Heartridge Flooring

Creating a differentiation through brand positioning

  • Strategy & brand positioning

  • Print : stationary / brochure / packaging / point of sale / marketing collateral

  • Photography & art direction

  • Digital : website design & development / email marketing / social media / content creation

  • Videography

  • Analysis & reporting

  • Strategy & brand positioning

  • Print

  • Digital

  • Photography & art direction

  • Videography

  • Analysis & reporting

the brief - THINK FIRST

We were tasked with helping Pacific Brands create a new retail sub brand for its already successful Dunlop Flooring division.

This project proposed several unique challenges. Research showed that consumers were more likely to trust and therefore choose, a brand if they recognised it. Thus it made sense to employ the Dunlop name to leverage their brand identity as it carried massive brand awareness with the market as a household name.

However, when we examined the core values of our new business and brand, the essence revolved around being at ease, natural solitude, bold sophistication and fashionability.

This was in juxtaposition to our understanding of the Dunlop brand and what it stood for. Quality, value, and strength were all Dunlop values that matched the new brand and were desirable traits in a flooring product - however our process and research showed us that one of the key differentiating core values of the Dunlop brand was its “synthetic” nature.

The challenge was to find a way of leveraging the Dunlop name and brand awareness at point of purchase, whilst creating a brand and visual identity that embodied the natural, at ease, sophisticated nature of the positioning that would resonate with our target audience - thereby differentiating us from our competitors.

During the Plan phase of our process, we distilled the problem into a solution that allowed the new brand and logo to be combined with Dunlop, whilst still being able to stand alone when taken into foreign markets. Once the new brand had enough time in the market to build a connection and a level of brand awareness, it would allow it to stand on its own at Point of Purchase.

brand approach

WOOF’s approach to naming a brand works from Meaning to Name. When creating a brand and picking a name, it’s often easy to confuse finding a name with meaning and finding a name that can stand for your brand meaning.

The two are not always the same thing.

When a brand is borne of necessity, or through evolution, its name can come with a natural heritage. It can be named after the creators or its product differentiation. These types of names give us the ability to immediately differentiate ourselves from our competitors.

However, in this case, when a brand evolves from a marketing strategy, or their product isn’t first in category, there isn’t always such a natural naming progression.

In these instances we must remember that a brand name must stand for your brand values. The actual meaning of the words themselves can be far less important.

To achieve our goal in crafting the right name for this brand, we had to ensure that:

  • it differentiated us from the competition
  • it sounded familiar and was easily remembered
  • it sounded sophisticated without being pretentious
  • it is simple to pronounce, ideally being two syllables

The final name chosen, Heartridge, embodies all the brand values and adhered to the guiding criteria.

The positioning, strategy, and naming for this brand was unanimously approved by Dunlop and Pacific Brands.

Heartridge - logo: variations

The final name chosen, Heartridge, embodies all the brand values and adhered to the guiding criteria.

distilling a belief

Capturing the essence of this brand revolves around understanding the WHY. Understanding what we believe. At the core, our belief revolves around the understanding that our home reflects who we are. It is a space we create to recharge our soul. A place to be savoured and enjoyed with loved ones, because home is where the heart is.

brand manifested in logo

Employing solid lines and an angular motif to emphasise the bold and striking nature of the product also conveys the meaning behind the brand - sophistication through simplicity, strength through stability, robust in nature and reliable.

It is elegant yet bold in essence, attending directly to the young and affluent demographic of stylish customers that the brand will attract, whilst not alienating other segments of the prospective market.

simplify the architecture

Part of this project was to define the product architecture in a way that simplified communication and tied in directly to the core brand. It was decided that our colour palette would tie in with the three key ranges defined in the product architecture. The colours chosen drew inspiration from our connection to nature - sky, flora & earth.

tone defined by structure

We didn’t want our logo to be a static mono colour logo but rather to draw inspiration from our brand positioning. In nature there are no flat single colours. A tree is green but there are thousand of variations in colour. Hence our logo should a broad palette with interchangeable colours, always looking complete with a depth of sophistication.

we believe

Our brand and everything it is, revolves around our beliefs. It makes us who we are, and guides our decision making process.

Heartridge - Brand Belief | HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS IT'S A SPACE WE CREATE TO RECHARGE OUR SOUL A PLACED TO BE SAVOURED AND ENJOYED WITH LOVED ONES | HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS
Heartridge - Brand Approach

developing a clear brand Identity & visual language

The brand identity was then translated into a striking and varied, yet coherent visual language - created with a focus on two key elements: Visually differentiating us from our competitors at point of sale & encapsulating the earthy and natural, yet distinctly fashionable nature of the brand.

Heartridge - Collateral: Handsample
Heartridge - Engineered Timber Display Stand

first impressions
matter most

The crucial phase of the buy-in process for our customer journey would be at point of sale. It was imperative that we stand out, draw attention but also embody our point of difference and educate about our product features and benefits so that our messaging could resonate with our consumers.

Heartridge - Display Stand
Heartridge - Collage: Display stands

website approach

History is littered with examples of great brands that were successfully launched and then just as quickly as shooting to prominence, they fade into obscurity. More often than not this is because the promise touted through high exposure campaigns doesn’t always live up to the Brand Experience of the product, at point of sale.

We decided when building this brand, that it is of paramount importance to start with a solid foundation in EXPERIENCE. Brand, Product, Point of Sale. Having successfully established the brand and launched the product at point of sale with huge uptake from retailers, our focus turned to building with ENGAGEMENT through digital marketing, email marketing and social marketing. Thus building a solid platform for EXPOSURE with campaigns and education.

easy to use

Just as our product is easy to install and maintain, so to our website should be easy to navigate and find information.

beautiful user interface

The site needed to reflect the visually striking nature of the product by not only showcasing product first but by the design of the Graphical User Interface itself.

responsive experience

The site was designed with a fully responsive interface to ensure the perfect experience on mobile, tablet and desktop. Which was also key to maximising SEO.

room visualiser

Part of our brand strategy involved the gradual evolution of our digital presence with the goal of increasing the opportunities for consumers to understand and experience our product. This involved the launching of the floor visualiser which allowed consumers to visualise how different floors can change the look and feel of a room.

Heartridge - Room Visualiser: increasing the opportunities for consumers to understand and experience our product
Heartridge - Request A Sample: helping customers experience our vast range of products

request a sample made easy

This feature was added to help make sure that our customers were able to experience any colour in any range, not just the ones that retailers stocked. This enabled them to find the perfect floor for their home. It also meant retailers were able to sell ranges they didn’t have the room to stock, with many retailers using it instore with customers to help them pick the samples that would then be delivered directly to their front door.

Heartridge - Room Visualiser: increasing the opportunities for consumers to understand and experience our product

room visualiser

Part of our brand strategy involved the gradual evolution of our digital presence with the goal of increasing the opportunities for consumers to understand and experience our product. This involved the launching of the floor visualiser which allowed consumers to visualise how different floors can change the look and feel of a room.

Heartridge - Request A Sample: helping customers experience our vast range of products

request a sample made easy

This feature was added to help make sure that our customers were able to experience any colour in any range, not just the ones that retailers stocked. This enabled them to find the perfect floor their home. It also meant retailers were able to sell ranges they didn’t have the room to stock, with many retailers using it instore with customers to help them pick the samples that would then be delivered directly to their front door.

increasing customer engagement
through social media

Social media was employed in the marketing mix to increase customer reach and engagement. A a rich medium it affords us the best opportunity to communicate the our brand values and beliefs in a meaningful way. Coupled with our content creation strategy this allowed us to inspire our potential customers and instil a sense of pride in our existing customer, increasing their promotion and engagement with Heartridge.

Heartidge - Social Channel: Facebook

facebook

Our social marketing strategy revolved around building our Facebook presence as the cornerstone of our ongoing communications. Focusing on 3 key pillars of; home; quality & nature, we were able to build a community around our brand.

Heartidge - Social Channel: Facebook
Heartidge - Social Channel: Instagram

instagram

Our social strategy was then expanded by the introduction of Instagram. Focusing on the visual aspect of the medium to highlight product and inspire consumers.

Heartidge - Social Channel: Instagram
Heartidge - Social Channel: Pinterest

pinterest

Pinterest was employed as part of our SEO strategy to increase the exposure and reach due to the curated nature of the medium and the inspiring interior design and nature photography created for our brand.

Heartidge - Social Channel: Pinterest
Heartridge - Branding: Video thumbnail

the brand essence

product features and installation

capturing your attention in 30 sec

As part of our content creation strategy we developed a series of videos to capture  the brand essence, product features and the ease of installation.

the outcome

This was one of those rare opportunities where an agency wins the chance to truly create something from scratch. To work on a brand from its very inception, helping guide and develop all facets of the brand’s identity including positioning, name, visual language, colours, typefaces, imagery, logo, templates and tools, style guide and implementation rules.

The resulting brand was uniformly approved across the Dunlop and Pacific Brands business and launched into market in early 2015. In the years since, it has successfully penetrated the market, exceeding projection for sales and customer satisfaction.

We believe in employing long term strategies and, as true guide of the success, the following statistics compare the first 6 months after a successful launch with the same period 2 years later.

0%

increase in square meters of flooring sold

0%

increase in pages viewed on website

0%

increase in social reach

“Woof beat out larger and more established incumbent creative agencies because we were impressed - to say the least - by the passion, professionalism and depth of strategic thought from the commencement of the project. Woof were able to illustrate not only their obvious strengths in strategic thinking and market analysis but their ability to turn those ideas into a coherent creative brand that catered for everything we needed - a concept that stood our brand apart from the competitors in an existing, and competitive market and which received huge praise in its execution and vision from both a demanding wholesale and retail customer base, as well as from Pacific Brands - our parent company.

 

The most noteworthy aspect of our work with WOOF has been their ability to re-think. Not everything goes to plan, and WOOF has proven time and time again when faced with a brick wall, they go away, re-think, come back and bust through that wall surprising us with their creativity and and willingness to keep pushing to find the right answer.

 

Along with this, Woof’s ability to meet exceptionally tight deadlines, where an entire brand - its collateral, philosophy, name, logo design, style guide - was created in only a few months. All of this over the Christmas period. It is this organisational flexibility and sheer passion for what they do, that makes this a necessary testimonial for me to provide.”

Sean Forde

General Manager

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