Clever Closet
Making the ultimate storage hack the clever choice
Services Strategy, Branding, Tone of Voice, Creative Direction, Content, TVC
For a company, an acquisition can be a powerful catalyst. So for Clever Closet, recently acquired by Sharps Furniture Group, it presented a critical inflection point. They had a revolutionary product - a modular system for under-stair storage, but their brand didn’t connect, and was stalling their potential for long-term, scalable growth. This is where Sharps Furniture Group got us involved.
The Challenge
Our Brand Memorability framework identified four key challenges that were fundamental barriers to growth for Clever Closet.
First up, a lack of distinctiveness. The brand didn’t have anything that could help a potential customer pick it out of a line-up, meaning they were easily forgotten and consigned to battling in the competitive market of local tradespeople.
Next, we found that focusing on clever product features was failing to deliver the personal relevance or emotional connection needed to build a memorable brand.
And with no scalable system, no unified brand design and no defined tone of voice, they couldn't deliver a consistent experience across their expanding channels and touchpoints. This inconsistency acted as a drag on the business, hampering the marketing team's ability to execute with speed and agility, and ultimately capping their growth potential and marketing efficiency.
The Strategy
To unlock scalable growth, Clever Closet needed to build a brand foundation set up for memorability. A brand that would deliver tools that could solve the four key challenges that were holding them back.
Our first move was to align the entire brand with its core audience insight: a desire for simplicity and clever “life hacks”. This would ensure that what we would do next would deliver the personal relevance or emotional connection Clever Closet lacked. We distilled the insight into a new, two-word strategic positioning: Simply Clever. This wasn't a tagline. It is a guiding principle to reposition Clever Closet as the definitive, intelligent storage solution.
The Execution
Whilst the product was engineered for Simply Clever, the brand needed to be too. We translated this strategy into a comprehensive brand world and design system that delivered confidence, craft, and consistency.
This system was the key to unlocking sales growth. It was more than just new assets; it was a unified framework designed for consistency, distinctiveness, personal relevance and emotional connection. This empowered their new internal teams and partners, who became key collaborators in defining the system. Providing them with the tools to accelerate their marketing speed, enabling them to deploy campaigns with agility and unwavering consistency, regardless of the channel or market.
Bold and simple typography captures the new positioning and delivers stand-out for its focus on simplicity rather than craft and extra flourishes. A new warm green colour palette set Clever Closet apart in a category obsessed with blue and black. Rigorously tested to ensure it delivers both in print and digitally, it is supported by a CTA and Sale palette to ensure there are no more endless meetings picking out the latest promo palette.
Lifestyle imagery was commissioned and art directed around our vision for a brand that truly connected with the audience and the new tone of voice? Satisfyingly, simply clever of course. Instantly cutting through the category clutter. We replaced vague "solution-finding" language with a sharp, definitive result that highlights the emotional benefit of the product. So when competitors were saying, A place to put your coats and accessories. Clever Closet says, Chaos. Controlled.
The Result
By giving Clever Closet a creative platform as smart as its engineering, we didn't just redesign a brand. We delivered an engine for scalable growth by establishing a digital experience, promoting ease, and turning the lack of a home visit into a positive, simple online ordering experience. This reimagined the customer journey, focusing on the key USPs that make a difference to our audience's lives and their view of the product. Need some more key takeaways?
Find the human truth behind the product. The brand's success was unlocked by moving beyond storage features to the audience's truth: a desire for clever, simple life hacks.
Use language to create distinctiveness. The "Simply Clever" two-word structure acts as an emotional shortcut, making the brand instantly memorable and aligning it with the 'hack' mentality.
Elevate the entire story. A simple product in an overlooked space can become a compelling brand through an elevated story, clear visual direction, and a confident, clever tone of voice.
Simplicity is the strategy. In a complex market, illustrating how simple the process is becomes the biggest competitive advantage.
