CASE STUDY

Delta Faucet Showroom Display

Remaining a leader at trade showrooms.

The Challenge

Delta Faucet Company (DFC), a leader in the plumbing industry, faced the critical task of updating its Showroom Display System for the Delta brand. While the existing display that I designed, launched in 2017, were highly effective, contributing to a 25% sales lift for Delta, they were approaching their tenth year in deployment. This longevity, however, led to a significant competitive issue: competitors like Rohl, Kohler, and Moen had copied DFC’s existing showroom display designs and functionalities. This created a "sea of sameness" in the market, threatening DFC's leadership position.

The Solution

The project initiated a complete redesign of the showroom display program, moving beyond a mere update, with the explicit objective to reassert DFC's leadership in the showroom. The solution centered on reinventing the displays' function to provide meaningful experiences and a compelling reason for customers to visit the showroom. This involved a multi-phase approach from creative brief development to design intent.

Client: Delta Faucet Company

Location: Plumbing Showrooms, Nationwide

Completion Date: 2025

Creative Brief

The Wow Factor

In order to stand out from the competition and align with the changing shopping behaviors of consumers within this channel today (and tomorrow), we need to expand upon a display of product.

We need to consider what is going to make this investment worth it beyond design changes. We need to think about an experience that aligns with the target audience so we can provide a purposeful function and a reason to come into the showroom.

In order to provide a new, meaningful experience, we need to consider how to balance space to accommodate both the experience and product without sacrificing either. This will require exploring innovative, space saving solutions.

Concept Ideation

Part of the Blue Sky stage was to push ideas out of the comfort zone, so being uncomfortable and surprised was the goal. We focused on the bigger picture of how these concepts work, function, and the overall experience.

To help guide feedback to collaborate on an appropriate direction to move forward with, we asked questions like:

  • Will this help facilitate the conversation in the showroom?

  • Does this provide a compelling reason to come into, or engage, with showroom vs shopping online or at retail?

  • Does it represent the brand and the direction the brand is heading?

Design Development

Part of the concept refinement stage was to narrow down ideas to 1 approved concept/direction, to finalize design details, and to populate the design to displays to update the program of displays.

To help guide feedback to collaborate on an appropriate direction to move forward with, we asked questions like:

  • How well does this provide the stories and interactive functions that will promote the capabilities offerings of the brand?

  • To what degree does this align with the needs of the target audience (decision maker and showroom associate) in order to help them in their selection process?

  • Does this provide a competitive edge and exclusive benefit/reason to come into the showroom?

  • Will the wow factor (i.e. the experience) keep DFC a leader in the marketplace?

  • How well does this align with how the target audience is shopping today, and is flexible to adapt with the changing behaviors in the future?

Final Concept Design

The final concept for the Delta showroom display program was designed to create a "unique trade exclusive experience" that helps Delta stand out from competitors, particularly against online and retail channels. It aims to support conversations and selections for an entire project by showcasing products, inspiration, and pairings.

Supports conversations and selections for your entire project via a collection experience: see product, inspiration, pairings, and more.

1) Curated Collections: Collection panels make it easy to understand design stories and the trade exclusive benefits.

2) Hands-On Exploration: Explore collection details in the drawer directly below the collection panels.

3) Interactive Project Zone & Conversation Hub: One-stop shop to consult with clients.

4) Featured Story Modules: Curated communication, updatable for freshness.

Exclusive Trade Experience & Storytelling

Curated Collections

Product was organized by easily updatable Collection panels, designed to make it easy for customers to understand the design stories and the trade-exclusive benefits of Delta products.

Hands-On Exploration

Directly below the collection panels, drawers allowed for hands-on exploration of collection details, accessories, more finishes, complementary products.

Interactive Project Zone & Conversation Hub

One-stop shop to consult with clients, including:

  • Project Zone Storage: Storage of finish swatches, sampling/finish rings, literature, and project guides.

  • Hands-On Exploration: Explore collection details in the drawer directly below the collection panel.

Featured Story Modules

Curated communication for updatable for freshness, including:

  • Featured Stories: Updatable panels debut new products and collections. Panels act as doors to additional product storage and educational graphics to further educate and showcase featured stories.

  • Featured Product: Illuminated shelving to highlight featured product: new collections and/or adjacent product categories.

A Digital Competitive Edge

Strategic Digital Integration

Digital tools were designed to be a "natural extension of conversations," high-value, and low-maintenance, taking into account varying internet availability in showrooms and avoiding ordering capabilities.

  • Augmented Reality (AR): Integrated AR allowed users to visualize products in different material finishes, within inspirational room scenes, and even demonstrate water flow patterns using personal devices or display tablets.

  • NFC (Near Field Communication): By tapping a phone or display tablet to collection graphics, users could instantly receive specs and resources directly to their device.

  • Digital Tablet with RFID: A tablet was included to facilitate visualization, sampling, sales support, and wish/pick list creation by interacting with product SKUs via an RFID chip reader.

THE RESULT

Reinventing the showroom experience.

The redesigned showroom display program for Delta aimed to fundamentally reinvent the showroom experience, ensuring DFC not only remains a leader in the showroom but also provides a compelling, purposeful reason for customers to visit.

After the final design was approved, we created a design intent package to handoff to the production vendor.

We maintained design intent throughout the process by consulting and collaborating with the engineers, finish selection, and prototype reviews.

This also resulted in the update of the online sales tool and online ordering system.

Project Details

  • Site Analysis & Competitive Audits
    Kathleen Carron
    Paul Kovacs

    Key Stakeholder Interviews
    Brian Gee
    Kathleen Carron
    Michael Kristofka

    Design Input & Brief
    Kathleen Carron

  • Creative Strategy
    Kathleen Carron

    Concept Ideation
    Kathleen Carron
    Paul Kovacs

  • Design
    Kathleen Carron

    Tone of Voice & Copy
    Bob Raczka

    Renderings & Animations
    Felipe Oropeza

  • Documents & Drawings
    Kathleen Carron
    Paul Kovacs

  • Sales Tools & Merchandising Guide Website
    Kaity Burns

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