Question

Topic: Branding

Residential Furniture, Brand Confusion.

Posted by marka on 6/23/2010 at 4:29 AM ET 125 Points
We have a client that has residential furniture for the past 30 years. His product categories are categorized, in his own way, to Traditional, Transitional and modern or contemporary. Each store is named the same, but uses a different font to reflect the product category that main carried. Obviously, over the years, these stores have more mixed products.
All products are high end, designer type items. As we are in the process of defining his brand, I'm trying to come up with a unified brand, which will help our marketing efforts.

Any ideas or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 6/23/2010 at 7:50 AM Member
    Furniture Through The Ages
    Diverse Furnishings (or Furniture)
    Classic Furnishings (or Furniture)
    Assortment of Furniture
    Archetypal Furnishings (FYI - My favourite)

    What's the current name of the store out of interest, as it's nice where possible to retain some of the familarity of an old brand when re-generating a new one?
  • Posted on 6/23/2010 at 8:49 AM Accepted
    As you say that He has been in residential furniture for years. It means customers know him with his name and build credibility through his name. So while in working on a new logo or brand name, you must consider this point in mind

    Some of the brand name strategies that you can choose are as:

    Corporate brand - Family Brand

    Use client name as a corporate brand ( you can work on selecting best name, like client first name or last name or combination). Then attach this family brand to all furniture categories.
    You can give a unique name to every furniture category according to
    benefits its offer
    Features
    or types of usage

    I think family branding is most suited for this business. And in future your client can easily extend brand portfolios and do brand or category extensions. Thanks

  • Posted by marka on 6/23/2010 at 1:54 PM Author
    Thank you all for the response.. The store name "the mansion furniture" .. If we are going to unify the logo, what should we go for:
    A- The logo should reflect the name (so use font face that should reflect the mansion style)
    B- The logo should match the product types (which is confusing, due to carrying three themes of products traditional, transitional, and contemporary) and each theme has it's own style
    C- Check the target audience and base it on that, in this case, people who are financially capable and interior designers (mostly Gen Y).
  • Posted by Brazzell Marketing on 6/23/2010 at 5:40 PM Accepted
    If I understand you correctly, you are saying their old and current categorization strategy has become diluted due to the fact that the lines between the three or four categories are less concrete now than they once were. Here's what you/they should do:

    Ditch the idea of differentiating between the stores by font. Fonts are too subtle for such distinctions. New customers are more likely to think that the company just doesn't have a set logo. Changing the font every time a customer sees it in a different place also significantly weakens the memory enhancing purpose of a font.
    See article: https://www.bma-advisor.com/2010/02/what-is-the-face-of-your-company/

    Unify the logo either around something that implies mansion (e.g. a dorian column) or something that implies high end furniture (e.g. a wardrobe) or both. Use one font for the main company name.

    If the separate stores will continue carrying differing product lines, give each store it's own tagline after the company name and logo. The taglines can be style-based (e.g. Contemporary Showroom, Classic Furniture Showroom). The taglines could be location based - (e.g. Uptown Showroom, Westend Showroom). If you use taglines that are not style based, the company is free to adjust the lines in each store in the future without having to go through re-branding again.

    In each store, there should be a display and nice, take-away brochures explaining the difference between the stores and inviting shoppers to visit the other locations.
  • Posted by marka on 6/23/2010 at 5:53 PM Author
    Thanks for your input.. I like the concept of using tag lines as store indicator is very smart.
    As for the logo, I feel that we should go for what's trendy (graphic style wize) in the furniture these days (which can be Helvetica light type) and use it for the logo.

    What do you think, do you think that will confuse customers that are going to a store that has traditional type products?
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 6/23/2010 at 7:02 PM Member
    Does your logo need to use a font at all? Why not use a stylized image of one of the unique features of the furniture itself?
  • Posted by marka on 6/24/2010 at 3:40 AM Author
    I found that most elegant, high end furniture stores uses fonts without simples.. for example:
    https://www.scandinaviandesigns.com/
    https://www.crateandbarrel.com/

    I think having font will strengthen the company brand.
  • Posted by matthewmnex on 6/24/2010 at 9:14 PM Accepted
    Very very simple answer.

    Your client has been in the business for 30 years and therefore has a reputation and a name already.

    Just use the clients NAME (which is already his brand).

    THompson of COpper or whatever.

    Thompson top level identity with a nice font and below this the sub heading 'Contemporary' or 'tRaditional' etc.

    Customers already know and trust this retailer so leverage this 30 yeasr worth of of brand equity already developed.

    K,I,S,S,

    Good Luck.

    Matthew
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