Client Challenge

Karndean approached us to reposition their Global brand, and having completed this strategic process, we were asked to develop a ATL campaign for the UK market, to bring the new position to life.

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

• 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 objective 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.

People planning to do their kitchen, bathroom or living room often don’t consider the floor until the job’s underway. It’s an afterthought. When they do, they’d think of wood or stone as the premium option. So the opportunity was to elevate the role of the floor in the process.

Our brand platform, ‘Designed For Life captures how flooring ’underpins everything that goes on in every home’.

So to ensure homeowners consider their flooring first, we demonstrated the emotional potential of great flooring, and how it underpins everything that goes on in every home.

Where others were showing polished perfection we embraced real life, capturing familiar situations and scenarios that occur in everyday life. Connecting Karndean to the emotional power of family home life, summarised by the campaign line: ‘Life is lived on these floors’.

By making this emotional, the audience associates Karndean with flooring in a way that is more memorable when they come to choose flooring for their home.

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