Winning Brand Expression Across Platforms: Ace Hardware’s CMO on Consistency, Community, and Change

At ShopTalk Fall in Chicago, Kim Lefko, Chief Marketing Officer of Ace Hardware, sat down with Joe Laszlo, Global Head of Insights at ShopTalk, to discuss how a century-old cooperative brand is redefining its expression across platforms while staying true to its roots.

Balancing a cooperative model with a unified brand

Ace’s structure is unique: store owners are not just franchisees but shareholders in the company. That means every national marketing initiative must prove its worth through data before it wins buy-in.

Lefko described the brand’s ethos as “the name on the front of the jersey is more important than the name on the back.” While individual Ace stores in Boston or Omaha may feel different, tailored to their communities, they all unite around the same promise:

Refocusing on categories that matter

Ten years ago, Ace shifted away from being a generalist hardware store to doubling down on four categories where consumer passion was strongest: paint, power tools and outdoor power, backyard and barbecue, and home preservation.

The decision was driven by changing consumer behaviour. DIYers were outsourcing plumbing and electrical work, while investing more energy in painting and backyard projects. Today, these four categories anchor everything from marketing and content to store layouts, even fueling the launch of Ace Home Services to serve households that prefer professionals.

Marketing across fragmented platforms

Lefko framed marketing through three jobs to be done: demand, conversion, and loyalty.

• TV and live sports continue to drive awareness.

• Digital and paid search are central to purchase conversion.

• The Ace mobile app powers loyalty, with app customers visiting 50% more often and spending 50% more.

Even as the brand experiments with TikTok, Lefko insisted on consistency: “We’ll never outspend our two biggest competitors, but consistency is our superpower. The challenge is taking a 60-second message and making it work in seven seconds.”

Reinventing the store experience

The Elevate Ace store format, now adopted by 700 of Ace’s 5,100 stores, showcases the brand’s core categories front and centre. The results have been dramatic:

• 12% overall sales growth in Elevate stores versus regional peers.

• 20–25% category growth in barbecue and power tools.

Grounded in research and piloted before scale, the format combines experiential merchandising with top-tier brands like Weber, Traeger, and Big Green Egg. Lefko described it as “data-driven retail design that makes the store itself a marketing platform.”

Entering retail media with intent

Ace recently launched Red Vest Media, its retail media network, with a late-mover advantage. Lefko outlined three differentiators:

1. Scale and proximity: 5,100 stores with 75–80% of US households within 15 minutes of an Ace.

2. Digital platforms: acehardware.com, growing 36% year-on-year, and a high-performing mobile app.

3. Ace Rewards: 73 million members with 83% retention.

Unlike other retailers, Ace is moving carefully to avoid overwhelming shoppers. “We do not want our sites to become clunky or branded everywhere. It has to be cohesive,” Lefko stressed.

Asked how Ace balances heritage with reinvention, Lefko returned to the brand’s ethos:

Independently Created. Not affiliated with Shoptalk.

Unofficially Shoptalk is a ClickZ Media publication in the Events division