Friday, May 19, 2006

DFS - Another DFS ad!

While most adverts for (furniture retailer) DFS are awful, a radio ad I heard yesterday actually quite a nice planning insight in it.

Sure, the ad was poorly written, not very well spoken and a bit dull... but one of the points it makes it absolutely spot on, namely:

Men don't like shopping for sofas, theyd rather be at home sitting on the lovely new sofa they can't be bothered to shop for.

Its a great insight that reveals a lot about the attitude of customers buying sofas, but also opens up a range of ideas on how to target them: "We know its dull, but when you are watching tv with a beer it will be so much more relaxing than your current one" and so on.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agree on the insight Rob - rather nice and as you say real creative potential. My feeling is that DFS , while tradiotionallly tragic, are getting their act together. I even liked the outdoor work for their recent sale. I'd give rate their work as 'respectable'

Rob Mortimer (aka Famous Rob) said...

They are certainly getting better, their last batch of radio ads certainly weren't as good.

I havent seen any outdoor DFS ads recently, but i'll have to keep a lookout.

The problem with many DFS ads is that the person writing them seems to follow an ideal of "What a DFS ad should be", instead of looking at "What a DFS ad could be."

A sofa is such an integral part of our everyday lives, yet most furniture ads seem to completely ignore this fact. A sofa is so very different in appeal and attachment to any other piece of furniture. If more sofa companies noticed this, maybe we'd have even better ads!

[Thanks for the email Richard, i'll get back to you on it shortly!]

Anonymous said...

Good to see that people think DFS is beginning to turn the corner.
Espescially when you consider what they were like 5 years ago.
It can be so easy to just give in and let people have what they ask for, it's much harder to keep plugging away, knowing that change is going to happen very, very slowly.
Love the 'role of the sofa' thought, perfect for a number one.

Incidentally, it's this scale that differentiates DFS - you'll probably find something within your parameters, both price and style.
Women hate having to compromise on things that are not quite right, DFS could mean that perfect is becoming more possible.

Love your work Rob, good to see some more noise from the North.