Wayfair Monitors Brand Strength with Hanover Surveys

Case Study
Wayfair

Hanover’s Model Provides Flexibility and Responsiveness to Meet Wayfair’s Unique Needs.

Challenge

With consumers purchasing home décor more frequently online versus in store, Wayfair aims to be the go-to source for online purchases. In order to achieve this vision, Wayfair’s CEO Niraj Shah realizes that building brand awareness and brand equity are keys to edging out both online and big-box competitors. He told GigaOM:

“Right now the home market is a little over half a trillion dollars in the United States, but only about 5 to 6 percent of that is online, and it’s a highly fragmented market within that. That’s all starting to really come online, so we want Wayfair to emerge as a household name. We want to seize the opportunity to be the go-to brand for home decor online.”

Wayfair plans and launches various brand awareness initiatives as a result. With a small market research team and lean research budget, Wayfair realized the value of partnering with Hanover Research to track their brand health.

Solution

To measure changes in brand awareness for Wayfair, Hanover Research applied its Brand Tracker tool, a series of longitudinal surveys that assess changes in brand perception over time and measure the impact of individual branding campaigns.

Outcome

As a result of Hanover’s brand tracker tool, Wayfair was able to assess the effectiveness of its rebranding efforts and quickly course correct as needed to maintain a path toward increasing brand equity.

Measured a 52% increase in aided brand awareness from 2011 to 2014
Focused its rebranding efforts to the areas that were most impactful

[9.19.14- Update to case study] Wayfair leverages Hanover’s brand awareness studies in its SEC filing. Excerpt:

Trusted Brand with Rapidly Growing Awareness: We offer five distinct brands tailored for customers with different tastes, styles, purchasing goals and budgets. Since the launch of Wayfair.com and our rebranding efforts in 2011, our aided brand awareness has increased to 52% in August 2014, according to Hanover Research. As part of our rebranding efforts, we also focused on driving inspirational buying, including via recently-launched features such as “Ideas & Advice” buying guides, “Shop the Look” rooms by designers and “Editor’s Picks,” designed to allow consumers to explore different home décor ideas and discover their unique styles. As we grow, our brands are increasingly becoming a significant point of differentiation with both our customers and suppliers.”

“We’ve been extremely happy with the partnership. I think you guys produce great work and we’ve been thrilled. We appreciate your nimbleness when you modify survey projects to fulfill our on-demand needs.”
– Director, Brand Development and Senior Director of Market Branding