“We call it a ‘populist’ brand.” Comfort research has been profitable for 19 of its 22 years, and donates 10% of its profits to charities in its local Grand Rapids, Michigan, community. Retailers such as Pottery Barn, Frontgate and LoveSac would order custom-designed furniture from Comfort Research and then market the items as their own product lines. “They got the credit for it.” That credit, he points out, could have been a brand awareness builder for Comfort Research. Although the change made strategic sense, at first there were some worries about whether Comfort Research could make up the lost revenue. Adding new outlets comes from both the efforts of the Comfort Research sales team and word of mouth.

Source: Forbes January 22, 2019 17:26 UTC