CenturyLaminates Campaign Offers Fashion for Your Furniture
Your home says a lot about you. With the shift from individual houses to condominiums where all apartments look the same, individuality is at stake. The only way to stand out vis-à-vis the neighbours next door is via the interiors of your flat. The right interiors create the right social impression about the owners, making their home a talking point. Tastefully done up spaces help project them as the ‘IT couple’ in their social set while letting the world know how far they have climbed up the social ladder.
Hence, increasing preference for home décor elements and items that have high flaunt value. There is an ever-growing need to create distinctive pieces of furniture and spaces in one’s home which are visible status symbols. Consumers are driven by the desire to own exclusive items and own them first.
Laminates play a significant role in making one’s home appear distinctly different from another’s. The parameters to evaluate laminates, however, are limited to look and feel. Consumers have no real knowledge of specific attributes and lay emphasis on colours, designs, shades, and finishes.
CenturyLaminates, one of the largest brands in the furniture surface solutions category, is widely known for quality, range, innovation, and customer focus. The company has tied up with one of India’s most renowned fashion designers, Manish Malhotra, to launch a range of laminates aptly described as Fashion for your Furniture. With the introduction of a game changer in the form of Manish Malhotra, CenturyLaminates redefines design with this industry-first range of designer laminates for evolved customers.
Bollywood’s most celebrated fashion designer has been deeply entrenched in the twin worlds of fashion and film for the past three decades. For the first time ever, a designer has entered the laminates category, that too of the stature of Manish Malhotra. CenturyLaminates by Manish Malhotra brings in an element of exclusivity which is coveted by high end consumers. Manish’s penchant for designs rooted in Indian culture & tradition finds expression in the contemporary, world class look of the Elegante range. He incorporates the double M monogram into the very modern Insignia range, stamping it with his unmistakable style. He experiments with all that’s chic and post-modern to create the unique and stunning Fusion range. These breathtakingly beautiful ranges of laminates will blow the minds of customers and enable their homes to make a statement about themselves. Through this partnership, CenturyLaminates effectively repositions competition which is only talking colours, designs, textures, and finishes.
In order to bring alive the style quotient of these laminates, CenturyLaminates has created a couple of films, in association with its partner Wunderman Thompson. The films showcase Manish and his creations, while attempting to stoke the aspirations of upwardly mobile, brand conscious individuals. They address the overarching consumer need - “My home needs to create a buzz in my social set”. Manish Malhotra has created the collection and is also endorsing it in the films. First off the block is the film titled The Video Call.
Manish Malhotra is known for the clothes he designs. Over the years, he has associated himself with related categories like cosmetics and jewellery. But till now, he had never designed for a completely unrelated category. When you hear the name, you think fashion and not laminates.
Both the films play on this fact to add an element of surprise. Viewers are led to believe they will soon get to see the latest costumes designed by Manish before the big reveal which provides the twist. They realise that Manish has designed the wardrobe yet again, in a manner of speaking, but the outside, not the inside.
A 360-degree integrated marketing campaign has been planned to create excitement around the launch of the collection. TV will be the lead medium, supported by cinema, print, POS and digital.
Commenting on the partnership, Keshav Bhajanka, executive director, Century Plyboards (India) Ltd., said, “I am so proud and delighted that CenturyLaminates has tied up with Mr Manish Malhotra, a designer par excellence, to bring this range of laminates to our customers. Over the last few years, we have been witnessing a sea change in customer behaviour and lifestyle. They are looking at brands to amplify their style quotient and enhance their personality. They are aligned with global trends and exposed to international styling.
In order to cater to such consumers, we wanted to innovate and change the way laminates have looked for ages. Instead of making incremental changes, we chose to unveil designs that will radically redefine the decorative space. We thought of ‘revolution’ not ‘evolution’ and who better than Mr Manish Malhotra to turn the ‘revolution’ we had envisioned into reality. He has effortlessly extended his expertise and his customer insight - from dresses to brand labels to accessories to, eventually, furniture.
When it comes to designing what goes inside the wardrobe, Mr Manish Malhotra is the undisputed master. We put up a new challenge for him by asking him to design what goes outside a wardrobe as opposed to what he is globally known for - dresses - which go inside the wardrobe. Not only did he graciously accept the challenge but also reinvented himself to come up with designs that are completely out of this world. CenturyLaminates by Manish Malhotra introduces a designer of this stature into the laminates category for the very first time. This trend-beating genre of designer laminates - uber cool, super classy and a pride to own - is aptly described as Fashion for your Furniture. Discerning customers, interior designers and architects will now be like painters and sculptors - mixing and matching these laminates, making their imagination run wild as they create their own masterpieces.”
Commenting on the film, Arjun Mukherjee, VP and senior ECD, Wunderman Thompson, Kolkata, said, “Manish Malhotra is synonymous with films and fashion. The films play up this association in the minds of people, making them expect to see the new couture collection. The penny drop moment happens when you realize that for the first time ever MM has created Fashion for your Furniture.”
Commenting on the film, Vijay Jacob Parakkal, senior VP and managing partner, Wunderman Thompson, Kolkata, said, “The selection of laminates is predominantly guided by the aspects of design and colour, with brand playing a comparatively lesser role. We are positive that this campaign, including the very captivating films, showcasing the remarkable range of CenturyLaminates by Manish Malhotra will bring about a paradigm shift in the laminate purchasing process. By doing so, CenturyLaminates will be firmly established as the foremost choice in consumers' minds, solidifying its leadership position in the industry”.
