Big Save Furniture: How One of NZ’s Most Iconic Brands Got a Buttery-Smooth New Look
Family-run businesses are the backbone of the community. Everyone has had the experience of visiting a grocery store, a butchers, a restaurant or, in this case, a furniture store and being greeted by the same faces every time.
Slowly but surely, family businesses get to know their community inside-out. People go from customers to friends. The business knows exactly when all the big community celebrations are, because trolleys are filled with more sweets and decorations than a regular Saturday morning.
Advice is offered over the counter, worries are consoled on the showroom floor, and laughter is heard at the trolley bays. Yes, they are businesses and with that comes the need to make money, but the heart of a family business runs much deeper than that.
Big Save Furniture has been serving the New Zealand public for the past 50 years. Still operating as a family business, they’ve developed a reputation for being kind and loyal, as well as having a memorable sense of humour.
Working together with Motion Sickness, they created a campaign that speaks to the essence of Big Save Furniture.
LBB’s Casey Martin sat down with Alex McManus, general manager at Motion Sickness and Lily Salter, director at Big Save Furniture and discovered the secrets to developing and sustaining a 50 years-long legacy.
LBB> How did this idea come about?
Alex> The team put ourselves in the Big Save environment, that familiar retail experience. We started thinking about the conversations individuals have with themselves when they’re thinking about a purchase, and the ‘buyers remorse’ feels that we’re all really trying to avoid.
Working within our ‘prices that make sense’ platform, we started thinking about all the things you can buy that don’t make sense - all the things that could go wrong. A man wailing in emotional agony while rubbing a butter sculpture all over himself on the floor of his living room seemed like a natural progression from there…
LBB> As one of NZ’s most iconic brands, how have you developed the brand over the years? Give us a rundown of the brand’s journey from the start to now!
Lily> Guys! That’s a 50 year yarn, I simply don’t have the word count to achieve this. We opened our first store in Paraparaumu in 1973 based on the common-sense ideals of exceptional customer service and excellent value for money. The name of ‘Big Save’ was chosen to demonstrate the ‘Big’ selection and you can always ‘Save’ heaps. Simple.
The brand, and we as a family, have been through such a journey through the years, you’ll have to wait for the Big Save autobiography!
LBB> How do you go about redefining a brand? What questions do you ask about a brand’s identity to ensure that it comes across to consumers?
Alex> There’s so much involved in that redefinition or refresh, but there are some fundamental questions we ask ourselves. First off, what’s not broken right now? What elements of the brand do we think resonate really well, and perhaps just need to be reframed. We also want to identify where the growth opportunity lies in the category - most importantly, where can we find empty space, a place where we can be distinctive within this category and beyond?
For Big Save it was also about staying true to where the brand has come from, and what it has always stood for.
There was plenty of spirit, fun, and a sense of energy. It was about how we could modernise these attributes while keeping some of those classic, loved Big Save fundamentals.
LBB> What has been one of your favourite memories during the journey of the brand?
Lily> I’m not sure if it’s my favourite, but my most notable memory was probably when I first became the voice of Big Save. We were down in Wellington, where my brother was supposed to do a radio session to record an ad. He never showed up, on purpose, and I had to step in. I was nervous as anything, but it led to some pretty iconic moments for both me and the brand over the years that followed.
I also probably need to mention our most recent brand refresh. I love how the brand has been refreshed into a more modern space, but it’s still so in line with where we’ve come from, and who we are. So watching that come to life has been a real highlight this past six months.
LBB> Being trusted with an iconic brand is no small thing. What were the challenges, and what were the highlights that came with that?
Alex> Over the past 50 years, the Big Save team has built an amazing business and brand - entirely family owned. The main challenge was around the existing brand equity, and that ‘off the wall’ energy - we had to modernise and refresh the brand while making sure that we stayed true to who Big Save are at their core. It comes down to asking what new muscles are you trying to build with the brand? And what ones are you just trying to put on steroids? There were also challenges in deciding how to treat one of the brand’s most famous features: Lily herself. There’s so much equity and history there, and she’s just great - so there was a lot of emphasis placed on long term planning, and how her character (which is just her) would play into the brand way into the future.
The overall highlight has to be working with the Big Save team. They’re so open, passionate, and decisive. It also feels like we have built a great sense of mutual trust and honesty between our two teams. That aside, it’s been great to watch the brand transform. We can’t say too much at this stage, but from a brand tracking and sales perspective, everything is performing very well - with Big Save experiencing their best December on record just a couple of months ago.
LBB> I have to ask… how did you make the butter horse and how did you make it look so much like real butter? Was any of it real butter?
Alex> We actually sought advice from the GOAT of butter sculpting. Tim had built the infamous butter sculptures at Valentine’s throughout the 80’s, and travelled the world sculpting with his buttery knife. After seeking his advice, our art director worked to build a polystyrene pegasus, then applied butter like paint to the surface. We did use real margarine to coat the final layer on set. It had a pretty distinct smell underneath the heat of the lamps on shoot.
LBB> How do you ensure that your brand message and identity remain true as the world changes around the brand?
Lily> I think it comes down to simplicity. We don’t overcomplicate things and try to keep it as fun as possible.
Authenticity is actually really easy – we just want to bring New Zealanders the best value furniture and beds, and have a bit of fun doing it. Everything we do from messaging, identity, through to what happens on the shop floor - it’s always checked against our core values as a brand and business.
LBB> Why do you believe the brand has remained in the hearts of New Zealand for all these years?
Lily> We’re so proud that so many New Zealanders have fond memories of growing up with Big Save’s furniture and beds in their homes - and I think that physical presence has helped us stay in their hearts. It’s also helped us be really confident in who we are, and never try to be something we’re not. We’ve tried to keep the brand relatable to everyone, with a bit of a sense of humour - not taking ourselves too seriously - what you see is what you get.
LBB> What did you learn during the creation of this project?
Alex> It was really interesting to learn more about the world of retail, and furniture in particular. The Big Save team are experts in growing a nationwide retail business, and that knowledge is priceless when building a fresh brand strategy for a retail business with such a large national presence.
We also learned that people can be a bit snobby when it comes to retail. There are tried and true tactics that work in that world, and at the end of the day we know we have to talk about price. We decided these tactics didn’t necessarily have to be tired and expected, they could exist in the same world as the brand - we just had to work out how.
Finally, and probably most importantly, we learned you never, ever, pair a Larkinhurst recliner with an Altari corner chaise. You just don’t.
LBB> What is the secret to achieving success as a family-owned business?
Lily> That might be tricky for some to answer, but for us it’s doing something we love – that’s the secret. We come to work every day doing the thing we love, our passion. We have our own separate areas of the business that we look after, but we communicate a lot, and collectively have a very similar way of working. I think we’re unique in that there aren’t many family owned businesses that operate like ours – but it’s worked for us. No big fights, not yet anyway!
LBB> What is it that you love about Big Save Furniture?
Lily> I love that to this day we’re still a part of people’s homes, and have been for over 50 years. Having that heritage behind us, while still operating as a growing brand and business to this day, it’s exciting. It’s also that there’s always something to overcome or achieve in our day to day. Retail is an ever-changing environment, no two days are the same and I just love that.
While we’re all over the country, there are still a lot of homes in New Zealand that could do with a piece of Big Save furniture in the lounge or bedroom - and we as a family relish that opportunity and challenge.
