Triangulation

Determining the Threshold for Innovation.

Our experience and curiosity led us to a lively discussion and, ultimately, to our own fictitious brand, Home by Eleven.

Did we expect Home by Eleven to create a buzz and generate curiosity from companies interested in moonshot thinking? We did. And a major multi-brand furniture manufacturer proved us right when they reached out with a challenge: Help us revive an 85-year-old brand that’s currently on life support.

Preparing for a triangulation meeting means identifying the right questions to spark up a meaningful conversation.

Our first meeting—an orchestrated affair we internally dubbed “triangulating their threshold for innovation”—revolved around a series of questions crafted to help us pinpoint the client’s limit for risk:

What happens to your existing brand? What will define “success” for the new brand? Who are you doing this for? Is it for consumers, retailers or shareholders? Where do you plan to price the new collection? What’s your moonshot?

We left the meeting with a specific assignment: Develop an all-new brand that will ultimately replace the existing company and propel us through the next 75 years.

Let’s Rewind

If You’re Not Familiar with Furniture Manufacturing and Distribution, Here’s a Crash Course.

Most of today’s furniture is sold through retailers who own the relationship with the consumer. There’s little brand loyalty—among retailers or consumers—and price (“40% off!”) is how a retailer typically positions his offering. Retailers control how the brand is presented, sold and delivered. More importantly, retailers have a difficult time building a relationship with consumers; the consumer buys when she wants or needs to update a space in the home, a sporadic frequency, at best.

Home by Eleven was conceived to disrupt this inertia, focus on the consumer and work back to the retailer. The 11 (that’s right, 11) Home by Eleven retail locations would feature 11 home environments, each fully accessorized with the most up-to-date looks and styles. If a customer wanted a full room (bed, dresser, rug, lamps and other accessories), great! If just a rug and lamp will do for now, that’s okay, too. Home by Eleven would be the one-stop destination for your entire home, not just certain items.

Our model was to create a meaningful relationship with the consumer, transitioning the buying decision from needs-only to wants. Hey, you don’t need the new Apple Watch. But because of the experiences you’ve had with other Apple products and the trusting relationship you’ve built with the brand, you want it.

An aside: The scene is Apple’s HQ, 1998. A frustrated Steve Jobs does not want to leave the company’s fate in the hands of Best Buy, CompUSA and the other big box stores that dominated computer sales at the time. He’s thinking “online store,” but there is push-back from his team:

Finally, one of the senior guys opposing the idea spoke up. “Steve,” he asked, “isn’t this all pointless? You’re not going to do this—the channel will hate it.” [Eddy] Cue, who didn’t know any better, turned to him immediately. “The channel?” he exclaimed. “We lost two billion dollars last year! Who gives a fuck about the channel?” Steve perked up. “You,” he said, pointing at the senior exec, “are wrong. And you,” he continued, looking at Cue, “are right.”

The Narrative

Our New Brand’s Reason for Being.

The opportunity for this new brand was clear to us: Address the traditional manufacturer/retailer friction; work with the retailer to create a real relationship with the consumer; and structure an all-new furniture company to align with how today’s consumers shop and live.

Consumer frustrations—with low price guarantees, delivery delays, damage and disappointment once the product is in the home—create, we believe, the opportunity for a furniture brand to stand out. Frustrations mar relationships with retailers, too. Cure the headaches, make furniture-buying more closely resemble the high-touch, stress-free experiences from companies like Amazon, Zappos and CarMax, and our new brand will have a distinctive, profitable and lasting place in the market. Because it will be the only one fulfilling a distinct brand promise to the trade and consumer.

We used real world examples to help illustrate our ideas. Why did Toyota introduce Lexus? What makes Ralph Lauren’s store within a store successful?

“How Serious Are You about Launching a New Brand that Turns Heads?”

Great product is important, we told our client, but it is not the only thing. It’s not even the most important thing. There’s great product everywhere. Instead, let’s build our brand on not one, but three pillars: Product, Presentation and Delivery. In each category our brand will represent a new standard for the industry. And we will codify the new standard with these public promises:

• Expedited
  Shipping

• White Glove
  Delivery

• No-Hassle
  Return Policy

• Earth-Friendly
  & Sustainable

• Lifetime
  Warranty

Furniture shoppers looking at our promises would give enthusiastic applause and say, "Whoa! It’s about time!” But for folks trapped by the inertia of the furniture industry, to make promises that would upset business as usual, well, that sends them scurrying to their fainting couches. And so it was with our client.