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 Cornell University. Their enrollment to how Amazon 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 Internet 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, Twitter, 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 Boston 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.