What’s your secret to being Best Decoration and Renovation brand of the year?
I would say Levis’ secret would be its clear mission: ‘bring colour to people’s lives’. We want to show the transformative power of paint and colour in our homes. And this comes alive in everything we do, together with the hard work and the consistent message to keep our brand relevant for all consumers over and over again. Levis keeps innovating on all aspects: product, colour trends, in store materials, media channels and communication assets. For instance: last year we introduced ‘Leef je kleur’ tagline to inspire people to live your own colour, by giving your home a personal touch. Have you noticed any significant trends in consumer behavior since the beginning of the health crisis? People have started painting as never before. With the spare time and the limited skills needed to do a great paint job, they discovered they could create a beautiful home (in no time). We noticed that consumers not only improved their DIY skills, they indicate it was also more fun than initially thought. Microspaces and living spaces used for multiple purposes is also a trend we see nowadays. Small corners or unused space turned into a home office, or home office throughout the day and living space at night. And then last but not least the trend of outdoor living was only accelerated as from the start of the pandemic.
“We’re making progress but have a lot to gain” Désirée De Maesschalk & Barbara Sierens In the Best Brands study, it is above all the quality of Levis products that is paid off by consumers. Is quality your main concern and how do you measure it among your consumers? Our quality standards for our products are indeed really high. This is embedded into our whole company from production plant right to our free call center where consumers can ask any question. We keep the same quality standards in mind for the packaging, our communication, brochures, colour palettes and so on… And this leads to our extraordinary results in the brand health study where we are seen as leader in colour, top quality and expert in the paint market.
What is Levis’ innovation strategy ? Based on insights from our local and global department, Levis’ innovation roadmap is constructed. We are constantly pushing our boundaries to develop paint that make the difference for our consumers. With this, we challenge ourselves and our partners every day to be better global citizens and protect the future of our planet. For example, next to the ongoing efforts to make paint more durable while adapting recipes using raw materials which are better for the planet, we will also launch recycled plastic packaging for our Levis paints as from 2022. Next to that we keep focusing on colour trends, choosing a new ‘Colour of the year’ with a matching colour palet and identifying relevant innovations for specific difficulties or challenges in our homes, e.g. our new Easyclean range with a wallpaint, a kitchen & bathroom paint, and a lacquers where no primer is needed which is ultra washable so the consumer and his family can really live in their colourful home without worrying about the walls. In 2023, we intend to even enlarge this Levis Easyclean product range with a new innovative product. Still a lot in the pipeline. Is becoming more hybrid a focus at Levis? Our objective is that we want to support our consumer as much as possible in his/her shopper journey. At the start of the shopper journey, we know that paint and colour inspiration is often sought online, for example on websites, Instagram or Pinterest. To provide our consumers with maximum support in this, we show the power of paint and colour in our beautiful ‘true Colours’ stories. We make people dream about what their interior could look like with that particular colour. With the visualiser app you can simulate the colour combination in your interior at once. In addition, the corresponding colour tester can also be ordered online to test a favorite colour or colour combination in ‘real life’. Online therefore offers a great many possibilities to better guide consumers in colour and paint choice. However, our vision is to be where the consumer is. And we know that the majority of our consumers still go to the physical store. Here too we do everything we can to support the shopper journey as much as possible with advice from the specialized store staff, with the right shelf navigation materials, brochures, etc. So we could talk about a real ‘omnichannel’ approach in which every channel is equally important for supporting of our consumer before, during and after the paint project.
Désirée De Maesschalk & Barbara Sierens, Marketing Director & Marketing Manager AkzoNobel
Listen to Désirée De Maesschalk & Barbara Sierens interview
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