One of Home Depot's biggest marketing problems throughout its industry life cycle is its differentiation strategy from its competitors. In a mature life cycle, it is difficult for companies to be innovative. The problem though is that Home Depot has followed Lowe's lead in change and innovation, but what Home Depot claims to be its differentiation strategy isn't really any different from that of its biggest competitor, the CEO of Home Depot from 2000 to 2007, the collapse of the housing market. market, homogeneous products and their high market concentration. Home Depot is one of the largest players in the home improvement market. Lowe's is right behind them. Other competitors include Wal-Mart, True Value Hardware, Ace Hardware and Menard's. We will focus more on the differences between Home Depot and Lowe's since they are the two largest in the home improvement industry. The features that differentiate Lowe's from Home Depot are their customer service, appearance, and layout. Lowe's began in the 1990s to differentiate itself from Home Depot, to attract more DIY customers because they feared losing market share. Lowe's is more attractive to female customers, because there are many more interior decoration products that are attractive (competition aside...). Home Depot and Lowe's have different customer bases. While Lowe's adheres to the needs of the majority of women, Home Depot has a diverse customer base. The loyal consumer base does indeed find a difference between the two stores, but no one is able to say which company is better (Competition Leaves…). The other thing about Lowe's customers is that they are much more loyal to their store than Home Depot customers, especially when it comes to...... middle of paper ..... umer, Home Depot must focus on their employees, because the results obtained by focusing on them will in turn translate into good results for consumers. When Home Depot is able to retain its employees who are reliable, trained and knowledgeable about Home Depot and its products, then the employees will be able to pass on their knowledge to their consumers. (Speaking of the housing market) In 2014, Home Depot took the opportunity to open an online distribution center. They always followed a traditional retail model by adding stores in areas where they thought they could make a profit, but the problem was that in a saturated market they began to cannibalize their profits by having many stores in the area. same area. Home Depot has found a way to differentiate itself, adapting to Americans' changing shopping behavior and not losing profits (WSJ).