Introducing DIY to China

The Kingfisher group wanted to strengthen its foothold in China by differentiating its B&Q stores in that market. Dragon Rouge sent a strong team for an intense design and immersion workshop on the ground in China to develop a concept. This workshop addressed an interesting limiting factor for entry into the Chinese DIY market: one of confidence. It’s not that Chinese people were not disinterested in DIY, but more that they didn’t know where to start. It was all too new, too big a step to take.

Educate to build confidence

Dragon Rouse helped to turn that to B&Q’s advantage by developing a store concept to help provide consumers with the confidence to move into DIY. The key was education, which involved setting up “design and install centres” where customers could plan their interior design using a shell construction of an apartment (blueprints, projects and budgets), and the advice of trained assistants, including workshops and free demonstrations. A separate showroom, adjacent to a cafeteria, features a wide selection of products to help bring the projects to life. Naturally these elements were clearly communicated through the façade, better understood by the Chinese as ‘Buy It Yourself’, whilst broadly remaining in step with B&Q’s European identity.

From one to one hundred

B&Q entered the Chinese market in 1999. In 2006 B&Q’s management announced that it would be increasing the total number of stores in China to 100 by the end of 2010. The stores pioneered the DIY concept in China.