A Missouri hardware store with no national scale is outperforming most of its national competitors on brand awareness in its own backyard. Why? New research points directly to radio advertising in a textbook case for the medium’s long-term brand-building power.
Henkle’s Ace Hardware in Joplin achieved 47% unaided brand awareness in its local market, trailing only Lowe’s at 80% and Home Depot at 74% among all hardware and home improvement retailers. Every other competitor fell well below. Menards stood at 21%, Sutherlands at 16%, with Harbor Freight, Tractor Supply, and others further back still.
The finding comes from a Quantilope brand study commissioned by the Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group, conducted from December 29, 2025 through January 7, 2026, among 150 adults aged 18 and older in the Joplin market. Brandsformation founder Chuck Mefford presented the results.
Radio listeners showed 51% aided awareness of Henkle’s, six points above the total sample average of 48%. On an aided basis overall, Henkle’s reached 48% among all respondents and 53% among residents of ten or more years, compared to 39% among newer arrivals.
The study uses that gap to illustrate why continuous advertising matters as local populations turn over, framing the results through the 95/5 rule from the Ehrenberg Bass Institute of Marketing Science, which holds that only 5% of potential customers are in the market for any given product at any given time. The other 95% represent future demand. Converting existing demand through targeted sales messaging serves the 5%. Building awareness through broad-reach advertising serves the 95%.
Henkle’s brand scorecard shows 25% favorability, 23% usage, and 10% purchase intent. While those numbers lag the national chains on an absolute basis, they reflect the study’s central argument: that awareness and favorability built through radio advertising precede usage and purchase, and that Henkle’s funnel metrics are strong relative to its market tenure and local footprint.
