LG Hausys Floors: Entering A New Market Segment
LG Hausys America, the domestic building and decorative materials division of the global LG parent, was on the verge of something tremendous. After growing the company to near ubiquity in Asia and securing a sizable share of the US market on the commercial flooring side, the brand set its sights on conquering the next shimmering peak on the horizon – the consumer segment.
Services provided: product brand strategy & development, messaging definition, web design & development, launch strategy & planning, graphic design
The challenge
LG Hausys Floors knew what they were up against with the new venture. The serious global economic downturn notwithstanding, the residential flooring market is a very congested space with well-established giants commanding a majority share. We worked with management and marketing teams at LG Hausys to identify an optimal differentiation strategy and comprehensive brand structure to support its market introduction in the spring of 2010.
My, it’s crowded in here
Competitively speaking, the maturity and sheer density of the residential floors category presented an opportunity for a new contender, properly positioned, to make a sizable impact. Long-standing and well-known manufacturers are prevalent throughout the industry’s wide distribution channels, though it seemed as if that was their most valuable asset: widespread availability and spread-wide shelf space. And it’s not entirely surprising; traditional business models, only now having to adjust to the social aspect of brands, demonstrate zero-sum competitive strategies in mature markets. In this mindset, the concept of brand connection as a vehicle for growth is trivialized; subsequently, our analysis of competing manufacturers found that many kept relatively indistinct brands.
LG, on the other hand, is anything but indistinct. We quantitatively reviewed words and phrases most commonly associated with the brand among consumers in the US, and the most frequent emotional tags included words like cool, smart, innovative, and happy. Anything but impassive, anything but bland.
Launching in a tight economy
Any company would benefit from growing the emotional efficacy of its brand, but this becomes critical in a down economy. Flooring consumers do a great deal of research before ever stepping foot into a retail store, of course, but they’re likely not to have committed to a specific brand until they see the product in person. These face-to-face brand encounters made it clear that LG Hausys Floors’ residential line needed to reach beyond feature/benefit bullet points and spark additional value. Our premise was simple: be personal, or be left behind.
Connecting with consumers
LG Hausys Floors’ main audience, women, are much more likely to be making the purchasing decisions when it comes to anything having to do with the home. Regardless of marital status, income level, ethnicity or geography, however, these decisions are highly personal to the buyer. LG Hausys Floors is, after all, providing the elements of a lifestyle, which has deeper, more intricate meaning than the simple outward manifestations of one’s tastes; these are the individual moments taking place in every one of the 130 million homes in the US. Families have values and pride. Couples have dreams and fears. Children have freedom and imagination. It was important this liveliness was communicated fully, and we outlined several measures to strategically define them across all parts of the brand structure: brand characteristics for creative concepting and messaging, expression checklists for visuals and a positioning formula to keep the brand’s trajectory in line at all times.
Visually expressing the new brand
Exercising the new brand structure through website design, sales materials and ad layouts complemented the overall scope of the project. We were also mindful of how buyers experience the brand in-store, collaborating with LG Hausys Floors’ retail display partners to define that in-store space, ensuring it was an immersive and resourceful experience for prospective buyers.
An extensive brand guidelines manual for LG Hausys Floors’ new residential line, outlining color palettes, typography hierarchies, photography principles, illustrative textures and patterns, and additional design elements pulled everything into concise focus for the brand’s numerous partners and vendors.
