Customer Value

Multicultural Market Analysis and Retail Store Profile

In today’s increasingly diverse marketplace, value means different things to different people. The purchasing power in the United States of women; ethnic minorities; seniors; gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people; people with disabilities; and other diverse populations is growing rapidly. And so, too, we believe, are their expectations for products and services tailored to their needs and preferences.

As we seek to grow market share and profitability, our Diversity and Inclusion efforts play an increasingly important role. In 2007, our Office of Diversity and Inclusion partnered with our Marketing team to conduct a landmark study for OfficeMax: The Multicultural Market Analysis and Retail Store Profile. The results of the study will help the Merchandising department of our Retail business segment better understand how to serve our customers’ business and personal needs.

The study compared 2006 point-of-sale information from 803 OfficeMax stores in the United States, with U.S. Census and other market data from nearby geographic areas, to gain insight into who shops at our stores and from where in the surrounding communities they come.

We compared the ethnic diversity of customers who shopped at our 20 top performing stores – in terms of U.S. dollar sales – with that of customers who shopped at our 20 lowest performing stores. Dollar sales in the top group are nearly three-and-a-half times that of the lowest group.

We found that our customer base is more diverse and more evenly distributed among ethnic minorities in our top 20 stores than it is in our bottom 20. We continue to track this information through point-of-sale data.

Based on the study results, we are either implementing or exploring the following recommendations:

• When entering new markets, factor the demographics of the people living and working in close proximity to the proposed store site when approaching build-out, signage, merchandising, marketing, associate training and more.
• Train and educate managers and associates at existing stores with regard to the value of diversity and how to provide what diverse audiences want and need.
• Create and distribute a New Store Kit, for retail store managers and other leaders, which provides information on local community and nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and chambers of commerce, as well as demographic data on the surrounding area.
• Utilize both quantitative data and manager and associate feedback for identifying stores that may benefit from multicultural merchandising, community outreach and/or bilingual signage.
• Better integrate new store openings with the composition of the surrounding areas, engaging in community outreach well before a new store ever opens.