Staples Drive
Framingham, Massachusetts 01702
USA
Telephone: (508) 253-5000
Web site: www.staples.com

THAT WAS EASY CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW

In 2002 three retailers, Office Depot, Inc., Staples, Inc., and OfficeMax, Inc., were America's largest office-supply superstores, with Staples trailing closely behind Office Depot, the industry leader. Advertising analysts criticized the trio for not differentiating their brands. Each offered an abundance of office products, furniture, computers, and printing services at competitive prices. All three used humorous ad campaigns during the back-to-school season and targeted small businesses throughout the year. In February 2002 Ron Sargent was appointed as Staples' new chief executive officer. After research revealed that consumers did not want just low prices but also an effortless shopping experience, Sargent had the store layouts changed so that every aisle could be viewed from the main entrance. Printer cartridges were made more accessible. Unpopular items were removed from Staples' inventory to reduce clutter. To herald its more convenient in-store environment, Staples released the "That Was Easy" campaign in 2003.

The $73 million print, online, radio, and television campaign was created by Omnicom's ad agency Martin/Williams of Minneapolis. The first two commercials ran during the CBS program 60 Minutes on March 2, 2003. Both spots exaggerated the frustration some customers experienced at office-supply stores. In one spot, titled "Ink Cartridge Bingo," a frazzled office-supply worker called out printer cartridges as if they were Bingo letter-number combinations. Later spots aired during programs that included the Major League Baseball playoffs, prime-time premieres, Monday Night Football, NFL football games on CBS, and the 2004 Super Bowl. Staples ended its relationship with Martin/Williams in July 2004 but continued using the "That was easy" tagline for later campaigns.

Just days after "That Was Easy" began, Staples posted 2002 fourth-quarter earnings that repositioned Staples as the new industry leader over Office Depot. The campaign's spot "Ink Cartridge Bingo" was awarded Adweek magazine's Best Spot honor in April 2003. The campaign was also credited with boosting sales for Staples' printer cartridges by 14 percent. Additionally, sales for printing services more than doubled during the campaign.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Thomas Stemberg was credited with starting the first office-supply superstore, Staples, in 1986 after realizing that small businesses paid too much for office supplies. Before Staples existed, large businesses could buy discounted office supplies in bulk, but smaller businesses purchased their supplies from small, expensive retailers. The average price for one case of copy paper in 1986 was $65. As a result of the emergence of office-supply superstores, 20 years later the price had dropped to $23.

In 1994 Staples awarded its advertising budget to Cliff Freeman and Partners, an ad agency based in New York. The agency's long-running campaign, "Yeah, We've Got That," which promoted the breadth of Staples' merchandise selection, became insignificant after OfficeMax and Office Depot boasted a similar selection. Staples' sales slowed from 2000 to 2001. Not only had the waning economy affected the retailer, but customers were also complaining about the stores' confusing merchandise layouts.

When longtime Staples executive Ron Sargent replaced founder Stemberg as CEO in 2002, employees were already aware of the new CEO's modesty. Even after the promotion, Sargent commuted to work every day in an older Toyota Corolla. Two months later the company's advertising account was reassigned to Martin/Williams. Hoping to take the industry's lead position away from Office Depot, Staples conducted a survey to identify what its own stores were lacking. The survey revealed that the main reason customers chose an office-supply store was not price or selection but in-store convenience.

Staples replaced 700 of its low-end items, such as $9 paper shredders and vegetable-shaped pens, with products more suitable for small businesses. After the survey revealed that convenience outweighed selection in the minds of consumers, newer Staples outlets were opened with less space and fewer items. The aisles were repositioned so that customers could view the entire store from the entrance. In early 2003 Martin/Williams developed the tagline "That was easy" to herald the new store format.

TARGET MARKET

Prior to the "That Was Easy" campaign, marketing analysts criticized Staples for catering to the "casual customer" with cheap, eccentric items such as glitter markers and glow-in-the-dark magnets. "Casual customers" were infrequent buyers who added little to Staples' bottom line. After the 2002 Staples survey revealed that small businesses spending at least $500 annually on office supplies accounted for 90 percent of Staple's profits, Martin/Williams created "That Was Easy" to target small business customers. The survey also revealed that price was not the main impetus behind what office-supply stores small businesses chose; customers simply expected Staples, OfficeMax, and Office Depot to offer the same low prices. In a 2002 earnings conference call Sargent explained the needs of small businesses to investors. "… [W]e asked the customer[s] what they thought and what they needed. What we found out … is that customers wanted us to be in stock," he said. "They wanted to us have helpful associates. They wanted to us have quick checkout. If they had a problem, they wanted it fixed easily."

One of the campaign's first commercials, "Ink Cartridge Bingo," showed small-business customers waiting impatiently for printer cartridges. The spot was derived from customer feedback. "Based on customer research, 84 percent of small businesses surveyed said a critical aspect of shopping for office products is having the toner or ink cartridge they need in stock," Shira Goodman, executive vice president of marketing at Staples, said in a Business Wire press release.

In August 2003 and again in July 2004, the campaign's target market was expanded to include the parents of children returning to school. One humorous spot featured a father interacting with a cardboard cutout of his wife at his daughter's soccer game. The mother's absence was attributed to her having to wade through school supplies at a non-Staples office-supply store. Goodman explained in the press release, "Our customers have told us they are time starved. We've responded this back-to-school season by making it easy for them to get the supplies they need quickly."

COMPETITION

OfficeMax's successful "What's Your Thing?" campaign, which began in December 2003 with a 60-second commercial sharing the campaign's title, featured a lively character called Rubberband Man delivering office supplies inside an office building. In the spot the Afro-sporting character danced to the 1970s Spinners hit "Rubberband Man" while tossing office supplies to employees and pushing an OfficeMax cart. The spot proved so successful that it was parodied on NBC's The Tonight Show and was even nominated for a 2004 Emmy within the "Outstanding Commercial" category. Omnicom Group's ad agency DDB Chicago created the campaign with an annual budget of $49 million, helping OfficeMax remain third-largest in the office-supply industry. OfficeMax posted $4.7 billion in sales for 2003. In comparison, Staples posted $11.6 billion in sales that year.

The campaign initially targeted businesses, but after the Rubberband Man character, played by Eddie Steeples, resonated so well with other demographics, further spots promoted back-to-school supplies. "The first 'Rubberband Man' ad established OfficeMax as the best source for business office supplies. These new spots show that OfficeMax is the best place to go for back-to-school shopping because we have a large selection year-round," Dave Goudge, executive vice president of marketing at OfficeMax, said in a PR Newswire press release. "The 'Rubberband Man' appeals to kids, teens, college students and parents, giving us a perfect opportunity to make our point in a highly memorable way."

MARKETING STRATEGY

The $73 million Staples campaign's first two commercials aired during the CBS program 60 Minutes on March 2, 2003. Both spots depicted customers who were frustrated with non-Staples office-supply stores. "Our new work for Staples takes an experience that every small business person can relate to and exaggerates it," John Karlson, senior vice president of strategic development for Martin/Williams, said in a Business Wire press release. "It's humorous and memorable, and it differentiates Staples as a brand that makes life easier, saves time, and delivers products consumers need and trust."

One of the first commercials, "Meeting Paper Shuffle," touted Staple's improved three-step printing and photocopying service. The spot began with a business presentation that suddenly went awry due to grossly misprinted handouts. "Before we start, if everyone could move page 15 up two pages," one executive apologetically said. "And if your page 5 in the deck is fuzzy, just pass it down." The camera revealed page 8 to be a misplaced invitation to a luau. "Page 8 … just remove it," the executive said. The commercials' voice-over explained, "Unprofessional documents lead to messy meetings. But at Staples, you'll get professional copying and printing."

The campaign's commercials dropped Staples' previous closer, in which a stapler stapled around the corporate logo. Instead Martin/Williams ended "That Was Easy" spots with images pertinent to the service advertised. "Meeting Paper Shuffle" concluded with the Staples logo being scanned inside a photocopier. The campaign's other debut spot, "Ink Cartridge Bingo," which promoted Staples' commitment to a wide selection of printer cartridges, ended with the Staples logo emerging from a printer.

The campaign suggested that Staples did not offer just office supplies but also competent service and advice. "Our new tagline, 'Staples. That was easy' goes far beyond an advertising campaign," Goodman said in the Business Wire. "It represents a fundamental shift in our approach to selling office products. It is evolving the Staples brand and guiding every business decision that takes place at the company."

NOT THAT EASY

One month after the office-supply chain Staples released its "That Was Easy" campaign in 2003, the Idaho-based office-supply company Boise Cascade filed a lawsuit against Staples. Executives at Boise Cascade claimed that Staples was unfairly capitalizing on its older slogan, "Boise. It couldn't be easier."

In August 2003 Staples modified the display of its school supplies much as it had done its office products. "Grab and Go" bins with essential school supplies were placed near the stores' entrances. Each store was stocked with ample amounts of filler paper, pencils, and folders to ensure that parents could get everything they needed in one trip. One back-to-school commercial featured a father interacting with a cutout version of his wife at their daughter's soccer game. It ended with the tagline "Back to school shopping at Staples. That was easy." The spot implied that, by shopping for school supplies at Staples, parents could spend more time with their children.

In 2004 Staples also spent $2.25 million to air its first Super Bowl spot. The commercial featured a mean-spirited distributor of office-supplies making his employees provide him candy before he would issue supplies. The commercial concluded with the modified tagline "Staples. That was easy," and targeted a broader audience of consumers that did not typically watch television.

OUTCOME

In July 2004 Staples ended its relationship with Martin/ Williams, citing "creative differences," and instead awarded its advertising account to McCann-Erickson New York. The new agency continued using "That was easy" as a tagline but introduced the "Easy Button" campaign, which referred to a device that solved life's problem in the same way that Staples solved office-supply problems. Despite the fact that the Martin/Williams campaign had lasted for only two years, it helped Staples outpace Office Depot from late 2002 to 2004. Adweek magazine named the commercial "Ink Cartridge Bingo" a Best Spot of April 2003, commenting, "It's a clever way to promote a dull and frustrating product." Sales of Staples' printer cartridges increased by 14 percent during the breadth of the campaign, and the company's printing-services business more than doubled.

Advertising critics and Staples executives, including Staples' CEO Ron Sargent, initially praised Martin/ Williams for reflecting in-store changes so succinctly in the campaign's message. The tagline "That was easy," however, was soon criticized. In late 2003 the Dow Jones News Service released results from a survey that determined which corporate slogans were most recognized by the American public. Out of the survey's 1,021 respondents, not one correctly identified Staples with "That was easy." Nonetheless, Staples executives considered the slogan worthwhile and continued using it after parting with Martin/Williams.

A PAPER CLIP IS A PAPER CLIP

Competitive pricing between America's largest office-supply chains, Staples, OfficeMax, and Office Depot, was credited with lowering the nationwide cost of office supplies. Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Consulting Group, explained to the Providence Journal Bulletin that the stores did this by treating office supplies as commodities. "A paper clip is a paper clip is a paper clip is a paper clip," Bernard said. "It doesn't matter where you buy it. It doesn't come with aroma. It doesn't come in flavors. It's like selling pork bellies."

YEAH, WE'VE GOT THAT CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW

Staples, Inc., was one of three office-supply-superstore chains to emerge in the 1980s, each vying to differentiate itself from the others. In 1994 Staples launched its first full-fledged television campaign, airing a pair of 30-second spots produced by its new ad agency, Cliff Freeman & Partners, New York. Targeting people who worked at home, the spots used the tagline "Yeah, We've Got That," a phrase that expressed the breadth of products a Staples superstore had to offer. In 1997 Staples would use the tagline as an anchor for a national campaign.

The "Yeah, We've Got That" campaign targeted small-business owners but also hoped to appeal to general consumers, such as parents shopping for school supplies. While the campaign included radio spots, it was primarily a television campaign. The humorous TV spots attempted to use real-life situations to appeal to their audience. Perhaps the most popular of all the commercials was the back-to-school spot that featured upbeat parents, dour children, and the song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" playing in the background.

The "Yeah, We've Got That" campaign ran for eight years. It won several advertising awards and played a major role in driving Staples' sales beyond the $10 billion mark. A change in management and a desire to reposition the brand led to the departure of Cliff Freeman and the introduction of a fresh marketing campaign in 2002.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Staples was the original office-supply superstore in the United States. It opened its first store in 1986 and grew rapidly, by the end of 1996 operating about 600 stores throughout the United States and Canada. It also had 40 stores in the United Kingdom and 16 in Germany. Depending on the location and the services they offered, the North American stores were called Staples, Staples Express, Business Depot, or Bureau En Gros. In 1997 Staples had the second-largest market share in the United States, behind Office Depot but ahead of OfficeMax, and was the largest operator of office superstores in the world.

Staples filled a market need by providing office supplies, furniture, computer hardware and software, and related items for small businesses at the same substantial discounts previously available only to large corporations. In addition, it offered Staples Direct delivery service, a mail-order business, and contract stationer operations called Staples Business Advantage and Staples National Advantage, which mainly served large companies.

TARGET MARKET

Most people who shopped at Staples fell into one of three categories. The company's primary customers were from 27 to 54 years old and owned small businesses, with many having home offices. Staples estimated that it had 3.5 million customers in this category. "We mostly target the small-business customer, because that's really what Staples is all about. We're sort of the champion of the small-business person," said Dwight Garland, vice president of retail advertising. Staples calculated that small businesses were growing at four times the rate of large businesses and that half the households in the United States would have home offices by the year 2000. Other people shopped at Staples for items such as school supplies for their children. These customers created a strong seasonal market for certain products. In addition, the company's contract and commercial division served large regional and national businesses. These three categories left ample room for growth in the office-supply business. The company noted in its annual report that the U.S. office-products market was estimated at $205 billion and was increasing by 10 percent each year.

HUMOR SELLS

Cliff Freeman & Partners, the ad agency that developed the "Yeah, We've Got That" campaign for Staples, was known for its use of offbeat humor. The agency had done a campaign for the Little Caesar pizza chain in which a cartoon Caesar cheerfully said, "Pizza! Pizza!" According to a survey by the Wall Street Journal, that campaign was the best remembered and most popular in the United States in 1992. The agency also created a well-known campaign for Wendy's in which a woman examining a competitor's hamburger demanded, "Where's the beef?" In addition, the agency developed the "Sometimes You Feel like a Nut, Sometimes You Don't" campaign for Mounds and Almond Joy candy bars and the "Get the Sensation" campaign for York peppermint patties. The agency's chairman and chief creative officer, Cliff Freeman, had won 22 Clio Awards for excellence in advertising, including three awards for the best campaign of the year.

The primary target of the "Yeah, We've Got That" campaign was small businesses and individual consumers. "The idea is to engage these targeted customers by touching on real-life situations," Garland explained. The commercials conveyed the message that Staples understood its customers, and the use of gentle humor worked to create a friendly, helpful image for the company. The stores offered a wide variety of products to help customers organize and streamline their businesses and work, and the prices were typically lower than those of most competitors, an important selling point for owners of small enterprises. Some Staples locations also featured Federal Express shipping stations, photocopy centers with printing capabilities, and bindery equipment, thus providing one-stop convenience. "It comes back to the mission of finding ways to cut the prices and hassles for our customers," said Garland.

COMPETITION

According to Time magazine, when the "Yeah, We've Got That" campaign began, Office Depot was the number one office-supply superstore in North America, with about 6 percent of the market, and OfficeMax was third, with about 3 percent. Staples was second, with 4 percent of the $92 billion retail market and 2 percent of the $63 billion contract and commercial market. There also were numerous independent office-supply stores and retail outlets that sold computers and other office machines. In addition, large chains such as Wal-Mart sold office supplies, business machines, furniture, and related products.

During 1997 Office Depot ran a marketing campaign that featured the popular comic-strip character Dilbert, known for his wry observations on the absurdities of office life. The tagline was "Business Is Crazy, but Office Depot Makes Sense." USA Today's Ad Track found that the ads were slightly less popular than the average campaign surveyed, with 7 percent of women and 14 percent of men saying that they disliked the commercials. Office Depot maintained that its research indicated that the Dilbert commercials were popular with its target market and that they had increased brand awareness for the company. Nevertheless, in 1999 it shelved Dilbert, concluding that the popular cartoon character overshadowed the brand and did not produce the desired results.

OfficeMax was founded later than Staples and Office Depot, but it enjoyed a strong run in the first half of the 1990s. Although by 1995 it ranked second behind Office Depot, it was soon eclipsed by Staples and relegated to the number three position in the office-superstore category. Not until the first decade of the new millennium did OfficeMax begin to develop its own brand identity, aided in large part by the creation of its Rubberband Man character, who served to anchor its marketing efforts.

MARKETING STRATEGY

With its "Yeah, We've Got That" campaign, Staples focused on customers who owned small businesses. During 1997 the commercials placed new emphasis on the fact that Staples offered low prices as part of its basic mission. Since the campaign's inception in 1994, there had been slight variations in the message and target audience for some of the advertisements, but the general concept had remained the same. Garland explained that the commercials were developed with a clear goal—to create an image for the company. When customers laughed at an advertisement, they would be apt to make an association with Staples and expect to find a friendly attitude there. The slogan "Yeah, We've Got That" at the end of each commercial referred especially to the company's wide selection of merchandise and attention to customer service. "Cliff Freeman came up with that tag line, and we still use it today," Garland said. "We've done research in many markets, and people remember it." The tagline was mentioned at the end of every broadcast spot but was used in only a few print ads, because its effectiveness depended to a large extent on voice inflection and facial expression. Garland said that customers also tended to comment on the sequence at the end of the commercials, in which a "kchink, kchink, kchink" sound accompanied the visual of a stapler spelling out "Staples."

The company's broader marketing plan included circulars, direct mailings, catalogs sent to customers, and other promotions in print media, but the "Yeah, We've Got That" campaign was developed for television. In addition, a few of the spots with the most focused messages were broadcast via radio. The promotions in print media gave details about the company's products, services, and prices. In contrast, the television commercials were intended to make the public aware of Staples in general. "TV is the best vehicle to generate awareness, and awareness is a key component of growth," Garland noted. The television commercials supported the print promotions by calling attention to various aspects of Staples. For example, the Staples mail-order catalog figured prominently in the "Intern" spot.

There had been about 40 spots in the campaign since 1994, and a quarter of them ran in 1997, the first year the commercials were seen on national network television. Some spots in the campaign targeted a broad audience, while others, such as "Intern," were aimed at a narrower market. In the "Intern" spot an ambitious office administrator asked a young woman what she was doing. She held up a Staples catalog and explained, "A cost analysis. I think we're spending too much on office supplies." He sent her to polish a refrigerator while he hurried to show the catalog to his boss and underhandedly take credit for the intern's work. As the two men walked past the intern, the boss said, "Oh, I see you've met my daughter." At the end of the commercial appeared the campaign's tagline, "Yeah, We've Got That." Of the 122 advertisements featured in USA Today's Ad Track consumer polls in 1997, the "Intern" spot scored among the most popular.

The first spot developed for the back-to-school season won a Clio Award and was so popular that the company subsequently ran it at the end of every summer. It featured a father, son, and daughter shopping for school supplies at Staples while "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" played in the background. Although the song actually referred to Christmas, the sentiment reflected the father's elation at seeing his children going back to school. The children, however, were glum because their summer vacation was ending. "It touches an emotion everybody feels," said Garland. "This spot really strikes a chord." He added that the commercial was so popular that customers frequently called Staples at other times of the year to find out when it would be aired again. Even as new back-to-school spots were created for the campaign later in the 1990s, Staples continued to mix in this perennially popular commercial.

Later in the "Yeah, We've Got That" campaign, Staples targeted entrepreneurs with a television spot that featured a businessman standing on a mountain peak. A voice-over declared, "There is a new breed of business-person who had decided to go it alone." The man then threw his briefcase, tie, jacket, and shoes into the valley below before stepping into an SUV stuffed with Staples office supplies and driving away. Next, a hiker with a shoe imprint on his forehead was shown. "What hit me?" he asked a friend, who replied, "Wingtip." As usual, the spot concluded with the "Yeah, We've Got That" tagline.

OUTCOME

In addition to the Clio and EFFIE awards, over the years the Staples commercials won numerous other advertising honors, including several ADDYs, an ANDY, and a Mercury Award for a radio spot. The "Yeah, We've Got That" campaign was among the five most popular surveyed by USA Today's Ad Track from June 1996 to June 1997. In another USA Today survey in December 1997, the campaign's "Intern" spot received an effectiveness score of 32 percent and a popularity score of 37 percent, the highest of the 122 advertisements studied that year. Only 7 percent of respondents said that they disliked the ads. Almost 45 percent of respondents 30 to 49 years old and 33 percent of respondents 18 to 29 said that they "liked the ads a lot." The campaign was most popular with women, with 35 percent giving it high scores for effectiveness, compared to 28 percent of the men surveyed. "It's been a very successful campaign. On the whole, it's run very smoothly. We know people like the work, because we do a great deal of research," said Garland.

While the "Yeah, We've Got That" campaign drove sales, Staples continued to trail Office Depot. In 2001 Office Depot generated $11 billion in sales, compared to $10.7 billion for Staples. Believing that "Yeah, We've Got That" had run its course, Staples, which had also undergone a change in management, put its advertising account up for review with the intent of repositioning the brand. Cliff Freeman & Partners was invited to defend but chose not to participate in the process. The Minneapolis ad agency Martin/Williams won the business in 2002, and that year it released the first Staples campaign in eight years that did not rely on the "Yeah, We've Got That" tagline.