Behind Thirty One Twenty One's 'anti-branding' furniture marketing strategy - Furniture Today

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – Magnussen Home’s new Thirty One Twenty One furniture brand has quite an interesting marketing strategy: It barely has one at all.

“We won’t have a website that gets updated with new photography,” said brand head and industry veteran Adam Tilley. “We don’t have social media pages. We’re doing nothing to expand our distribution network. Our lines are intentionally nameless.”

“Lots of folks will do a catalog shoot,” he said. “They’ll use that content for catalogs on retail floor, but also for social media, signage at market, other e-blasts, etc. Not us. That’s not our intent.

“Yes, we’re going to create great content, video, and photography. But instead of putting that out in the marketplace, we’re going to package it up, give it to our retailers and let them deploy as they see fit.”

Tilley refers to the strategy as anti-branding. “We are essentially the marketing team for the retailer. We are content creators.”

Thirty One Twenty One exclusively does business with brick-and-mortar retailers and is not looking for more foot traffic. “Our strategy is to limit our distribution,” Tilley said. “We don’t want to oversell. We want to keep in stock.

“We’ve said, hey look, Mr. and Mrs. Retailer, you’re our partner. We want to do business with you. If you make a commitment to us with a hard order, we’re done. We can lock up.”

The brand made its debut at the recent High Point Market, unveiling nine introductory bedroom lines.

Has it been a success?

“Business is phenomenal,” said Tilley. “We are about to crossover what we thought we would hit for the whole year. We’ve sold out 70% of the groups we brought out at market.”

The line is currently being produced in Vietnam. It hasn’t yet shipped, although it is expected to be doing so soon. Once shipped, items will be warehoused in California.

Prices for the brand are 20% to 30% higher than Magnussen’s typical offering, with a four-piece bedroom retailing for approximately $4,000 to $5,000. Design-wise, the brand is focused on maximum face and on making sure hardware is unique and transitional.

“Big retailers might want to try the brand,” said Tilley. “We can get higher-end retailers at starting price points.”