Earlier this week, furniture brand La-Z-Boy, the leading maker of recliners, took the wraps off a new logo and visual identity. The company had two good reasons for doing it. First, the brand’s centennial will arrive in 2027, so it made sense to get a jump on a new look. Second, the last time the visual assets had gotten a facelift was 2003—and they were looking, well, pretty 2003.
“Our system was built at the time to serve that reality,” the brand’s vice president and CMO Christina Hoskins told ADWEEK. But 22 years ago, she said, “social didn’t exist the way it does now, streaming didn’t exist the way it does now—digital wasn’t what it is today.”
While it may not have been an official part of the strategy, there’s a third, more encompassing factor that makes this brand refresh well timed. La-Z-Boy is presenting itself to a nation of couch potatoes, a crowd that’s arguably more receptive to buying a recliner than at any time since the suburban ’60s.
The pandemic takes the credit for this one. La-Z-Boy was one of those fortunate few brands—like Uber Eats, Clorox, and Purell—for whom the coronavirus produced a troupe of enthusiastic customers.
“We had many good years of sales early [during] Covid,” Hoskins said, “when people were home, when they were investing in their home, when they wanted their homes to be a place of safety and respite and peace. So that was great for us, and continues to be.”
According to recent studies and surveys, those recliner-friendly times are likely here to stay.
In March, CBS news declared that “the U.S. is becoming a nation of homebodies,” citing research from UCLA that revealed that, compared to pre-pandemic times, Americans are now spending 51 fewer minutes outdoors every day as part of a broader “stay-at-home shift.”
