Caring Chairs of Otley

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About Caring Chairs

Set within the idyllic Yorkshire town of Otley Caring Chairs is a family business owned by the husband and wife team of Melanie and Lee Bowen. With 21 years of experience behind them within the specialist furniture industry, a wealth of knowledge is available in helping find the right furniture for their customer’s home. Caring Chairs offer a range of specialist furniture such as Riser Recliners, Swivel Chairs, Drop-Arm Sofas as well as Comfort Chairs.

Project Detail

We were approached by Caring Chairs for an initial meeting where their project requirements were discussed. As the project was a new start-up company they required the full service package encompassing branding, stationery, advertising artwork, promotional sales materials plus a full e-commerce website. Centurius initially produced some rough mock up ideas for the meeting to illustrate the possible branding options for the new company which were met with positive feedback. A few days after our meeting Centurius were later appointed the contract for Caring Chairs. It was later revealed by the client that Centurius was part of a three way pitch against two other local agencies within the region. The reason for winning the contract was due to the transparency as well as backing up any questions that were asked.

Our first step was producing a milestone document for the client who outlined all the project requirements and due dates of completion.

Branding
Centurius was given relatively free reign for the branding of Caring Chairs. The single stipulation was to produce a series of ideas which incorporated a supporting brand icon to support the core title. Immediately we looked into the client’s competitors to make sure that our proposed brand did not infringe on any similarities. With regards to initial concepts, we looked at a series of supporting colour tones and suitable legible fonts for the brand. As our client’s key demographic of customer was a more mature buyer we felt that a serif font would fit well as it is most classical in nature. In regards to colouring, we proposed our logo concepts in a deep green with supporting cream elements. A supporting strapline was also required to work in conjunction with the brand. Using predefined keywords, supplied by the client, we formulated a number of suggestions for the client to work with.

Initially we provided just over 30 possible concept variations for the client to choose from. After feedback this was then filtered down to 8 possible variations. From these the client then made their choice and the next stage of the process could then commence.

Printed Stationery & Brochures
The next phase of the project required the creation of the new corporate stationery and sales materials. For the stationery we produced a number of variations for the client to look through, concentrating primarily on positioning, and font size. The client quickly decided on a style they liked and the final artwork files were produced.

At the initial meeting, between ourselves and the client, we discussed promotional sales materials and it was proposed that the best way to communicate their products would be via individual data sheets which could be held within a promotional pack folder. A universal template was created for consistency and 6 product sheets were created to highlight the new ranges that were on offer.

Signage & Promotional Sales Material
Centurius were also commissioned to design the exterior and interior promotional sales materials for the new Caring Chairs retail shop. The client had purchased an A1 display frame for promotional posters to go within. Centurius created a number of sales posters, based on the client’s requirements.

The exterior signage had predefined dimensions to work within and so print-ready artwork was produced and supplied to the signage writers.

Ecommerce Web Site
Our final project was the design and development of a new e-commerce website which displays the entire range of furniture that Caring Chairs have on offer. Centurius discussed the various platform options that the new site could be built in and it was agreed that the best solution for time vs budget would be the Sellerdeck V12 Ecommerce platform.
With regards to design of the site a number of the core design elements had already been set in stone, based on the previous branding and artwork. This made the initial design easier than usual to formulate and produce. We then displayed online a number of flat visuals to illustrate the walk through of a customer, from homepage right through to a detailed product description page.
Caring Chairs was built in HTML5 and CSS3 with a number of external plugins incorporated within the build to enhance the site functionality.

The main homepage was designed to allow for a large jQuery advertisement rotator that allowed the client to highlight specific offers and allow the customer to navigate to key products more easily. Below the main advert, we created an area for 6 key section links allowing the client to get straight to a desired section they may have overlooked.

There was a desire from the client to increase the visibility of the site and create links between website and customer. Centurius did this in two ways; the implementation of social media links on the site so that customers can go straight to customer desired social media platform. As well as this we also implemented a prominent position for the brochure request page in order to generate interest and convert sales.

In terms of navigation, the sections were structured to display the sub sections of the top level section. Within this, the products were set in two formats;the first was a smaller display with product name and price. Within the top right corner of each offering we implemented a sizing variable which allowed the customers to get immediate dimensions of the desired furniture. The links from product name and allowed the customer to click for an individual product page.

Within the main product pages we implemented two key plugins to improve sales conversions. This entailed product zoom functionality, allowing the client to enter 6 additional images which, when clicked on, would display a larger image to the customer. Similar to the homepage function, the product page also incorporated a tabber function which allows for masses of product information to be displayed into bite-sized chunks, which can be viewed via a tabbed title. In relation to the tabber functionality we customised specific tabs to appear depending on specific criteria, relating to that product. One example of this was the activation of a VAT Exemption tab to appear if VAT was set to zero. As well as this we also implemented a fabric swatch gallery allowing the clients to assign fabric swatches to the product.

As Centurius prides itself on building long term partnerships with its clients, Caring Chairs and Centurius are working together on future projects with the aim of enhancing the exposure of the new website via online marketing and the creation of newspaper advertisements. To help and support the client we are also maintaining the website for them via one of our Service Level Agreements.

Testimonial

“When looking for a marketing company my wife and I found three companies with which we had meetings. Centurius was by far the most professional of the three having done their own research into our market and providing a concise brief of preliminary ideas covering brand marketing, e-commerce, and traditional newspaper/magazine advertising.

Centurius experience and Knowledge in ecommerce and marketing has provided Caring Chairs with the same corporate presence as larger competitors in the market. Centurius systematic process of providing timelines and goals to keep the project on track, I found invaluable.

I appreciated Centurius listening to my concerns and desire of what Caring Chairs wanted the e-commerce side of the business to achieve. Centurius returned with solutions and implemented the new strategies.

I highly recommend Centurius service to other business owners. A call to Lee, Jonathan and the team will make your business work smarter not harder.”

Lee Bowen – Director
Caring Chairs Limited

Get in touch…

Address:
Lencett House, 45 Boroughgate,
Otley, Leeds, West Yorkshire,
Leeds, LS21 1AG

Tel: 0113 350 4095
Email: info@centurius.co.uk

Recent works

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