Click here to view a 13-minute video of the key findings.

Click here to download a PDF of the slides.

It was January 1984 when the famous Wendy’s campaign launched with 81-year-old Clara Peller using those 3 little words that shook the burger business, “Where’s the beef?” 

That’s exactly what clients seem to be saying today with all the money being spent on digital. They love all the fancy metrics, click-throughs, and keywords but are increasingly asking, “Where’s the sales increase?”

Today, advertisers are obsessed with the science of measuring short-term sales effect. The priority is on converting existing demand rather than creating future demand. The focus is just on the 5% who are in market, not the 95% who are not.

“Living rent-free in people’s heads”: How Henkle’s Ace Hardware built its brand

Cris and John Henkle had previously owned a small hardware store in Oklahoma and moved to the Joplin area to start Henkle’s Ace Hardware in 2006. It wasn’t their first rodeo. They had an idea of what they were getting into.

It was a long path and took a lot of hard work to earn the title, “Coolest Hardware Store on the Planet.” But it was still taking a while for the word to get out.

They started with a half-hour “do it yourself” call-in radio show on Saturday mornings around 2013. It quickly grew to a two-hour show. But that was before the real magic happened.

It seemed the usual mailers and circulars were not working like they used to so Cris and John decided to work on a long-term plan.

Around 2018, after attending a BrandsFormation© BrandKamp for local business owners, they cut back in many areas and invested in long-term branding with a full-funnel approach.

They sat down with a local radio group, Zimmer Marketing, and developed a long-term strategy. Using a “story brick and mortar” approach to being a “top of mind” brand, they positioned themselves against the big box stores that are better known in the 4-state area.

Business grew so well after that, they built a second store during the middle of the pandemic. One customer told them that with their catchy jingle in their AM/FM radio ads, they were “living rent-free in his head every single day.”

To understand the magnitude of the brand Henkle’s Ace Hardware built with long-term advertising on AM/FM radio, the Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group® commissioned Quantilope to conduct a study of 150 consumers in Joplin, Missouri in January 2026.

Henkle’s Ace Hardware places a strong number three in unaided brand awareness behind two major national brands

Consumers were asked, “When you think of hardware/home improvement stores, which ones come to mind?” Respondents had to write in all the brand names they could think of. They were not provided with a list of firms.

Henkle’s Ace Hardware placed an impressive third, trailing the Home Depot and Lowe’s, two major national brands.

Why local retailers have to continually advertise: People are moving into your town who have no awareness of your business

Generally, two-thirds of people have lived in an area for ten or more years. About a third have arrived in the last ten years and are much less aware of local businesses.

The Quantilope study also measured aided awareness by providing consumers with the names of local advertisers. The longer people have lived in the area, the greater the awareness of Henkle’s Ace Hardware and a number of other well-known local businesses.

53% of consumers who have lived in Joplin for ten or more years said they were aware of Henkle’s Ace Hardware. 39% of consumers who have lived in the area for less than 10 years said they were aware of Henkle’s Ace Hardware.

This is great lesson for local retailers. Your business might be famous but every day new people move to town who have never heard of you. This is a crucial reason to continuously advertise your business. Also, advertising memories fade.

In most advertising categories, the number one brand consumers recall is “don’t know”

Consumers were asked to name Joplin brands they could recall on an unaided basis for a variety of different retail categories such as boat dealerships, eye doctors, lawyers, powersports dealers, plumbers, roofing, hardware, auto dealerships, accounting, and tax preparation.

“Don’t know” is the most common response for most of the categories measured for unaided awareness. For example, when asked to name a firm that specializes in roofing, 33% said “don’t know/none.”

Every advertiser has two jobs: Creating future demand and converting existing demand

Creating future demand is “being known before you’re needed.” Creating future demand is advertising to that much larger group of consumers who are not in the market and are not ready to buy now but will be in the future. The goal is making them feel familiar with and positively toward your brand in order to get them to gravitate toward them when they enter the category.

Converting existing demand is advertising to that small group of consumers who are ready to buy now and capturing as large a share as possible of them. It is estimated only 1-5% of people are “in the market” at any one period of time.

Converting existing demand and creating future demand require different creative/copy approaches and different media strategies

Marketing effectiveness expert James Hurman writes, “Converting Existing Demand is most efficiently achieved by tightly targeting those ‘in the market’ with rational messaging of product and price information that persuades them to choose our product over others.

Creating Future Demand is most efficiently achieved by targeting very broad audiences of ‘all category buyers’ with emotional messaging that is designed to stand out and be enjoyed by consumers, creating positive memories of our brand that will influence future purchase decisions.”

Sales event or promotional copy does not work on the large group of consumers who are not in the market and not ready to buy now. Creating future demand is about creating positive memories.

Across all stages of the consumer journey, Henkle’s Ace Hardware has strong brand equity

Henkle’s Ace Hardware’s usage of AM/FM radio advertising has built a dominant brand.

Henkle’s Ace Hardware’s unaided awareness (47%), ad recall (19%), and brand favorability (25%) are very strong. Impressively, 23% of people in Joplin have ever used Henkle’s Ace Hardware. 10% say they would use Henkle’s Ace Hardware if the need arose.

AM/FM radio advertising works: Among AM/FM radio listeners, Henkle’s Ace Hardware’s aided awareness is +6% greater than in the overall market

Henkle’s Ace Hardware offers a master class on creating future demand and how building a brand is the main driver of long-term growth and profit

Les Binet, the legendary “godfather of marketing effectiveness”, explains how advertising works:

Easy to mind, easy to find

By patiently investing in brand building advertising to create future demand, Henkle’s Ace Hardware of Joplin has made their service “easy to think of and easy to buy.” Their lighthearted and humorous ads have “created positive feelings and associations” with “broad reach ads that people find interesting and enjoyable.”

In the end, Henkle’s Ace Hardware’s lesson for marketers is that advertising is not just about manically measuring short-term performance. It’s about “being known before you’re needed.”

Henkle’s Ace Hardware’s Cris and John Henkle’s parting advice to any business owner when it comes to marketing:

•  Get a long-term plan (with strategy) from someone you trust.
•  Stay focused on fewer media “cups.”
•  Be patient. It takes time, consistency, and frequency.

Key findings:

• Henkle’s Ace Hardware offers marketers a master class on creating future demand and how building a brand is the main driver of long-term growth and profit.
• Through its long-term use of AM/FM radio advertising, Henkle’s Ace Hardware is a strong number three in unaided brand awareness, trailing two major national brands. Across all stages of the consumer journey, Henkle’s Ace Hardware has very strong brand equity.
• Every advertiser has two jobs: Creating future demand and converting existing demand. Henkle’s Ace Hardware excels at creating future demand.

Click here to view a 13-minute video of the key findings.

Chuck Mefford is a Founding Partner of BrandsFormation.

Contact the Insights team at CorpMarketing@westwoodone.com.