Right on the mark

Revamping your company's image isn't a decision to be made hastily. The current look may have gone stale, but that look - for better or worse - is part of the corporate identity. And tinkering with it can have all sorts of harmful effects on the franchise, from alienating current customers to eroding market share. Ideally, with an image change, you want to preserve brand equity by keeping the best elements and removing the unwanted ones.


If its research is correct, that's just what Ethan Allen has done. Last year the Danbury, Connecticut-based furniture and home accessory company introduced a new logo to go with the new look it had introduced in its showrooms, says M. Farooq Kathwari, chairman and president of Ethan Allen.

"The new visual identity for Ethan Allen was created to project a fresh attitude and to distinguish us in a marketplace cluttered with retailers competing for the consumer's dollar. Our new logo reflects our heritage of classic design, impeccable quality and service. At the same time it projects our energy and commitment to style. The juxtaposition of a dramatic cursive letter "E" with a more formal, linear "A" stylishly projects our broad mix of traditional and eclectic home furnishings and accessories."

These changes are part of a major effort by the company to update and expand its product lines, Kathwari says. "Changes at Ethan Allen have not come about instantaneously. The repositioning program projected today through our new logo, new products and new exterior, began some six years ago as logical next steps for our company. The Ethan Allen of today and tomorrow is much different from what we were a decade ago. We have conscientiously evolved into a complete home furnishings operation, offering home environments that are not only suited to our existing traditional customer but are in tune with the contemporary minded consumer."

Strong recognition

Though Ethan Allen had strong name recognition to build on when it decided to update its image, it had some problems because consumers associated the Ethan Allen name and its furniture showrooms with American colonial-style furniture--solid, durable, and functional--but not in step with current trends. When in fact, the company has moved beyond its beginnings and now offers several new lines of furniture and home accessories.

"Our proprietary research revealed that our customer was changing," Kathwari says, "some of our long-time customers were growing older and a younger population not yet familiar with Ethan Allen was entering the marketplace. So we began to develop new collections and appropriate advertising vehicles to reach them and address their needs, while keeping the products and services that have been our foundation.

"We are able to anticipate changes in our customers' tastes and lifestyles through communications with our extensive retail network and ongoing research. Every day, over 2,000 Ethan Allen design consultants work with customers, listening and learning how Ethan Allen can better serve their needs."

Preserve loyalty

Creating a logo that communicates the changes at Ethan Allen while preserving existing customer loyalty was the job of Cato Gobe & Associates, a New York City-based design firm. Kyla Lange, account manager, Cato Gobe, explains: "The problem was perception versus reality. Ethan Allen had undergone a huge amount of diversity in their product line. Yet they were perceived as this New England manufacturer whose products were steeped in American colonial. They had really broken free of that with the additional products and services. They were a full service interior design source, not just a manufacturer of American colonial furniture. So we wanted to take advantage of their name in the market--which everybody knew--and refresh it. There is a continued interest in trusted brands and they very much are a trusted brand, and we wanted to let the I consumer know the breadth of what they had to offer."

Home furnishing has changed I to allow for more individuality and eclecticism. Styles can be C mixed and matched, Lange says.

"Everything seems to be geared toward individual styles; you pick up lot of that from the (home furnishing) magazines. The households that we all grew up in were these cookie cutter things. There's more of an eclecticism in decorating now, more of your personal style, so we wanted to show that Ethan Allen, with its design services and the breadth of product, can now help you develop that."

Strong look

While developing the new logos and new look for Ethan Allen, Lange says that Cato Gobe wanted to establish a strong graphic look that would catch the eye of consumers. This "look" has been used by firms such as Crate & Barrel, a home furnishing chain, which, while not seen as a direct competitor to Ethan Allen, was viewed as a category influencer. "Consumers have responded to Crate & Barrel's look. One of Ethan Allen's objectives was to capture that attention. To do that, you need to have a tremendous amount of energy and dynamism."

Still, the designers, led by Cato Gobe's Melinda Beck, didn't want to get too far away from the attributes that had made Ethan Allen a strong presence in the industry, Lange says. "There were certain core equities that needed to be communicated and throughout the design process we wanted to make sure that each positioning and identity communicated quality and craftsmanship, the idea that Ethan Allen is an established institution, a sense of 'American,' and a sense of diversity of style.

"From there we developed visual boards which reflected each one of those brand equities and that led to determining the tone and the attitude and the feel of what the logo should communicate. It really gives strong parameters for the designers in the studio to work on."

Once the core equities were identified three basic strategic positioning were developed to communicate them. They were: home gallery, American aesthetic (which is closest to the company's original look and feel), and contemporary living. Ethan Allen representatives determined that "home gallery" and "contemporary living" were the directions in which they wanted to move.

Test with consumers

After the selection of logo possibilities was reduced to a manageable number, nine focus groups were held, in California, Colorado and Connecticut, to test the designs with consumers. Before the sessions, which were moderated by Betsy Leichliter of New York City based Leichliter & Associates, respondents toured remodeled Ethan Allen galleries that were representative of the company's new look.

Three types of consumers participated:

  • long-term Ethan Allen customers who had made multiple purchases in the past five years;
  • recent customers who had made their first purchase during the past year;
  • potential customers who shared lifestyle, demographics and attitudinal characteristics with EA customers.

In each of groups the women discussed the status of any plans they had to furnish or re-furnish their home. They talked about their best sources of ideas and what aspect of the shopping experience they found most helpful (e.g., store personnel, realistic showroom displays).

Respondents gave their before/after impressions of Ethan Allen. Before visiting the remodeled showrooms, their impressions included words and phrases such as "traditional," "Early American," "formal," "good quality - not for every day." After the showroom visits, the comments reflected awareness of the changes Ethan Allen has made: "surprisingly wide range of styles," "more than just furniture," "good quality - not cheap but a better value than previously thought."

Kyla Lange: "In the focus groups quite a few of the younger generation said 'I just automatically wrote Ethan Allen off because that was the furniture that I grew up with.' But once they had been taken through the store they said 'oh my gosh, I'm coming back.' It was like the whole 'This is not your father's Oldsmobile' thing."

When asked about the current Ethan Allen logo, some respondents recognized it but said that it wasn't memorable. Respondents said that a new logo should communicate strength, a well-crafted, personal touch, and a balance of heritage with a fresh outlook.

Green to blue

They were shown potential new logo designs in black and white and also in color, to test their reactions to a proposed switch from Ethan Allen's traditional green to blue. "In a nutshell, we were trying to communicate to the outside world what was going on inside the company. That statement of 'We've changed' is very strongly made when you change corporate identity. That's one reason we advised shifting the color from green to blue," Lange says.

When shown the logos in color, respondents said that blue had a number of positive connotations -freshness, crispness, classiness - that outweighed some negative impressions.

The respondents also discussed their feelings on the usage of the terms "home gallery" and "home interiors" in conjunction with the logo.

Owner buy-in

An important change, in addition to the logo, was updating the look of Ethan Allen storefronts, so that their appearance communicated the company's new image and new products. Getting individual store owners (many Ethan Allen showrooms aren't owned by the company) to buy-in to the change was critical, and the research has been helpful in doing that, Lange says.

"Research confirmed everything that we had assumed up to that point. It was helpful, and when we had decisions to make we would refer to what research had said. It was very, very helpful in continuing to sell the project to the entire company," Lange says.

Ethan Allen's Kathwari: "In order to make this transition in the most unified, effective manner possible, it was important to build a strong foundation internally. Throughout the process, we held advisory meetings with retailers around the country to ensure that we had a consensus on the elements and the rationale for the design of the new logo. As a result, our retailers have enthusiastically adopted the new look in their materials. And the overwhelming response from their customers further strengthens our retailers' support for our continued evolution."