To stay ahead of the trends and demand of an ever-changing US market, the North America subsidiary of a global plumbing brand released an expansion of color/finish options for one of their most popular kitchen collections for trade and online retail.

The creative team was responsible for producing the images and graphic solutions needed for the product launch. As the lead creative, I took on the role of managing the project as well as devising our creative approach toward meeting the objectives of the launch.

As we surveyed the market and our existing assets archive, we realized that the current imagery at the time mainly lacked a kitchen setting and ambience that was both relatable and potentially inspiring to modern US consumers. To add to this, we found the interior design of the kitchen shown in the existing imagery for the collection was not cohesive with any of the new finishes, so image manipulation was not an appropriate option.

These two observations became the primary components of our team’s creative approach. Given our business strategy and resources provided for the launch, the team decided to revamp the entire collection with all-new inspiration photography for both new and existing finishes. We would also repurpose the new photography to create infographics, highlighting key benefits and providing basic installation information for online shoppers.

Cost efficiency was essential to fulfilling the quality deliverables in a practical means.

• I managed to procure a professional studio to perform photography at a rate lower than the market average.

• We decided to use our company showroom as the shoot location, which provided a built-in kitchen counter, sink, and back wall. This option provided a space to install and photograph all of the products free of charge.

• To create the look of modern US kitchens, I researched and ordered adhesive backsplash tiles and enlisted the help of our maintenance team to craft mobile backsplashes. This allowed us to interchange multiple backsplash options with relatively little effort and cost.

• Despite having a total of five finishes to photography, I made the decision to have the studio take photos of only 2 finishes: Chrome and steel optic. Once completed, the steel optic photos could then be manipulated in-house to represent the other three finishes (brushed gold, brushed black chrome, and matte black) using Photoshop. This saved significant cost on the procurement side, as this method required only a single day shoot rate versus multiple days.

One year after delivery, overall revenue for this collection has met and exceeded the US subsidiary’s goals. The products along with the deliverables of this project have received substantial online visibility and engagement. What I enjoy most about this project is that our creative approach aligned almost perfectly with both business strategy and the needs of the end user.