Tag Archives: do-it-yourself

Castorama launches its DIY channel on YouTube


“Lancez-vous” (“Get involved”) is the name of the information channel from the French DIY retailer
Castorama. Broadcast on YouTube since April 2010, the channel explains home improvement projects in detail on video, with so many steps that it’s clear Castorama is targeting absolute beginners…

No more lonely DIY moments! This is the slogan of the new Castorama channel which, with more than 50 short but detailed videos (from 3 to 12 minutes long), keeps its promise while showing off its range of products that aim to make life easier, such as tiles that clip together…

Although the marketing isn’t forgotten about, users overall praise the usefulness of the initiative, particularly women who have often admitted to relying on their partners for this type of thing in the past, but now with the sharp rise in the number of women living on their own, things have changed. Castorama also feature women in their videos to show that the time when women merely took care of curtain and carpet choices has passed.

In France, where 6 out of 10 people admit to only doing DIY on very rare occasions, DIY appears to be getting easier thanks to these clear videos, where an expert carries out the DIY in question and makes comments on it, then a list summarising all the steps is displayed.

A related manual of almost 400 pages and an iPhone application complete this operation, which has already been a big hit (the YouTube videos have received almost 900,000 views since the creation of the channel!).

Marine Baudin-Sarlet

Posted on 26 February 2011 in Brands Analysis, Home & Decorating, Sectors, Case Studies
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French Do-it-yourself retailer “Castorama” tutorials on YouTube


In the same spirit as its “week-end Castoche” DIY online programme, French DIY retailer Castorama has launched its own Youtube channel in 2010, featuring DIY video tutorials.

These videos, mostly intended for women, give a clear step-by-step demo showing how to achieve basic DIY projects or repairs, be it in two hours or in a day. You can find out how to tile your floor or walls, how to assemble a modular wardrobe system or how to build a shower cubicle… the whole thing explained with lively and joyful background music.

« You can say good-bye to those solitary moments of confusion in front of a DIY job! ». DIY is now fun and no longer the privilege of men.

Castorama channel has drawn 235 subscriptions, and has a total of approximately 500,000 views, all videos included. It has been so successful that it got mentioned on quite a number of French websites and newspapers.

Posted on 26 October 2010 in Home & Decorating, Sectors, Case Studies
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Women can now fix anything


Until the last decade, home repair was man’s duty. But women got tired of having to wait for their husbands to fix something and began to do it themselves. In response, brands started selling smaller, lighter and more ergonomic tools, which, they said, would give the same results than what’s shown in home and design magazines. Demand has changed. “People don’t come for a color anymore, but for an atmosphere: they want something soft, tonic, or maybe relaxing” says a French design specialist. Brands had to follow the trend, and they are now concerned about ecological matters and how pure their products are.
One of Bondex‘s biggest successes, for example, was the launching of a new collection of 235 products designed for women in 2000 which has incidentally been promoted in famous women magazines.

Posted on 27 September 2010 in Brands Analysis, Home & Decorating, Sectors, Case Studies
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