Dec 06 Case Study: California Closets 

Meg Asaro
This is a well thought out shot. In this ad, we see California Closets move out of the bedroom area and into the rest of the house. They are still targeting their core audience of savvy consumers with taste and style. By portraying her being creative, they are tapping the side of her personality that enjoys playing dress-up and showing her individual style, a similar way into closet consumer psyche. In all forms of creativity, there is an element of chaos. California Closets streamlines this chaos in your wardrobe and can now do it in your home office. Pretty smart.

We also see another trend in advertising these days - the consumer is center stage and the product being advertised is secondary. Couldn’t even tell you what in the background is from California Closets - the cabinets or the table on which she is working, but it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the next time I need to redo my home office, this campaign is going to sneak back up from my subconscious because of the strength of this image.

Karen D’Silva
California Closets’ strategy is described as “functional yet aesthetic design, the art of organization, and the power of listening to its customers.” This image is from the recent campaign shot by photographer Baldomero Fernandez.  Baldomero visually illustrates how the company is listening to their customers. He photographs the model in her world rather than interacting with their product. In fact, they have chosen the moment where she is being creative. Why does this moment speak to their targeted audience?  It is not a coincidence our model represents the new breed of business people, referred to as the “Creative Class”. On a very basic level, Creative Classers are paid to think for a living. They understand the value of form and function. Just as California Closets is targeting the Creative Class, other companies are seeing the value in profiling this type of customer as they make a strong income. They are stylish and represent 30% of the US workforce. They are also tapping into the newly defined demographic “multiculti”. Our model reflects the new melting pot casting trend. Finding one person who looks like she could be a few different races at the same time is the hottest, and most realistic, look in advertising today.

Meg Asaro & Karen D’Silva are the Principals of Spark Visual Research. For more information about the authors visit the bios for Meg Asaro, Karen D’Silva, or www.sparkvisualresearch.com. D’Silva and Asaro also publish their own newsletter for professional photographers seeking highly applicable market research presented specifically for use in conceptual planning for commercial photography productions.