David-Louis.com
Product designer David Hendley wanted to increase both his margins and turnover. A redesign of his products’ packaging has added value and is attracting new customers willing to pay more
Background
David Hendley designs contemporary items in metal. He sells his range of 20 designer items through retailers and online via his two sites: David-Louis.com, a website selling contemporary tableware direct to the public, and Gifts of Distinction, a corporate gifts business which sells both imported items and products conceived by third-party designers, which it has developed and manufactured.
Problem
Margins were falling because of rising metal prices. Although Hendley wanted to reverse this and double - if not treble - his business’s turnover, he was not sure how to do it.
‘The challenge we faced was how to move the business forward,’ Hendley explains. ‘Until that point we had made things, then sold them. Rather than think just about the next year’s sales figures, however, we realised the time had come to think strategically some ten to 15 years ahead if we were going to mature.’
Hendley hoped that participating in Designing Demand would help him find a product designer with whom he could move the business forward. But what happened next forced him to analyse in detail the nuts and bolts of his business and fundamentally alter his approach to branding.
‘Working with our Design Associate, Gavin Pryke, we stripped the business down to the bare bones to understand just where we should focus to improve it,’ Hendley explains. ‘It forced us to think about what the business stood for, and to acknowledge that at that point we didn’t have a strategy for the David Louis brand.’
Hendley was clear about what he wanted his products to stand for. An element of surprise is built into each item. High quality, British design locally produced is also an important element, as are Louis’ environmental concerns.
However, little of this was being communicated consistently through the products’ presentation. Although the David Louis logo was engraved on each item, there was no branding on any packaging. Polypropylene packaging, meanwhile, had been designed for retailers to display items hanging in-store. But it was unbranded and many retailers simply stacked the items on shelves.
‘As a designer himself, David saw the starting point as creating more products to add value to the product range he already had,’ says Gavin Pryke. ‘When we sat down to analyse the business, however, it became clear that to justify the increased prices he would need to charge to improve his margins, packaging was an area which could add significant value.’
Response
‘It was clear that to boost sales he needed to create a better image,’ Pryke adds. ‘Taking the element of surprise he builds into his products, the aim was to explore how redesigned packaging could be used both to brand the products more clearly and build expectations before the “reveal”.’
It was agreed that the new packaging should be clearly branded, that its design should encapsulate the brand, and that it should be recyclable. Pryke then recommended Hendley work with packaging design consultancy Angela Morris Associates.
A range of different cardboard packaging was researched before three possible routes – a box with a lift-off lid; a box with a hinged, flip-top lid; and a sliding matchbox-style box – where shortlisted. The matchbox approach was selected and a design developed to convey the brand’s values and provide the physical support to protect the contents when sent to customers by post.
‘It was important that the packaging looked stylish while delivering the protection required for the contents inside,’ Pryke explains. ‘As important, however, was that it was sustainable and economic, too. At all levels it had to add real value.’
The end result is a purple, cardboard matchbox-style design branded with the silver logo: ‘David-Louis Gifts of Distinction’.
Impact
Hendley launched the packaging at design trade show Showcase Ireland in January 2008 generating five new client orders. He also secured new export deals for Portugal and France. Since then, orders have risen by 10 per cent and margins by 15 per cent year on year.
‘Because of rising materials costs I needed to raise my prices but could not do so without justifying it. I have ended up with an enhanced product and a growing customer base in a new market segment which is willing to pay more,’ says Hendley.
‘I also have a more holistic attitude to my business and the role design plays within it. Without Designing Demand and Gavin’s input, it would have taken us far longer to get to this point – they made me do the job I knew I had to do.’