The New Art of Home: a brand for the Piterra chain of retail showrooms of exclusive interior products

Piterra is the parent brand of a chain of retail showrooms of exclusive interior products in St. Petersburg and Moscow, with an extensive dealer network across Russia and the CIS. Working with leading suppliers from Italy, England, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Spain and the USA, Piterra has represented world-famous premium brands on the Russian market since 1999. The development strategy formulated by the company's management called for the creation of a new-format store to attract audiences that had previously been left untapped because of the brand's focus on the high price segment and a specialised public. The future retail outlet was to bring together products from the world's best interior brands in wallpaper, moulded decor, textiles and paints in the mid-price category, in an 800 m2 space for retail customers and construction professionals, available from stock (80% of requests) and to order (20%), as well as from the clearance range. Brandson's specialists were to develop a sub-brand concept with unique positioning and an elegant identity for implementation in the wayfinding of the future store. An important part of the work was to preserve the premium character of the parent brand while adapting it to a wider audience and ruling out any confusion with the existing sub-brand Piterra Home, a space for designers and architects that regularly hosts special events: launches of new collections, meetings with representatives of leading companies, presentations, seminars and exhibitions.

While researching the specifics of the new project, the agency team turned its attention to a promising audience in transition from ordinary consumers to professionals. These are people with refined taste who are interested in interior design and who seek out the very best offers in the affordable mid-range category, but who are disappointed by the ranges of the DIY stores that dominate the market. At the same time, the "exclusivity" of specialised showrooms does not encourage them to visit those outlets either. In order to clearly signal the store's format to consumers, it was recommended that a new mark be created for the project in addition to the identity concept already planned.

The concept was built on a consumer insight uncovered during the audit: our audience uses their interior to express their individuality, in a constant search for balance and harmony between the outer and inner worlds. They value self-expression and want their sense of taste to be recognised, but they are free of snobbery and do not regard a high price as proof of a product's unconditional value. For them, the future store could become not only a convenient retail outlet with a wide range, but also a space for socialising in the democratic spirit of a modern museum, open both to narrow professionals and to the general public, integrating genuine art into everyday life. Each of us is the artist of our own life. The new Piterra store is created for those who know what they want and know how to get it, but who would like to draw on the experience of professionals in the selection process to broaden their knowledge of interior design.

The minimalist descriptor "Fabrics Wallpaper Mouldings Paints" makes the store's area of specialisation immediately clear and brings the audience's perception of it down to a concrete level. At the same time, the brandline "The New Art of Home" emphasises that the brand has a strong emotional and aesthetic dimension. The restrained functional style built into the layout grid and the design of the retail outlet is softened by hand-drawn product identifiers and soft pastel colours. The entrance area immediately sets the tone for visitors and creates the impression of a modern store with quality European goods at reasonable prices: it has taste and beauty, but no excessive pomp or luxury. The floor wayfinding does not obstruct the view and efficiently distributes the flow of people. The booklet announcing the opening of the new store reveals the positioning and demonstrates the individual character of the Piterra sub-brand.