Earlier this week, furnishings model La-Z-Boy, the main maker of recliners, took the wraps off a brand new emblem and visible identification. The corporate had two good causes for doing it. First, the model’s centennial will arrive in 2027, so it made sense to get a soar on a brand new look. Second, the final time the visible belongings had gotten a facelift was 2003—and so they had been wanting, properly, fairly 2003.
“Our system was constructed on the time to serve that actuality,” the model’s vp and CMO Christina Hoskins informed ADWEEK. However 22 years in the past, she mentioned, “social didn’t exist the best way it does now, streaming didn’t exist the best way it does now—digital wasn’t what it’s at this time.”
Whereas it could not have been an official a part of the technique, there’s a 3rd, extra encompassing issue that makes this model refresh properly timed. La-Z-Boy is presenting itself to a nation of sofa potatoes, a crowd that’s arguably extra receptive to purchasing a recliner than at any time for the reason that suburban ’60s.
The pandemic takes the credit score for this one. La-Z-Boy was a type of lucky few manufacturers—like Uber Eats, Clorox, and Purell—for whom the coronavirus produced a troupe of enthusiastic prospects.
“We had many good years of gross sales early [during] Covid,” Hoskins mentioned, “when individuals had been dwelling, after they had been investing of their dwelling, after they wished their houses to be a spot of security and respite and peace. In order that was nice for us, and continues to be.”
In keeping with current research and surveys, these recliner-friendly occasions are seemingly right here to remain.
In March, CBS information declared that “the U.S. is changing into a nation of homebodies,” citing analysis from UCLA that exposed that, in comparison with pre-pandemic occasions, Individuals are actually spending 51 fewer minutes open air day-after-day as a part of a broader “stay-at-home shift.”
New catchphrases evoke the solitude of staying dwelling.La-Z-Boy
A Talker Analysis survey from April revealed that 72% of Individuals desire a pleasant evening at dwelling over going out. And in accordance with a TrustedHousesitters survey launched in June, 56% of Gen-Zers admit to nixing trip plans to remain dwelling with their pets.
Does this surfeit of soilitudinarians represent a readymade rabble of recliner consumers? Time will inform—however La-Z-Boy is positioning itself to attraction to them, if the present rebrand is any indication.
Whereas enjoyable at dwelling has at all times been a prevailing theme in La-Z-Boy’s promoting, it was equally obvious that the product on provide was a bit of furnishings—often one reserved for dad after a protracted day on the workplace. What’s totally different now’s the corporate’s intent to border itself as a wellness product.
“Our technique has shifted considerably to deal with consolation, increasing the attain of the Lazy Boy model,” Hoskins mentioned. “We’re a consolation model and that’s greater than the furnishings itself.”
Options of the excellent rebrand embrace softer, curvaceous kind meant to imitate settling into a snug chair.La-Z-Boy
To that finish, every thing from the brand new slogans (“Life’s higher laid again,” “Tailor-made to your break day”) to the colour palette (“misty midnight tones and earthly hues”) goals to convey tranquility and repose—simply the kind of issues that post-pandemic America is within the temper for anyway.
The centerpiece of the rebrand is La-Z-Boy’s new wordmark, which inventive store Colle McVoy returned to a cursive typeface in a method that evokes the 1927 unique however is extra curvaceous, with rounded corners and mild contours meant to evoke the sensation of settling right into a recliner.
During the last twenty years, “we’d misplaced contact with what we stand for as a model, which is finally consolation,” mentioned vp and group design director Diana Quenomoen. “The advanced emblem needs to be telegraphic. Once I see it, I ought to see consolation. It ought to specific and exude that emotive feeling.”
Other than forcing Individuals to hang around at dwelling, one other characteristic of pandemic residing that appears to have completely re-coded the tradition is eradicating the guilt from that loafing. And, right here once more, La-Z-Boy stands able to accommodate.
“Everyone knows we have to relaxation in life,” Hoskins mentioned. “Generally we really feel responsible [about] it, however La-Z-Boy needs to just remember to don’t really feel responsible.”
