Distribution as a Brand Builder

Stihl ad in the Wall Street Journal, 2022

This ad from Stihl is stunning. Here’s a leading brand taking shots at the two largest retailers in the category and basically saying “they’re not good enough for us”. That is an impressive statement from a brand to make in a national publication and one that positions the brand above anything that consumers will find in a Home Depot or Lowe’s.

Stihl has spent years building their brand as the leader in the chainsaw category and is highly respected among professional users. You would be hard pressed to find any professional tree service or forester using anything but and they do not want that reputation tarnished by anything - including where their products are sold. Any category leading brand will work tirelessly to make sure their distribution matches the brand.

In the home improvement space, it’s been interesting to watch John Deere come down to the Home Depot level with their most basic products. You can be assured these are not the same products that will be found in John Deere dealers, but specially made items just for that distribution, but still it has an impact on the perception of the brand. Stihl made the difficult but appropriate decision to keep out of the mass market retailers yet they do have products that come close to the price points of brands in Home Depot.

Of course, there is one defining factor here that you can’t see on the surface. Stihl is a privately owned company, still owned by the descendants of the founder. John Deere is a publicly traded company that has the never ending need to keep share holders happy so when growth slows you open up the distribution spigot a little wider to solve the short term problem and hope you haven’t created a bigger problem to deal with down the road.

The only challenge to this strategy for Stihl is if they ever have a change of heart (or management!) that decides it’s time to push that red button and sell to the big boxes. Just how receptive do you think they would be when for years Stihl has promoted the fact that they don’t sell to them. That would be a fascinating meeting to listen in on.

Interestingly, I can find Stihl products at a John Deere tractor store that’s about one mile from the Home Depot. So when I needed a chain saw what did I do? I went to HD. Every time I go to the John Deere dealer I have chain saw envy for the Stihl saws.