Famous for its underwear and loungewear, Australian clothing brand Bonds recently launched its first ever range of homewares. Here, the brand’s head of marketing Kelly McBride shares the thinking behind the launch, and whether any other new product categories are on the horizon. Inside Retail: Tell me about the decision to enter the homewares category. Where did the idea come from, and what was involved in launching it? Kelly McBride: Bonds has long been famous for sleep. Our brand is
nd is already a staple in the bedrooms of many Aussies, thanks in large part to our iconic baby Zip Wondersuits, our Comfy Livin’ adult sleep range, as well as our versatile sweats that we know many like to sleep in. Extending this comfort to the bed via a range of soft, organic cotton adults, kids and baby bedding felt like a no brainer.
When designing the range, it was important that our products had a lot of personality. We wanted them to be bold, colourful and fun. We know from research that people want to express themselves more at home through redecorating and styling, but don’t always know how or feel that it’s not affordable. Our range of prints and patterns that can be mixed and matched together was designed to combat this – making it both easy and cost-effective to get creative. We even offer a range of matching PJs for those that want to dream even more boldly.
When it came to launching Bonds Home, we needed a marketing campaign as bold as the product. Our activity was two-phased. We first launched a teaser that put a playful twist on the classic Bonds logo with a temporary change of our brand name to Bondzzzz. Our second phase focused on our kids’ range. Anyone knows that putting children to bed can be challenging. We wanted to both get kids excited to sleep in our sheets and give parents a helping hand at the same time. And so the SnooZoo was created. With the magic of AR, playful animals come to life and encourage kids to get involved in a fun pre-bedtime routine that includes dancing, brushing teeth and reading, ending of course with them nodding off to sleep (we hope!).
IR: Is the range available in stores or online only?
KM: The range is available via Big W, as well as on bonds.com.au and in select Bonds stores.
IR: What has the customer response been like?
KM: It’s still early days, but we’ve had some great feedback on the range and SnooZoo from our passionate social fan base. We love seeing how much fun our customers are having experimenting with our prints, with some even creating their own social content with their kids and tagging us. There’s been some great organic discussion too on the future of the flat sheet. Our fans are divided, but the consensus appears to be that no flat sheet is the way to go.
IR: How do you see the home range evolving/expanding in future? Are there any other adjacent categories that you think Bonds could expand into?
KM: Given it’s early days on our bedding launch, our focus first and foremost is on making Bonds as loved for our comfy bedding as we are for our comfy undies and sleepwear.
As with any future product development, consumer insights and macro design trends play a significant role in helping us to determine ‘what’s next’. We know that with people spending more time than ever in the home the last two years, home entertainment and home-redecorating has been a huge priority. We’ll be keeping a very close eye on how this behaviour evolves in a post-Covid world and will use this to inform future decision-making.
IR: Are there any new store openings or store designs on the horizon?
KM: We’re constantly building more personalised shopping experiences for our customers and improving on-to-off-line commerce. Whilst online provided accessibility to Bonds products over the past two years when much of our store network was closed, we are enjoying welcoming customers back into stores. Nothing beats the tactility of an in-store shop, something digital is unable to offer yet.