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 of diverse populations is growing rapidly. And so, too, we believe, are their expectations for products and services tailored to their needs and preferences.

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. In 2008, our Merchandising department and our Retail business segment began using information from this study to better serve our customers’ business and personal needs.

The study compared 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 have implemented the following measures:

• When entering new markets, we 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.
• We began training and educating managers and associates at existing stores with regard to the value of diversity and how to provide what diverse audiences want and need.
• We developed and distributed 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.
• We began reviewing both quantitative data and manager and associate feedback for identifying stores that may benefit from multicultural merchandising, community outreach and/or bilingual signage.
• We better integrate new store openings with the composition of the surrounding areas by engaging in communication and outreach activities such as advertising in community newspapers, canvassing to businesses and residents, engaging with Chambers of Commerce, providing partnership opportunities and events, and more.