Richi Collection is a wholesale furniture company established in Edmonton and open since 1992. They approached us to aid them in marketing and branding as they shifted their company to selling directly to the public. Although the company had been selling to retailers for over 25 years, delivering the company’s message of longevity, quality and value to the public would be a large undertaking involving modernizing the brand identity, re-designing the website and spreading the word through online marketing.

We wanted to make sure the company maintained the essence of the original logo they had been using since 1992. As a result, we updated the logo to match a more modern aesthetic. This was done by aligning the shapes and text of logo. We also changed the colour palette so that it would be more modern and web-friendly whilst maintaining the long-established branding of the company.

When creating the brand-identity for a company that has been open for so long, it was important that we did not detract from the soul of the company. Therefore, we decided to use a minimalist font and a color palette. The clean colours and fonts chosen aided in ushering the company into the digital age with the website we created.

One of the biggest challenges we faced was upgrading Richi Collection’s website during a difficult period for the company (start of COVID-19) so that they would be able to sell online. This meant moving their website away from an outdated template and shifting to a site that was tailor made for e-commerce. The site also allowed for full customization abilities, which management has since used to continue to make changes to the site. We not only created a database of enhanced product images and descriptions but we also created a modern and clean platform in which customers could order online and pickup in-store, or get their furniture delivered. This generated over $220,000 in company revenue from online sales alone.

When developing the website for Richi Collection it was important make sure that the website was mobile friendly. Over 60% of all e-commerce sales are done on mobile. Therefore when designing the Richi Collection website, we ensured that the image sizing and graphics would look great for both desktop & mobile devices.

After completing the website we were then tasked with the promotion of the website and the store. We marketed the company with digital ads ranging from Spotify, Kijiji and Google. Our main focus however was on Facebook ads. We were able to take the already existing data that the company had from its offline customers (emails, phone numbers & addresses) and manipulated the data using AI technology in order to create an audience of similar people to market to on Facebook. Once we created a custom target audience that was more likely interested in purchasing furniture, we then used dynamic creatives for our ads that led to an increase of 70% in in-store traffic for the company.

In order to continue to increase brand awareness for the company, we recommended that they add a vinyl poster to the cube van they already owned. This was free advertising for the company whenever they drove it around the city. Because normally people’s attention are on the roads while driving, we made sure that our design was bold and attention-grabbing. We then landed on a caution-themed design, as it would be seen as a warning for drivers, causing them to look at the van. Our clever misdirect would then be read by the drivers as they saw that the caution sign was for major furniture savings.