About
Louisiana Office Products (LAOP) is a 30 year-old family owned office supply and furniture company. The company’s outdated look and feel positioned LAOP as the “chair store,” despite selling a full range of office supplies, equipment and furniture. With the need to compete against big box competitors, LAOP needed a way to harness its unique brand differentiation, change its outdated image and attitude, and infuse its brand community with enthusiasm.
Challenge
The closely held business was struggling to remain relevant in a market filled with strong national competitors such as Office Depot, Staples, WalMart and Sam’s. LAOP’s logo reflected a stagnant, unchanging image, and customers failed to appreciate the store’s value-added services and their more-than-just-office-furniture philosophy. If LAOP was to survive for the next generation of owners, it needed to make changes to keep the brand relevant and the company competitive.
Solution
Design the Planet partnered with LAOP to identify and define their unique brand differentiation and value proposition. This information was the basis for updating the company’s identity into something fresh and energetic. The redesigned action-oriented, forward-moving logo represents a company heading into a bright future. It includes a modern chair design and icons of office supplies referring to the company’s diverse offerings. Design the Planet also recommended changing the uniforms worn by delivery drivers and the sales team. This change improved the team’s perceived professionalism by addressing cleanliness and style issues. Along with these modernizations and changes to the branding, team members were trained on brand service paradigm and expectations. The company’s fleet of trucks was repositioned as a fleet of roving billboards to promote the brand with truck-side advertisements. These and other on-going changes have revitalized LAOP’s brand in a positive way.
Results
Through Design the Planet’s rebranding efforts, LAOP has moved into position as the brand-dominant local office supply and furniture store. The push to become a re-energized, competitive business gave the company’s internal brand community a much-needed boost, increasing employee morale and enthusiasm. LAOP’s new branding and attitude based upon its cultural promise was a breath of new life, and a successful strategy resulting in a significant growth in sales.
