Client: Gainsville
Studio: Newpath
Role: Head of Marketing/Brand/Strategy

Gainsville, a respected name in designer furniture, had found itself caught in a cycle of aggressive mark down activity. When companies get caught in a cycle of reduced-price sales, it can deliver short-term results, but it often comes at the cost of brand perception. Over time, it diminishes the perceived value of both the product and the brand, making it harder to build sustained, profitable growth. The challenge was clear: re-establish Gainsville as a luxury furniture leader, rooted in style, customisation and comfort, without sacrificing commercial momentum.

At Newpath, where I led the marketing and brand engagement, I saw this as an opportunity to bring the brand back to its centre. This wasn’t about walking away from promotions, but about shifting the conversation. Steering Gainsville from price to value, from urgency to identity.

Whenever I mentioned Gainsville to people (industry peers, customers, even family), I often got the same response: “Gainsville… I remember them, used to advertise at the footy. Are they still a thing?” That question stuck with me. It captured a sense of faded relevance, and it helped frame the repositioning as not just a marketing task, but a position of renewal.

Reframing the Brand from the Inside Out

To start, I ran a series of brand workshops to help the team reconnect with what made Gainsville distinctive. We weren’t just selling furniture, we were offering tailored comfort, design integrity and self-expression.

I defined three core brand values for Gainsville: Quality, Range and Value. I then articulated a more meaningful interpretation of “Value”, shifting it away from price and towards a richer, four-part framework. Value was expressed through four distinct lenses: Symbolic (style and self-expression), Experiential (comfort and customisation), Functional (usability and adaptability) and Financial (an investment in design, materials and finish). This approach helped reposition value as something deeply embedded in the product and brand experience, rather than something defined by cost.

I developed detailed personas to bring this strategy to life: The Professional, The New Generation and The Established. Each one gave me a perspective through which to shape creative direction, media planning and messaging tone. They allowed me to get specific about needs, behaviours and channels, and that specificity informed every part of the rollout.

As the narrative evolved, I introduced a series of new brand expressions that moved beyond features and into emotion:

• “It’s more than furniture, it’s my style”

• “Crafted for living, crafted for you”

• “Bespoke style only Gainsville can bring”

These weren’t slogans, they were a reframing. A way to remind the audience (and the business) that furniture can speak to identity, not just function.

Elevating the Visual Identity

Visually, I pushed for a clear shift. I advocated for a warmer, more lived-in aesthetic that better reflected real Australian homes. Out went the overly clinical, cold modernist styling. In came subtle signs of life: wine glasses left on the table, throws casually draped, imperfect symmetry that made a space feel real.

I guided the use of warmer tones, richer colour grading and lighting that felt closer to golden hour than fluorescent showroom. The furniture was still the hero, but now it existed in a scene you could imagine yourself in. I also led the simplification of the colour palette, replacing harsh blacks and whites with stone, marble and timber-influenced tones. It brought a softness and cohesion that supported the shift to premium without pretension.

While I explored ways to rework the Gainsville logo, I ultimately chose not to change it. The equity was still strong. Instead, I focused on applying it more deliberately, with restraint and polish across digital and physical touchpoints.

Building the Digital Experience

As the repositioning progressed, I pushed for a complete rebuild of the Gainsville website. The original setup relied heavily on Airtable to manage product information and delivery, which created friction in the customer experience and limited the brand’s ability to operate as a modern ecommerce business. If Gainsville was to be taken seriously as a premium offering, the digital environment needed to reflect that same level of care.

The client selected Shopify as the new ecommerce platform. I led the design and strategic direction for the site, working closely with my mid-weight designer and the client to ensure it was more than just functional. Together, we built a site that featured cleaner flows, clearer positioning statements and a visual tone that aligned fully with our broader brand work.

The new site became a key part of the brand’s ecosystem. It was no longer just a catalogue, but a place where people could explore, learn, and buy with confidence. It helped shift perception while supporting performance.

Restructuring the Campaign Cadence

I completely overhauled the way Gainsville approached its campaign rhythm. Rather than leading with discounts, I built a flexible campaign structure that allowed brand storytelling to run year-round, interspersed with reimagined promotional moments.

Digital channels were the foundation. I planned and executed campaigns that used:

• Instagram Reels and Facebook Stories for light-touch brand moments

• Carousel and Collection ads to showcase range and customisation

• YouTube video ads to tell deeper stories

I restructured email marketing too, introducing editorial content and audience segmentation. Loyalty communications shifted from blanket discounting to personalised, story-driven updates that felt more like a design journal than a sales trigger.

Even during sales periods like EOFY or Black Friday, I ensured the creative remained on-brand (visually elevated, narratively consistent and free from the clutter of urgency-for-urgency’s sake).

Proving That Brand Drives Performance

The results were meaningful, both in numbers and narrative. Between 2023 and 2024, Gainsville saw a 27.5 percent increase in revenue without increasing its reliance on promotions. In March 2025, revenue rose by 52.7 percent year-on-year with no additional promotional activity.

These gains weren’t just financial. Engagement improved, return visits increased, and customers began using language that echoed the brand we had worked so hard to shape: comfort, custom, style, quality.

Behind the scenes, I used split testing to show how brand-led messaging outperformed price-driven ads across key metrics (click-through, time on site and ad recall). It helped shift the conversation with the client, making the case for brand investment as a performance strategy, not a luxury.

Leading with Care, Creative and Conviction

Leading this repositioning meant guiding the client through uncertainty. It meant building trust, often by showing rather than telling, and by backing creative intuition with data.

It also meant protecting the long view. When the numbers dipped or questions arose about dropping another discount code, I stood by the strategy. And gradually, the results made the argument for me.