CUTTING EDGE
A former high end showroom and design firm for luxury kitchen and bathroom products
Client: Cutting Edge Kitchen and Bath
Role: Marketing Director | Visual Design | Print/Digital Marketing |Photography|Video Production
Timeline: I worked in this role for 2.5 years
Overview
PROJECT BACKGROUND
Cutting Edge Kitchen and Bath was a brand new startup company located north of Seattle, WA.
They have a 12,000 square foot showroom where customers experience full replicas of displays containing custom cabinetry, countertops, flooring and high end products catered to an upper clientele. Their goal was to offer a one stop location where customers can purchase products, have designs created for their projects as well as offer installation services. With the rise of home renovations, Cutting Edge Kitchen and Bath was looking to fill a gap in the marketplace for luxury products and services.
OBJECTIVES
-
• Develop the brand including a logo design, initial print and digital marketing promotions.
-
• Create a website where the company can showcase projects, testimonials and products.
-
• Use social media and blog posts to continue to reach customer interest.
Research
In order to become familiar with an industry that was new to my portfolio, I started looking at current market trends related to kitchen and bathroom remodels.
-
Spending is on the rise for kitchen and bathroom renovations.
-
The desire to stay put is the primary motivation to renovate vs. buy a perfect home, trumping financial considerations.
-
Recent home buyers are a key driver of renovation activity, with more than a quarter of renovations being driven by recent home purchases.
-
Those planning to sell their home are also investing in renovations, focusing on exterior projects that enhance curb appeal.
-
Nearly one-third of homeowners take on a remodeling project without setting a budget—the same share exceeds an established budget.
-
Millennial homeowners continue to be just as likely to renovate as other age groups, yet spend a third of the amount spent by Baby Boomers.
Key Insights
Information pulled from Houzz Overview of U.S. Renovation in 2015
COMPETITVE ANALYSIS
In addition to market research, I created a competitive analysis to see how Cutting Edge could position itself within the marketplace.
Design
LOGO DESIGN
Working with the owner of the company, we came up with brand adjectives that helped define the direction of the logo. With a name like Cutting Edge we knew the design needed to be fresh, modern, clean and easy to read on a variety of products. After working through several sketches and iterations, we narrowed down a final concept. View sketches and iterations here.
BRAND STYLE GUIDE
I created a brand style guide to serve as a guide for both the website and future marketing material.
From the research gathered, I determined that in order for Cutting Edge to stand out in the marketplace, we would need to focus on showing high quality imagery of merchandise that consumers could not find at other locations, with an emphasis on promoting our showroom and services. The website should inspire consumers with our portfolio of work and motivate them to come into our showroom or book an appointment with one of our designers.
SITE MAP
I worked with my team to sort out the structure of our site and created an initial site map showing the layout based off the variety of products and services we wanted to promote.
Website Design
For the final web design, I decided to use a content management system that allowed us to easily make changes, as well as provide a way to gather email and contact information from our clients and create future promotions within the same platform.
Outcome
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHEMENTS
-
We received many compliments from our customers on the website. They especially enjoyed looking at the projects we already completed.
-
One of the key areas I focused on as the Marketing director was to gather testimonials from our customers. I came up with the idea of doing video testimonials that would provideds an engaging way to promote the experiences of our customers and showcase these videos on our website.
-
I provided all of the photography of the before and after projects to showcase on our portfolio of work, which offered future customers an idea of the quality they can expect.
TOUGHEST CHALLENGES
-
Working with small startups can be challenging with limited time and resources. When I first launched the website we did not have that many projects to show so I had to build up our body of work over time.
-
After the first year, I would have liked to observe how users navigate the site and see if there were challenges and gather feedback on how to make future improvements.
KEY TAKE AWAYS
-
Branding and marketing can only be as effective as the infrastructure of an organization. Although I’m no longer a part of Cutting Edge Kitchen and Bath and the company closed in 2021, I really enjoyed learning about both the construction industry and the challenge of creating all the branding and marketing for a new startup.
"Shane developed our marketing plan and strategies; designed and prepared brochures, fliers, signage and anything relating to promoting our company. He produced videos of remarkable quality of our work. He designed and set up our website to be of the highest quality that we have had many comments from customers and vendors on how our website is one of the best they have seen and easy to use. There are so many other qualities Shane brought to the company that listing them does not seem to do justice to his amazing efforts in bringing our business forward."