Bell recently completed developing a new brand for a company called SofaDrop, whose mission is to streamline the entire retail process, thereby ensuing retailers can focus on their core function – selling. SofaDrop provides retailers with high quality, made-to-order sofas direct from factory to the customer’s room of choice. They fully manage logistics, warehousing, quality control, delivery, returns and warranties. They even handle all communication with the customer after order, including managing complaints. Retailing high-value lifestyle items – of bulk size – is a long and convolute process. Therefore, their main challenge was to persuade sofa retailers that they could – in the same offer – provide all these services and supply direct-to-customer stylish, comfortable high-quality sofas. SofaDrop is not just a fulfilment partner, or a supply chain specialist, or on the other hand a mere wholesaler. They needed to show that they did it all, with the highest efficiency and to the highest quality.

After thorough research of the sector (from both B2B and B2C perspectives), including branding trends, our main strategic focus was the need to balance the functionality of the offer with the desirability of the product. This meant being a B2B brand but conveying clear B2C properties. We developed a bold, modern visual identity which featured a stacked, heavily leaded sans serif typeface sitting on an underframe which had legs, to resemble a sofa. We chose a bold red and black colour palette, to help it stand out, and for the inference of contemporary quality. After completing guidelines, we then designed and developed their website for launch, including content plan/IA and UX, and produced a launch brochure, collateral and style sheets. These materials cleverly balanced the tangible functionality of the offer with the intangible appeal of the product throughout – conveying of style, comfort and quality of the product and service with a clear explanation of this new approach to sofa retail form a benefit perspective.

 

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