What's Your Thing?' - DFS
For fifty years, the sofa industry ran on one growth lever. The sale. The volume of communications from the sector all pointed at the same red sticker. And it worked, until it didn't. Because when your whole category is optimised for one moment (the transaction) you're forgetting the long, doubt-ridden and emotional journey every buyer takes when choosing an expensive centrepiece for your home.
We thought that was mad, honestly. A sofa isn't a toaster. It's the thing your whole living room, and arguably your whole life at home, gets built around. Psychologists will tell you your home is basically a mirror of you, and your sofa sits right in the middle of that mirror.
DFS, with the biggest range in the market and fifty years of pattern-matching people to sofas, was perfectly placed to be an expert, empathetic guide through this journey. That became our Active Brand Platform: give people the confidence to unlock their own individuality. "What's Your Thing?" wasn't just a campaign line, it went into the site search, it went into staff training and remuneration; and it went into how the call centre talked to people.
Dropping the sales obsession didn't mean we stopped selling. Quite the opposite. Spontaneous consideration among younger buyers up 17%. Market share up 9 points. And three of DFS's best trading periods in fifty years of trading.
