There is an opportunity to build a new brand in the workspace that makes people feel like the pro athlete of their craft.
There is an opportunity to build a new brand in the workspace that makes people feel like the pro athlete of their craft. By branding colors, on similar form factors, with a differentiated product that is both everywhere and is invisible. Physical products are the apps of the world we live in, and there’s an untapped opportunity about making better products that are both relevant and speak directly to an audience of knowledge workers, and then everybody.
Physical products are also a great marketing opportunity to capture mindshare and market related products and services. Forming the connection with people that is authentic and differentiated requires multiple touch-points, and that is where selling products is key.
There has not been much or innovation in chairs, how they made, manufactured, or how they make us feel. A chair can inspire us to do our best work, similar to the outfit we put on and how it makes us feel. I am deeply inspired by Nike’s marketing in the early 2000’s, and Apple’s Think Different, which are not about the product attributes, but what they can help people acheive. There’s an opportunity to create a brand in the workspace that doesn’t exist.
When you have a brand, you can sell anything. A proof of concept video:
Colors are a universal language, and are the simplest way of forming a connecting with people, which can be done faster around concepts, ideas, and brands they already know they like. Disney brands colors with princess dresses, and builds the IP through movies and theme parks. Sports teams brand colors with team uniforms. Luxury brands “own” a color – Hermes, Tiffany. Nike markets to everyone with a similar form factor – shoes for different occasions – at different price points and quality. Nike markets through expensive sponsorships, Apple does not.
When a product is recognizable, the best marketing is seeing it, trying it, and noticing everyone else who has it. When the same or similar product can speak to everyone, like the iPhones, the MacBook lineup, AirPods – the cultural opportunity to upgrade can become a movement, and a much bigger opportunity than what existed.
We have learned how to shoot chairs in a way that no one has done before. No one has shot chairs in this way because previously, chairs were black and belonged in the office, similar to IBM mainframes, and than Apple thought of things differently and made the computer personal.
People can feel like a pro athlete at what they do, when they have the right products. People today are not very intentional about the chairs they sit in, and more often than not do not know the brand, what it stands for, and certainly can’t name the model. If they went through the research process of finding a chair, they may remember the price, or just say where they got it.
There is no Nike or Apple for workspace products, despite being such a key part of our workflow and daily life. There are so many product around us that can be made better, more beautiful, and are an opportunity to market, in that, they can be used to make a connection with people by giving them meaning, and a message behind them. Chairs are both distinctive, overlooked, and provide a distinctive marketing opportunity given their prominence in the home, the office, and all around us. They are also excellent lead-gen opportunties in store fronts – people know “new” when they see an upgrade for the first time, and keep noticing it the more they see it, in the same way that Teslas used to be visible here and there, and eventually everywhere.
We have learned how to photographs chairs in a way that is unique, which is quite different than a white studio, and at a desk in-front of a monitor – although those are important as well to give people familiarity in how the chair can elevate their workspace environment. Car commercials often show the cars in very different environments from where they are going to be driven.