Background

Karndean approached The Behaviours Agency to lead a comprehensive strategic repositioning of its global brand.

Following the successful delivery of this foundational brand architecture, we were retained to develop a high-impact above-the-line (ATL) campaign designed to bring this new positioning to life.

This case study demonstrates our long-term ability to translate complex brand principles into scalable, commercially rigorous creative systems.

Client Challenge

Despite exceptionally high levels of customer satisfaction and product quality, Karndean faced a structural market challenge that also mimics a classic e-commerce hurdle:

• The Afterthought: Consumers were treating the category as an isolated product purchase rather than the essential foundation of a finished space. The biggest commercial opportunity was being missed because the brand was entering the consumer journey too late.

• Low awareness relative to trust: While trust was high among those who knew the brand, top-of-mind brand recall was low. Customers primarily encountered premium options through generic product search rather than proactive brand selection.

• Erosion of distinctiveness: Competitors were relying heavily on soft, generic lifestyle interiors, beige aesthetics, and over-styled, uninhabited room photography. This sea of sameness prioritised aesthetic consistency over true distinctiveness and emotional authority.

The challenge was to increase top-of-mind brand awareness so that Karndean would stand for standards and proper judgment before customers actively entered the transactional buying window

Strategy

To unlock mass awareness and category authority, we deployed our Motivation + Memorability framework to pinpoint the behavioural triggers that turn permanent, high-consideration choices into highly retrievable brand decisions.

1. Uncovering the Motivation Gap

Our behavioural research revealed that consumers undertaking room renovations frequently experience a "decision block" caused by the complexity of the purchase. Because finishing choices feel permanent, customers fear getting them wrong.

We realised that the real commercial opportunity lies before the product selection moment, when people are planning the end-state of a room.

We shifted the strategic framing: the brand exists for people who believe that details matter disproportionately and that a room doesn't feel finished unless everything is properly right. We elevated the category from a functional, transactional afterthought to a foundational standard of completion.

2. Building an Authoritative, Scalable Visual System

To ensure the work actively avoided drifting into "pleasant but generic interiors branding" we established a rigorous creative system built on clarity over decoration:

• Precision over persuasion: We designed a visual system that works across multiple product styles equally, respecting the customer's need for the job to be properly done.

• Photography logic and authenticity: We rejected sterile, over-styled studio photography. Instead, we art-directed a comprehensive asset system around lived-in light, genuine compositions, and tactile detail imagery. This demonstrated the emotional payoff of a completed space while maintaining absolute real-world authenticity.

• An assured, considerate tone: We used an assured, plainspoken tone of voice that communicated technical fluency and expertise without arrogance. This directly reduced doubt around a consequential purchase.

3. Creating Highly Retrievable Distinctive Brand Assets

By anchoring the creative output in human behaviour and room completion, we built a unified framework that scales effortlessly across mass campaigns, digital touchpoints, and editorial contexts. The campaign replaced vague lifestyle imagery with a sharp, definitive point of view that highlights the exact feeling of execution confidence.

The Results

The ATL campaign delivered an immediate and measurable shift in consumer perception, distinctiveness, and purchase confidence:

• Standout: +81% of consumers stated that the creative stood out distinctly from other home and garden advertising, proving that rejecting generic "sanctuary language" and soft aesthetics creates massive market differentiation.

• Shifting brand perceptions: +87% of the target audience reported an improved, more premium perception of the brand after viewing the campaign, firmly establishing Karndean's authority and standards.

• Driving future commercial intent: +87% of style-conscious homeowners stated they were more likely to consider Karndean for their home, successfully embedding the brand as a top-of-mind choice long before the product transaction moment.

What our client said:

“The Behaviours Agency really got to know our audience, quickly identifying the role flooring has in customer’s lives. And as soon as we saw the campaign idea we fell in love with it”.

Gavin Smith, Marketing Director