BEHIND THE BRAND: Deconstructing Wayfair

PART I INTRODUCTION CONTENTS

Dear Wayfair, 3 The Organization I am writing to you today to discuss a future rebranding of your company. I want to acknowledge that Wayfair is an established 4 Wayfair’s History e-commerce business that has been accelerating through the retail market in recent years. 5 Wayfair’s Mission I have conducted a variety of research to understand the history of your company, the culture, the market, the business goals, and the hurdles that Wayfair has had to tackle in the past two decades. 6 Wayfair’s Visual Identity I am aware that one of Wayfair’s future goals is to transform into a common household name. 7 The Market By transforming the identity of the company, Wayfair holds great possibility in reaching this goal and will be able to easily expand its business into the international market. 8 The Customers

I look forward to our discussion and any potential questions 9 you may pose pertaining to this endeavour. The Competition

11 Wayfair’s Work Culture Best wishes, Milena Kostyukov 13 Wayfair’s Brand Challenges

Fig. 1. Saunders Openshaw, Mollie. “Modern Con- temporary Dining Room Design.” Wayfair.

14 Works Cited

1 2 THE ORGANIZATION WAYFAIR’S HISTORY

WHO IS WAYFAIR? HOW DID WAYFAIR COME TO LIFE? Wayfair is an e-commerce organization that works as a middleman Founders Steve Corine and Niraj Shah came together as an entreprenueri- between furniture/decor products and the consumer, which is similar al team during their time studying at . Their enrollment to how runs its business. Founded in 2002, Wayfair describes in a class on entrepreneurism sparked a business plan that developed into itself as one of the world’s largest online destinations for the home. their very first company: CSN Stores. They analyzed search pat- It provides easy product discovery for over eighteen million products terns and results and the duo recognized a market opportunity to sell offered from over 12,000 suppliers (Wayfair 2019 Annual Report, 14). stereo racks and stands through e-commerce. Wayfair is a unique way to shop for furniture and home decor as it has established itself as the first ever online store for home goods. CSN Stores made new websites every time the company wished to sell different home goods products. The result was hundreds of websites linked They are best known for providing their customers with a variety to a single company. In September of 2011, both founders decided of selection and thus coining the known tagline: A zillion things home. to merge all of the sites together into a mega destination and thus formed A decade after starting their business, Wayfair has expanded its online the Wayfair that consumers are familiar with today (Wayfair, n.p.). shopping experience to four sister lifestyle brands - Joss & Main, AllModern, Perigold, and Birch Lane (Wayfair 2019 Annual Report, 2).

WHAT ARE THE POINTS OF CONTACT? Wayfair provides various points of contact between the organization and the public. First and foremost, Wayfair places a high regard on strong cus- tomer service. As a result, customers have a variety of methods to contact the company. Communication methods include: e-mail, phone, and social media sites such as Facebook, , Instagram and Pinterest.

Fig. 2. Henry, Zoe. “CEOs of Wayfair”, Inc. It delivers through CastleGate Fulfillment, a professional shipping facil- ity. More recently, Wayfair has expanded its business into the physical realm to offer residents their very own Wayfair retail store.

3 4 WAYFAIR’S MISSION WAYFAIR’S VISUAL IDENTITY

THEIR PROMISE TO CUSTOMERS WHAT IS THE CURRENT VISUAL IDENTITY? Wayfair’s promises each customer a comfortable home furnished with Wayfair describes its visual identity as having “beautiful imagery and high- items that suit the needs of each unique shopper. The company states ly-tailored editorial content” (Wayfair 2019 Annual Report, 15) with a niche that it makes it easy for customers to choose from millions of home decor, towards personalization to create an engaging consumer experience. Way- home furnishings and housewares by providing a plethora of options for fair mainly advertises its identity through the Internet by search engine each personal style (Wayfair 2018 Annual Report, 1). One of its core mis- marketing, social media marketing, and display advertising. In 2018, sions is to build a “market-leading platform in the home category that is Wayfair advertised one of its sister sites for the first time in a Birch Lane coveted by our supplier partners, and is loved by our mutual customers” catalog that was mailed out to 500,000 Wayfair customers and also launched (Wayfair 2018 Annual Report, 1). its first billboards in three cities (Graham, n.p.).

EXAMINING WAYFAIR’S CURRENT GOALS Based on Wayfair’s 2019 Annual Report, it is stated that their long-term objectives have remained as the “clarity of focus on the customer, true long-term orientation, and a consistent, high bar for talent” (3). At the current moment, the company has stated that they have a strong focus Fig. 3. Huston, Miranda. “Wayfair’s Logo.” Scraping Robot. on nuturing the ambitious, entrepreneurial, and data-oriented mind- set that has been the hallmark of the company’s success (Wayfair 2019 Annual Report, 4). Furthermore, in the coming decade, Wayfair is hoping to emerge as the undisputed industry leader by engaging in partnerships among various European suppliers and expanding Wayfair’s business into the European e-commerce industry.

Fig. 5a) and b). Still from @wayfair. Instagram. May 15 2020. WAYFAIR’S APPROACH TO BUSINESS Fig. 4. Still from Wayfair.ca. Wayfair. May 17 2020. Their business strategy is to prove to customers that Wayfair can make at-home furniture shopping an easy and enjoyable experience. Wayfair IS THIS IDENTITY SUCCESSFUL? claims to have truly exceptional customer service that aids customers I believe that Wayfair’s approach with imagery can be successful as through the entire shopping process. This has proved to be the backbone the images are very high quality and can provoke design inspiration of Wayfair’s success as a furniture store in the e-commerce world. Further- towards its target market of homeowners. On the other hand, more, the founders of Wayfair consistently visit supplier showrooms I believe that the Wayfair website, particularily the homepage, can to build relationships with new suppliers and enrich their customers’ home be too distracting for the average user. Furthermore, I believe that shopping experience with the introduction of new products each season the Wayfair logo is recognizable but it provokes a much older audience (Wayfair 2019 Annual Report, 5). than its advertising intends to attract. This company is utilizing bright and bubbly colours within its social media advertisements that is con- trasted against its choice of a mature purple.

5 6 THE MARKET THE CUSTOMERS

WAYFAIR’S MARKET POSITION WHO ARE WAYFAIR’S CLIENTS AND CUSTOMERS? Wayfair operates in the retail market, particularly online retail. However, To begin, a majority of its customers are described as home-owners who it has been expanding its retail services into the physical realm in the past engage in seasonal decorating as well as married/long-term couples who year. It has opened a Wayfair store near its Boston headquarters in have recently purchased homes. (Duff, n.p.) Within Wayfair’s 2018 media November of 2019 and has been opening pop-up stores throughout kit, it was released that its customers are 68% female, 86% homeowners the year to engage more consumers. Wayfair fits into the definition and between the ages of 35-65 with an average household income of around of an e-brand as well as a style brand due to the fact that they outsource $85,000 USD. Furthermore, it is stated that its customers enjoy designer various furnishings and home decor to cater towards a variety of audiences. merchandise, fine goods, cultural activities, and regular physical fitness. Its market position has not changed much other than its recent attempt Other hobbies include wine appreciation, home improvement and lastly, at engaging physical sales. gourmet cooking (Wayfair, n.p.).

Wayfair places a heavy focus on Pinterest users. It has been shown that Wayfair has been successful with advertising and promoting its products through this website as the ‘pinning’ process spreads sales promotions and coupons to a wide variety of users throughout the application (Miller, n.p.).

WAYFAIR MEETING CONSUMER NEEDS The organization serves its customers’ needs by consistently updating its furniture supply to create room for variety. Wayfair has maintained an incredibly large focus on the customer’s needs and has proven this by successfully expanding its services across North America. Further- more, Wayfair has placed a heightened focus on the delivery experi- ence through the collaboration with a notable drop shipping company, CastleGate Fulfillment, to generate faster shipping capabilities, particularly with large parcel deliveries. It has also been responsible for opening various pop-up shops around the United States for con- sumers to physically pick out their dream furniture (Thomas, n.p.).

It must be noted that Wayfair employees go through extensive training to help customers navigate the site, answer questions and complete orders via phone, e-mail, or online chat.

Fig. 6. Horner, John. “A look inside the new Wayfair store,” CNET.

7 8 THE COMPETITION

WHO ARE WAYFAIR’S MAIN COMPETITORS? WHAT ARE THE VISUAL IDENTITIES OF COMPETITORS? The organization has a large variety of main competitors as it identifies After browsing the websites of the main competitors, it was interesting itself as an e-commerce company and as a part of the home goods market. to identify how most of the big box retailers’ websites have a very similar Wayfair’s competition includes furniture stores, big box retailers, depart- web interface. The main difference is in imagery, colour selection and ment stores, specialty retailers and online retailers found across North typeface selection. Image layouts and navigation bars appeared almost America, Germany and the United Kingdom (Wayfair 2019 Annual Report, identical on each website that was visited. Most of these websites had 17). I will narrow this list when comparing identities to big box retail- a large header image that often incorporated a slideshow to showcase ers such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot, IKEA, Lowe’s, Target and new deals and item arrivals. Walmart as well as online retailers such as Amazon and eBay. Fig. 10. Still from ikea.com, IKEA.

HOW IS WAYFAIR DIFFERENT? Wayfair states that its technological and operational expertise allows it to provide its customers with attractive price points, a vast selection of goods, timely fulfillment, and superior customer service. It believes that with all of these traits combined, it proves to have a sustainable competitive advantage in comparison to big box retailers. Fig. 11. Still from bedbathandbeyond.com, Bed Bath & Beyond.

Fig. 7. “IKEA LOGO”. 1000logos.

THE COMPARISON OF IDENTITIES It was interesting how similar the visual identities were between the brands, particularly within the website design. Wayfair utilizes a deep shade of purple throughout its buttons, icons, typefaces and logo. The rest of the website, however, is very vibrant and somewhat inconsistent. The inconsistent theme, perhaps, may Fig. 8. “BED BATH & BEYOND LOGO”. 1000logos. showcase the wide variety of items that Wayfair provides to its customers. Through a design standpoint, it does appear troubling to pay attention when browsing for specific items. Other competitors such as Bed Bath & Beyond and IKEA have very clean and organized visual identities. Their website layouts are organized into different sections and the specific visual decisions are enforced throughout

Fig. 9. “AMAZON LOGO”. 1000logos. the website to maintain cohesiveness and an easy browsing experience.

9 10 WAYFAIR’S WORK CULTURE

WHAT ARE WAYFAIR’S VALUES? WHAT PERSONALITY DOES WAYFAIR HAVE? The company highly values worker quality and seeks to find workers who After conducting research, Wayfair appears to be a fast-growing company will truly beenfit Wayfair’s identity. In its 2019 annual report, it is stated that is eager to expand its products around the world. Since 2007, Wayfair that its talent management process is “exceptionally rigorous, with bi-an- has marketed itself to its “young workforce as a fun and forward-thinking nual 360 degree reviews, cross-functional calibrations for every level, and company where employees are encouraged to speak up and help shape the mid-cycle development discussions to set our people up for success...we corporate vision” (Sweeney, n.p.). This retailer, however, has faced a lot of recognize that these processes are time-intensive...but we do these to make public backlash in many different sectors. Most recently, Wayfair has laid sure that we have the best people in the world, and the caliber of talent that off 550 employees in early February due to a larger loss amount than pre- we are attracting to Wayfair clearly speaks to this” (6). dicted in its previous quarterly earnings. Wayfair is stated to have spent millions on advertising, and it has shown to not pay off for the company Wayfair has set a goal to hire highly skilled and ambitious people who (Decosta-Klipa, n.p.). choose to collaborate and work towards a common goal - pleasing the cus- tomer. To continue, Wayfair also sells products from family-run operators Furthermore, in 2018, Wayfair employees engaged in an employee walk- who do not have easy retail access to large customer bases, thus providing out to protest Wayfair selling $200,000 worth of children’s beds to a gov- business opportunities for small furniture manufacturers (15). ernment contractor furnishing US border detention facilities. The issue was raised to the CEOs prior to the walkout. However, they chose not to stop the transactions (Wischhover, n.p.). There have also been issues with the underrepresentation of cultural identities. In March of 2019, internal data shared with Wayfair employees revealed that Wayfair’s leadership teams from all around the US were 79% white, 3% Hispanic or Latino, 1% Black or African American, and 2% mixed races. The underrepresentation of cul- ture, especially within the tech sector and within leadership positions, has remained a constant issue (Taylor, n.p.).

Ultimately, Wayfair appears to be working on expanding its business in a rapid pace. However, it appears as if the organizational structure of the company still requires development. On the other hand, it is stated that Wayfair has one of the best customer service teams as a result of the train- ing that employees go through to become problem solvers and to create a personalized service experience for every customer (Purdy, n.p.).

Fig. 12. Buell, Spencer. “Wayfair Ringing the New York Stock Exchange Bell”, Boston Magazine.

11 12 WAYFAIR’S BRAND CHALLENGES WORKS CITED

“About Wayfair” Wayfair, https://www.wayfair.com/v/about/our_ Purdy, Chase. “This e-commerce company doesn’t have customer WHAT VISUALS CAN WAYFAIR BENEFIT FROM? story. Accessed 12 May. 2020. service reps, it hires problem solvers.” Quartz, September The brand has reinforced the rapid expansion of its business. However, Way- 11 2016, https://qz.com/710480/wayfairs-customer-ser- “AMAZON LOGO,” 1000logos, https://1000logos.net/amazon-logo/. vice-is-exceptional/. fair continues to lack the characteristic of being a common household brand. Accessed 17 May 2020. I believe that this is a result of their visual identity. In order to transform Saunders Openshaw, Mollie. “Modern Contemporary Dining Room “BED, BATH AND BEYOND LOGO.” 1000logos, https://1000logos. Design.” Wayfair, https://www.wayfair.ca/shop-the-look/ itself into a brand that caters towards its desired audience, Wayfair needs to net/bed-bath-and-beyond-logo/. Accessed 17 May 2020. slp/modern---contemporary-dining-room-design--wayfaira- develop cohesiveness between its website, wordmark, and visual advertising thome-photo-id397148?refid=PINCAUGC&crlt.pid=camp. “IKEA LOGO.” 1000logos, https://1000logos.net/ikea-logo/. Ac- phHarLUYyaHc. approaches. cessed 17 May 2020. Still from @wayfair, Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/sto- “Wayfair Redbrand”, M Space, https://mspacedesign.net/portfolio/ ries/wayfair/. Accessed 15 May 2020. In terms of Wayfair’s culture, it is important for Wayfair founders to main- wayfair/. Accessed 17 May 2020. tain a good public image about themselves and their company. There have Still from bedbathandbeyond.com, Bed Bath and Beyond, https:// Buell, Spencer. “The Wayfair Walkout is On.” Boston Magazine, www.bedbathandbeyond.com/. Accessed 17 May 2020. been issues raised in the past about the culture of Wayfair and its employees. June 25 2020, https://www.bostonmagazine.com/ I believe that a stronger internal system should be enforced within this com- news/2019/06/25/wayfair-walkout. Still from IKEA.com, IKEA, https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/. Ac- cessed 17 May 2020. pany in order for it to portray a positive public image. Decosta-Klipa, Nik. “Here’s what led to the Wayfair layoffs.” Boston. com, February 13 2020, https://www.boston.com/news/ Still from Wayfair.ca, Wayfair, https://www.wayfair.ca/. Accessed business/2020/02/13/wayfair-layoffs. 17 May 2020. Lastly, as Wayfair is planning to further expand into the European realm, visual identities should be highly reconsidered. The German Wayfair website Duff, Mike. “Wayfair Home Survey Identifies Consumer Preferenc- Sweeney, Chris. “Inside Wayfair’s Identity Crisis.” Boston Maga- es, Style Trends.” Home World Business, October 10 2016, zine, October 1 2019, https://www.bostonmagazine.com/ does appear slightly more organized than its English counterpart, however, https://www.homeworldbusiness.com/wayfair-home-sur- news/2019/10/01/inside-wayfair/. there still exists room for further improvement. vey-identifies-consumer-preferences-style-treends/. Taylor, Kate. “Leaked Wayfair documents reveal massive racial Graham, Jordan. “Web’s Wayfair prints catalog, adds billboards.” disparity.” Business Insider, June 26 2019, https://www. Ultimately, Wayfair has truly expanded as a business in the past decade Boston Herald, March 26 2014, https://www.bostonherald. businessinsider.com/wayfair-racial-composition-data-back- com/2014/03/26/webs-wayfair-prints-catalog-adds-bill- lash-2019-6?op=1. and there exist many possibilities for this particular organization to grow boards/. amongst the physical and e-commerce realm. Wayfair simply requires recon- Thomas, Lauren. “Wayfair is opening up its first store ever.”CNBC , Henry, Zoe. CEOs of Wayfair. Inc., April 16 2018, https://www.inc. March 26 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/26/on- siderations to remain on the right track for attracting its desired customer com/zoe-henry/how-wayfair-became-a-4-billion-dollar-busi- line-furniture-retailer-wayfair-is-opening-up-its-first-store- base and expanding the business even further. ness.html. ever.html.

Horner, John. “A look inside the new Wayfair store at the Natick Wayfair. 2018 Annual Report, 2020. Web. 12 May 2020. Mall near Boston.” CNET, https://www.cnet.com/news/ wayfairs-first-full-service-store-opens-tomorrow-in-massa- Wayfair. 2018 Media Kit, https://secure.img1-ag.wfcdn.com/ chusetts/. st4/stores/common/media_solutions/wayfair_media_ kit_2018.pdf. Web. Accessed 16 May 2020. Huston, Miranda. “Wayfair’s Logo.” Scraping Robot, 24 Apr. 2020, https://scrapingrobot.com/blog/wayfair-data-scraper/. Wayfair. 2019 Annual Report, 2020. Web. 12 May 2020.

Miller, Grace. “5 Vital Tactics for Wayfair’s Marketing Success.” An- Wischhover, Cheryl. “Wayfair employees protest alleged sale of nex Cloud, August 23 2016, https://www.annexcloud.com/ furniture for border detention facility.” Vox, June 27 2019, blog/wayfairs-marketing-success/. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/6/25/18758860/ wayfair-walkout-bcfs-border-detention. Ojeda, Nina. “Amazon Has Stiff Competition With Handy’s New Wayfair Partnership.” Inc., September 29 2017, https:// www.inc.com/nina-ojeda/amazon-has-stiff-competi- tion-with-handys-new-wayfair-partnership.html.

Fig. 13. “Wayfair Rebrand”, M Space. 17 May 2020. 13 14 REDESIGNING WAYFAIR: Ideas and Possibilities

PART II DESIGN DIRECTION

THE OBJECTIVE DESIGN GOALS The main objective for our redesign is to transform Wayfair into a modern- 1 Incorporate a redefined motion-based wordmark that can be showcased ized platform that is easily navigated by users and has the ability to inspire on the Wayfair website, online advertisements, and commercials customers through contemporary visual aspects.

2 Redefine the Wayfair colour scheme to create a stronger connection DESIGN CHALLENGES to their desired target audience of middle-aged homeowners Firstly, Wayfair has cultivated a mature appearance for its logotype in comparison to the modern approach it attempts to portray on its social 3 Initiate a coordinated approach to Wayfair’s website layout, media and commercials. Its custom-designed typeface that is utilized with- providing ease to every customer through the introduction of icons, tabs, and redefined visual layouts in the logo can be successful, however, the incorporation of visuals within some variances of the wordmark creates an unbalance. ESSENCE WORDS Secondly, the colours that Wayfair utilizes has potential, however, the es- The three essence words that I believe capture the personality of Wayfair tablished purple hue that is used within the wordmark’s background is too and its potential are: Bright, Innovative and Distinguished. mature and tends to cater towards a much older audience than intended.

Thirdly, the Wayfair website showcases a lack of visual organization MOODBOARD and must be redesigned to complement Wayfair’s simple and modern I designed a moodboard that I believe will best reflect my rebranding of advertisements. With these three factors in mind, I believe that Wayfair Wayfair. My goal is to focus on the essence words and bring them to life has the capability to transform into a common household brand. It may by incorporating the visuals they radiate into this project. My vision is to be challenging to rebrand Wayfair’s colour scheme as it has been deeply incorporate Wayfair’s bubbly and unique personality into visuals that will established within the brand, however, I may find simple methods of truly encapsulate the brand and highlight its usefulness to homeowners. approaching this challenge such as simply adjusting its hue. My moodboard can be viewed at the link below: https://pin.it/2xoOOvw

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