Restoration Hardware’s ultimate experience is delivered through the experience in a physical space – the core team asked me to embed with them to imagine what role the digital experience should play in the customer journey.
Before constructing a digital journey, deep thought had to be given to the existing physical store experience. The experience of Restoration Hardware is built from a series of motifs. These motifs reinforce value at every stage of the experience: the pea gravel driveway, the ornamental gates, the sweeping staircases, the period elevators. Every motif reinforced the value of the context on the selection, and so, on the purchase of an item.
The Pattern in the physical store revealed value each and every step the customer took. The texture, the craftsmanship, the comfort, the styling. But in the digital experience each step closer to the product became less valuable. Standardized ecommerce, with smaller images, less information, less uniqueness. To create a digital experience that could connect clienteling, services and ecommerce we had to reimagine the entire flow of a digital experience into a single tool organized around creating a more valuable, more rewarding engagement upon each interaction.
Restoration Hardware's value is locked into the environment, the lifestyle, the context – and the name, Restoration Hardware, is at odds with this. Restoration Hardware is not in the business of Restoring, or Hardware. After I mentioned this Gary Friedman the CEO he asked what it should be called, when I suggested RH he renamed the company.
RH helped the executive team align thinking around building a global lifestyle brand with a single aligned vision across the customer journey. RH expanded to RH Modern, Teen, Contemporary Art, Music and the stock price quadrupled in the following two years.
The Team
Marc Shillum – Strategy & Creative Direction
Adam Weiss/Landscape – Experience Design
Livia Foldes – Visual Design
Helen Pena Lopez/Landscape – Design
Mario Porto – Identity