Thanks to Covid Habits, Millions Are Still Loafing at Home—Just Where La-Z-Boy Wants Them

Earlier this week, furniture brand La-Z-Boy, the leading maker of recliners, took the wraps off a new logo and visual identity. The company had two good reasons for doing it. First, the brand’s centennial will arrive in 2027, so it made sense to get a jump on a new look. Second, the last time the visual assets had gotten a facelift was 2003—and they were looking, well, pretty 2003.

“Our system was built at the time to serve that reality,” the brand’s vice president and CMO Christina Hoskins told ADWEEK. But 22 years ago, she said, “social didn’t exist the way it does now, streaming didn’t exist the way it does now—digital wasn’t what it is today.”

While it may not have been an official part of the strategy, there’s a third, more encompassing factor that makes this brand refresh well timed. La-Z-Boy is presenting itself to a nation of couch potatoes, a crowd that’s arguably more receptive to buying a recliner than at any time since the suburban ’60s.

The pandemic takes the credit for this one. La-Z-Boy was one of those fortunate few brands—like Uber Eats, Clorox, and Purell—for whom the coronavirus produced a troupe of enthusiastic customers. 

“We had many good years of sales early [during] Covid,” Hoskins said, “when people were home, when they were investing in their home, when they wanted their homes to be a place of safety and respite and peace. So that was great for us, and continues to be.”

According to recent studies and surveys, those recliner-friendly times are likely here to stay.

In March, CBS news declared that “the U.S. is becoming a nation of homebodies,” citing research from UCLA that revealed that, compared to pre-pandemic times, Americans are now spending 51 fewer minutes outdoors every day as part of a broader “stay-at-home shift.” 

La-Z-Boy

A Talker Research survey from April revealed that 72% of Americans prefer a nice night at home over going out. And according to a TrustedHousesitters survey released in June, 56% of Gen-Zers admit to nixing vacation plans to stay home with their pets.

Does this surfeit of soilitudinarians constitute a readymade rabble of recliner buyers? Time will tell—but La-Z-Boy is positioning itself to appeal to them, if the current rebrand is any indication.

While relaxing at home has always been a prevailing theme in La-Z-Boy’s advertising, it was equally apparent that the product on offer was a piece of furniture—usually one reserved for dad after a long day at the office. What’s different now is the company’s intent to frame itself as a wellness product.

“Our strategy has shifted substantially to focus on comfort, expanding the reach of the Lazy Boy brand,” Hoskins said. “We’re a comfort brand and that is bigger than the furniture itself.”

La-Z-Boy

To that end, everything from the new slogans (“Life’s better laid back,” “Tailored for your time off”) to the color palette (“misty midnight tones and earthly hues”) aims to convey tranquility and repose—just the sort of things that post-pandemic America is in the mood for anyway.

The centerpiece of the rebrand is La-Z-Boy’s new wordmark, which creative shop Colle McVoy returned to a cursive typeface in a way that evokes the 1927 original but is more curvaceous, with rounded corners and gentle contours meant to evoke the feeling of settling into a recliner.

Over the last two decades, “we’d lost touch with what we stand for as a brand, which is ultimately comfort,” said vice president and group design director Diana Quenomoen. “The evolved logo should be telegraphic. When I see it, I should see comfort. It should express and exude that emotive feeling.”

Apart from forcing Americans to loaf around at home, another feature of pandemic living that seems to have permanently re-coded the culture is removing the guilt from that loafing. And, here again, La-Z-Boy stands ready to accommodate.

“We all know we need to rest in life,” Hoskins said. “Sometimes we feel guilty [about] it, but La-Z-Boy wants to make sure that you don’t feel guilty.”