{ THE WHO }

A small retail online business serving the ultra-niche market of low-income dorm-dwelling students, was attempting to plant its tiny flag on the enormous playing field of college-student stuff while competing directly with retail giants such as Target and Amazon. Based out of Louisville, Kentucky and armed with a small passionate staff and a large warehouse, Dormbuys placed all of its chips on building an honest and fun corporate culture that emphasized growth, fun, and doing the right thing by its customers at all costs.

However, a short customer lifespan of 3 to 4 years – Senior in High School to Sophomore/Junior in College – made creating a brand that was empathetic, impactful, and memorable mandatory for the company’s survival.

{ THE WHAT }

Dreamentia immediately positioned Dormbuys as the authority in small space living, with a strong company focus on customer service, a modified logo, and a new tongue-in-cheek tagline, “Masters of Your Dormain.”

Understanding that the college student demographic had its own closed-door culture – one very wary of traditional advertising – all communication materials were crafted with a humbleness, a sense of humor, and voice that could only be described as anti-corporation-speak. A new, unique vocabulary was developed to describe various categories of the college lifestyle, including Furnitecture, Space-Sav-o-nomics and Decoristics – along with a transparent, hands-on company culture that extended from the CEO down and included customized individual business cards, each showing the Dormbuys employee’s actual open hand with a personal message scribbled upon the palm.

A student-centric, price-conscious website was developed to encourage sales and appeal to those without access to small-space stuff on campus. The website included daily time sensitive deals, special move-in packages, survival kits, and an emphasis on 24/7 customer service. Additional intensive marketing efforts included College radio, outdoor signage on and around campuses, a separate time-sensitive deal-based micro site dailydormdeal.com, Lifecycle email marketing directed to both students and parents, a robust social media campaign, and a dorm centric blog catering to questions, concerns, and interests of the dormdwelling population.

Distribution partnerships with big-box retailers such as Linens ‘n Things were put in place, an affiliate program for students was implemented, and a college bookstore rewards program was rolled out nationwide as a partnership with on-campus bookstores giving their students exclusive discounts on the Dormbuys product catalogue.

{ THE SO WHAT }

Re-positioned as a one-stop-shop for small space living with exemplary customer designed experiences, “Masters of Your Domain” became the rallying cry for the brand. The student-centric, cost-conscious website and DailyDormDeal microsite worked hand-in-hand with online marketing, grass roots programs, and highly targeted traditional marketing efforts to produce a competitive industry leader in dormcentric lifestyle products.

In addition, partnerships, distribution deals, and loyalty programs helped spread the reputation of Dormbuys to not only dorm-dwellers nationwide, but also to manufacturers of the small-space-appropriate products that fill the shelves of the Dormbuys warehouse.