Case Studies
Driving Innovation – D’ORO Case Study
Circumstance/Background
D’ORO Furniture Industries is a relatively new manufacturer with a unique edge in the low price point market. Their value proposition is focused on offering good Italian leather furniture items at an affordable and low price. However, by choosing to enter an already saturated market, the manufacturer went flat and got positioned as a commodity product brand with nothing new or special to offer other then the low price of their furniture. When the company hit the bottom-end of their price point they decided to liaise with MVC Agency to produce change and bring them back to the high-end of their segment. The main challenge The Agency faced was not creating an entire campaign, but re-establishing the brand position and its image in the market.
Solutions
Recognizing and acknowledging the exceptional Italian design and craftsmanship that goes behind every piece of D’ORO furniture, MVC wanted to emphasize and re-create the magic of the company’s differentiating factor. Each craftsman assembles one piece of furniture at a time, allowing for high attention to detail. First MVC focused on redesigning the logo to incorporate this edge and make it more high-end and elegant without feeling expensive. The initial logo looked very similar to an existing logo for another company as well as uninteresting and common. It did not represent the differential value offered by the furniture manufacturer, so The Agency decided to use a metallic gold color to give the logo a three dimensional embossment and use a clear-cut font with a classic typeface. The new design now makes D’ORO’s logo both sleek and depicting fine Italian leather quality and craftsmanship without being generic and boring.
Then, basking on the fact that D’ORO actually means of gold, MVC changed the slogan to, “The Gold Standard in Affordable Luxury”. The new tagline again, served to reposition D’ORO, from being a commodity product brand to an affordable luxury brand. The slogan delivers the message and values promised by D’ORO in one sentence, focusing on the idea not special hollow effects. To represent this visually, The Agency created new advertising images for D’ORO, removing the generic backdrops initially used and centering the new advertisements around the pieces of furniture only. By doing this the brand value of D’ORO started moving towards the higher end of their market segment.
MVC also altered and modified the design and layout of D’ORO’s website to make it more aesthetically pleasing. By building the new website, The Agency was able to give D’ORO an image that their clientele could relate to as well as reposition their company away from being a commodity product in a saturated market.
Results
Thanks to the new identity and redesigning, D’ORO is now back at the top of their price bracket with a unique edge and differential value, other than low prices. According to Brian Parker, president of importer HTL International, everybody is “shopping for value, not just the cheapest price,” thus, the differential factor really boosted D’ORO’s sales. MVC's vision and pursuit of continuous innovation has helped its client find a unique identity and a new competitive space within today's rapidly changing and highly competitive furniture market. D’ORO is now a trendy brand and will not forget that its furniture and values also represent its brand identity.
