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Creating a design concept for a kitchen or remodeling an outdated bathroom requires an understanding of the products and services available to those looking to undertake such a project. The ProSource Podcast breaks down the home remodeling industry and highlights the merchandise and experience that it requires to achieve your vision. Join ProSource Director of Digital Marketing Content Kevin Devine, as he speaks with those who facilitate the ideal project and offer valuable information for how to choose the ideal products and services that transform your ideas into reality.
Welcome back to The ProSource Podcast.
I am sitting here today
with Stephanie Pierce, director of design
and trends at MasterBrand.
She's in person with me.
So super exciting.
MasterBrand
is actually visiting ProSource right now.
So I thank you so much, firstly,
for coming on and being able
to sit down with me
and talk a little bit about MasterBrand
and what's going on right now
with the brand.
Can you introduce yourself a little bit
and just share what you do
for the company?
Absolutely.
So my name is Stephanie Pierce.
I've been with MasterBrand for 23 years.
Hard to believe it's been that long.
I've seen a lot of change in our kitchen
industry over the that time period.
I actually started with the company
as a kitchen designer, so my background is
in kitchen and bath design.
Spent the
bulk of my career actually
doing product design.
Okay, so really getting into finish
development or skew solutions.
You know, creating opportunities to solve
the problems
that that homeowners have for designers.
With the products that we offer.
So that's been an exciting, journey
and such a big influence on my career.
In more recent years,
I've really taken on more of a trend
analysis type of role as well as,
marketing operations.
So, a lot of work around
how to deliver the right tools,
how to deliver the right messages
from a marketing perspective.
Which is a great segway
into what we're talking about today
with some of our brand identity work
we've been doing.
So let's go ahead and go
back to the start of this, like,
brand identity transformation
that you're talking about.
What sparked the move to reinvent
the premium space identity?
Well, there's a couple of things.
And I'm going to share them with you,
and you're going to think, well,
those all feel really obvious,
like what took you so long,
but really it was a culmination of one.
There was a lot of opportunity identified,
particularly in our premium space.
You know,
with all of the things that go on from,
you know, Covid, supply
chain disruptions, tariff disruptions,
all of the
the headwinds that we get in our industry.
The one piece of our industry
that tends to be a little bit,
better
proofed against those types of disruptions
is the premium side of,
of of kitchen and bath.
And we've got five brands
that sit there in our portfolio now.
So two of which we acquired last year.
So that was another instigator
into this conversation.
It's like, well we have five brands now.
What are we going to do with them
and how are we going
to position them uniquely
so that they have different identities?
And how can we support our customers
to be able to talk about
those brands identities?
And just in asking that question
and understanding the opportunity
that exists within the market,
we realized it had been a while.
And, I don't like to use the word,
you know, neglect
because we certainly weren't
ignoring these brands.
We just weren't giving them the care
and feeding that they needed.
Identity is not a static thing
that you create and abandon.
It is an evolution.
I mean, if you think about
just like your own identity,
it's not the same today
as it was a week ago,
and it's going to be different
a month from now.
And so identity needs to be something
that is fluid and kind of always,
being nurtured and cared for and evolved.
And when we started asking ourselves
these questions about do we have a good,
solid identity?
Do we know how to sell this story
about who our brands are?
The answer was, well, we haven't
we haven't been doing that.
We hadn't been as attentive
as probably we need it to be.
And so we we pulled some triggers,
we invested in some opportunity.
We invested in some new teams.
We created some best practices
across our business.
We're doing some test and learns
right now.
We're trying out some things
that we've never done before.
What were the two brands that, were fired?
Well, so our five premium brands that
we currently have today would be Omega,
fieldstone and Star Mark.
Kind of count those two brands
kind of all under one umbrella.
We have a Supreme, which was one of the
acquisitions from last year.
Birch Cabinetry
which was the second acquisition.
And then we have Ultra Kraft,
which is a full full access line.
So no frame products in that line.
So we have five that really sit
in that premium price point.
And all five of them
kind of came with a legacy.
They came with a history of who
they had been,
and they all started in a different place.
So not all of our brands, as we kind of
talk through an identity journey
and creating a better and more sustainable
and consistent brand promise.
Yeah, every one of our brands
is not starting at the same point. Some
are a little further in their journey,
some are a little further behind.
And that's actually one of the reasons
that we chose Fieldstone and Star
Mart to start with, because that one
had probably the biggest opportunity.
It had the most comprehensive journey
that needed to be looked at.
Having that test and learn in place
and building that template gives us
as a as a company that has a portfolio of,
you know, more than 50 brands,
it gives us a template
so that we can start to create consistency
within our organization, which you need.
Right.
Because we talked about it's a journey
and I don't want to confuse that
with with any meaning of we're not trying
to homogenize these brands.
They don't all need to look the same.
They actually shouldn't look the same.
The value of a vast portfolio is the
differentiation that each brand can bring,
but the lack of having a story
to tell, having a brand promise,
and having standard practices
for how you can consistently deliver
that identity, is
where you start to create gaps and holes.
And actually,
that was one of the other instigators.
Back in 2023, we conducted some research
to both the designers and consumers,
and we asked them, we asked designers,
how are you selling our brands when you're
pitching, you know, what you feel
is the right brand for this homeowner.
Like, what makes you decide one,
that this is the brand that you believe
is the right brand for them.
And then once you've decided
on that brand, what's your story?
How do you tell
the homeowner that this is the right brand
and what they're getting for that brand?
And what we found from designers
perspective is that where they didn't
feel like we had informed them well enough
for them to be able to share that story.
They were filling in the gaps,
so they were essentially making up
their own iterations
of who our brands were.
And they were.
They were doing what we had failed to do,
and they were building
the story that that made it easy
for them to sell our cabinetry.
So that was another big right.
There's another big moment.
As a as a brand owner,
you don't want to lose control over
who your brand is
and what the promises that your brand is,
is pushing into the market.
So, all of those things really is
what kicked us off on this journey
and this evolution.
Yeah, I think just simplifying, like you
said, that process,
especially for every brand moving forward,
you guys have so many brands
under the umbrella of MasterBrand’s,
but simplifying it from the top
really trickles down into
not just resource designers
and account managers,
but then that also trickles
into our trade pros, and our designers,
all the all of our members
that are looking for cabinet options.
And like, there's
so many different options out there
and who they should go to.
Yeah.
But I think having a clear understanding
of, like you mentioned who
star Marcus or
who fieldstone is really just simplifies
that process for them.
So they're not really having to think
too much about it. Yeah.
That it's just a given, like,
yeah, I should go with them
because they do x, y, z for me.
Or I should go
with one of the other Master
Brands, brands
that are under their umbrella
where you risk your risk
disappointment too.
Right.
Because if you interpret
the value of the brand incorrectly,
or you sell an expectation
that the brand can't deliver on,
then everyone's going to end up
disappointed with that, right?
So, it's got loads of benefits
across the board.
There's a lot of value
in having a really strong brand promise,
and we we talked to about star Mark
and Phil Stone.
How does that kind of carry over
into decor and Omega?
For example, I know those two
brands are very widely available.
And how did those struggle into that?
So Omega, I'll tell
you, is in a very different place
because we have done some identity work.
Omega has always been our highest
and our most bespoke premium brand.
But as, as we acquired, you know,
and are sitting here today
with a portfolio of five of them, you
we really needed to understand
what's the hierarchy of those brands.
What are some of the guardrails,
particularly as you start to think about
the things that are linked to the brand,
like the portfolio products
that are offered under that brand,
the level of services
that are offered under that brand,
those things are tied
naturally to the brand promise.
And so,
getting that defined and understanding,
even for our internal teams,
like what is the differences
between these five brands
and how can we maintain those differences.
Right.
Because the differentiation is where the
value comes from having multiple brands.
And so, not having a definition,
not having a clear, consistent message
created gaps, even in our own ability
to govern what those brands should be.
But they all they weren't
all in the same level of need.
And like I said, I think Omega
was a little bit more understood
that it was bespoke
and that it was the highest capability.
I mean,
just from a manufacturing perspective,
it is the highest capability we have in
our entire footprint of manufacturing.
So that naturally influenced
and tied to how we really solidified
that brand's identity.
Decor is in a different place
within our portfolio.
We're really positioning decora
to be part of an enterprise of solutions
that complement, as you move
through the value chain of products,
from value products to semi-custom
products to premium products.
So it was already linked and affiliated
with other brands within our portfolio.
And so its identity
really started from a different journey.
It was less about creating guardrails
around
what the portfolio should be,
and it was more about how do you build
the relationships between the brands
that are sort of connected to it via
that enterprise of a continuum of easy
to flow from one price point to the next?
And then premium really sits above
and beyond that.
So fieldstone star, Mark Omega,
they kind of sit beyond that.
And and it's when you have those really
tricky problems that you need to solve,
those very nuanced,
design decisions that need to be made.
That's where you need that capability
that goes beyond kind of standardized
breadth, and it goes into those
very nuanced, very trend for forward.
Right.
Like you have to be able to be as flexible
and as movable as the trends are.
And trends move very fast these days.
So so I wouldn't say that necessarily
anything that we're doing with star, Mark
and fieldstone are directly influencing
what we will be doing with Omega.
And Omega is next on our list to get
the comprehensive package completed.
It's not necessarily
influencing that outcome,
but it's building all of those check
boxes, right, to have a full brand promise
and and a consistent identity
that we can talk about and deliver
on all of our platforms
that our customers are able to talk about
and deliver on their platforms.
We really built a template that said, you
know, here's the 15 things that you need.
And it's what are the words that you use
to describe this brand?
What is this brand's manifesto?
If you had to make a statement about this
brand's identity, what is that statement?
What value does this brand bring?
And some brands might have
and they do, right?
I'm not I'm I started to say some brands
might have a different portfolio products.
All the brands
have a different portfolio of products,
but there's a lot of overlap
in that portfolio of products.
And so it does put a lot of the burden
on a designer to say,
okay, I can get this solution
in three of these brands.
And it's kind of to your point earlier,
right?
Like,
why would I choose one over the other?
And sometimes identity
and the, the services
and the value propositions
that are affiliated with that brand
are the things that are going to kick it
over.
In our past, we weren't able to tell
that story comprehensively.
And so the value really of this work
is putting it all in one place, being able
to tell that story comprehensively
and being able
to communicate it to our customers
so they have the same access
to that level of information.
It is important for people to identify
what a brand is
and whenever MasterBrand does
acquire a brand, do you
how do you go about like keeping
so they have a whole history behind them?
Do you keep all of that intact
or do you elevate it
or I guess, what are the
what's the decision making from
do we take this brand
and completely change it,
or do we hold on to some of their history
that comes with it?
So MasterBrand is a business of acquisition, right?
We have under comprehensively
under the MasterBrand portfolio,
there are more than 78 brands.
Now some of those are series
and some of those are private labels.
But that's a lot of brands
in your portfolio package, right.
That's because over our 70
plus year history as an organization,
we've just grown through acquiring brands.
And in every one of those acquisitions,
the journey is different.
There's no standard template for how you
can, how you should behave with a brand.
I would say conservatively,
every brand has some value, right?
You don't bring a brand into your
portfolio that you didn't feel had value.
And so to your point, right, it's
it's digging into
what is the true value of that brand
and making sure that you don't mess
with the integrity of that.
If it's really great quality
and a really solid production
capability,
then you need to stand behind that, right?
Like that becomes
part of the value proposition.
If it's got great distribution
or it's got a really great customer base,
but maybe the identity of that brand
wasn't as strong, then you hold steady to,
you know, the value of what
that brand's acquisition was built around.
And then, you know, you've got a little
bit more leeway to go and build something.
But what you don't want to do is you
don't want to destroy any other legacy.
So it's really,
you know, on a case by case
basis, finding out
what makes that brand worthy of a legacy.
And, and maybe it's the identity,
maybe it's the capabilities, maybe it's
the customer base. Right.
Are any one of those things
could be the foundation of that legacy?
Yeah. And then you always want to build
on top of that. Right.
You take a solid foundation
and you the goal is always to elevate it.
Yes. Yeah. No I completely agree.
How do you see this
I guess brand identity transformation
directly impacting trade pros
I work with prisoners.
I think it gives them a better narrative
to sell the products against.
Right.
Because at the end of the day,
the pros out there,
they just want to close the sale. Yeah.
And they want to make money. Right?
That's what they want to do.
They don't want the complexity.
They don't want to have to go
find the answers.
They don't want to have to go solution.
They definitely don't
want to fill in the gaps
where we've fallen short of providing them
with information and insights.
So, I think the real value to them
is, is getting that message
delivered to them in a consistent way
where it is usable to them
and makes their piece of the puzzle
right, their job
and their responsibilities easier, faster,
and get them to completion quicker.
Yeah, I know, MasterBrand.
We we'll talk about it in part
two of having MasterBrand on to the Pro
Source podcast a little bit more,
but MasterBrand has been providing
so many great trainings
to ProSource Wholesale, designers.
And I feel like that kind of has fed
from what we're talking about today, too,
was just educating ProSource
Wholesale designers and account managers
so that they can easily
educate their trade pro members
and just make every everything's about
just like simplifying the process.
It is.
I mean, we've
had a lot of conversation about,
if you think about just the lifecycle
of a designer, right,
a new designer is faced with.
So many challenges.
This is not an easy industry to get into.
There's a lot of knowledge
that you have to have,
and it takes a long time
to acquire that knowledge.
And, we've got some fairly recent data
that says almost
a third of the designers out
there are within five years of retirement.
Those are your designers
that know this stuff, right?
Like they're the ones that can
very intuitively and have these longevity
and have built these relationships,
and they have all of this knowledge
and the transition of that knowledge from,
you know, very seasoned and experienced
designer to a newer designer
who's maybe just starting in the industry.
That's a huge gap and a huge opportunity.
And again, it's probably a lot easier
for an experienced designer
to fill in any pieces that are missing
because they have all of that background,
whereas newer designers and we need them.
Right.
Like with a third of our,
you know, a third of our design population
kind of aging out of the industry,
we need to be
bringing new designers into the industry,
and we need to make it easy for them.
We cannot be contributing to the headwinds
of bringing in fresh perspective,
new experiences, new people
who are going to continue to drive
this industry into its next evolution.
And so you're absolutely right.
A huge part of our strategy
and focus has been about simplification,
taking out all of the friction points
that we can't we one, it's
identifying all the friction points
because there's plenty to be honest.
There's loads of friction points,
but finding what they are
and then figuring out ways
to solve for them
to make the whole entire introduction
into this industry,
or even the maintaining of being
in a part of this industry, easier.
When thinking about this transformation,
I also thought about how it might impact
the way products are rolled out,
or like how
they might be redefined or maybe elevated.
Has there been any influence on that side
of things from this transformation?
Absolutely. It's just a loaded question.
No, but it's a it's a great one.
And honestly, like when you were first
asking, I was like, well, no, not really.
You know, not really.
Because the goal isn't to create identity
and then inhibit the creativity
of how to solution
with a portfolio breath.
But on the other hand,
it is about differentiation, right?
It's not about creating identity
is not about homogenizing a story.
It is about being able
to tell a unique story consistently.
And so with that unique story,
and with that differentiation
certainly comes identity guardrails.
Now, I would say
they're blurry in our industry
because you need what you need, right?
Like if if the trend has arched doors
then you need arch doors.
And that shouldn't
be held exclusive for one person.
But if your identity
is not to be kind of bold
and in your face,
if your identity is creating legacy,
creating longevity, creating
consistency, right, like that has
there's a lot of people who are very fine
that very appealing.
In contrast,
you have other consumers who are like,
I am bold, I want to be in your face.
I want to be exciting.
I want to be energizing.
Yeah, well, those are two very different
brand experiences.
And there are certainly characteristics
of each of those types
of portfolio products
that can enhance that.
Right? There are colors.
There are door styles that give you that
bold, in-your-face kind of personality.
And then there are colors
that are really rooted in a lasting legacy
of classic design and not,
you know, not something you have
to be scared of utilizing
because we've intentionally curated
a palette of colors
that meet that expectation.
So in that way, and I would say
it's a looser, but it's there right?
In that way, I would say the identity
absolutely does influence
some of the product, but not in a way
where we want to create, like gates.
Gotcha.
Where we can't get past something
or you can't introduce a trend or a need
that is got the potential,
which when trends start,
you don't know if they're going to go
mass.
Sometimes trends fizzle out at the top end
and they never really gain the traction
to become something more.
But not knowing that means
you don't want to put those hard lines
in place and limit the ability
to bring those really cool features
all the way through at every price point,
because trends do travel that way.
It's not unlike fashion, right?
If you think about the fashion
industry style, trends start at couture
and and then they go
into kind of high fashion
and then they go to mainstream fashion
and then they go to discount fashion.
Right.
Like if trends travel
that way in the fashion industry,
and they very much travel
that way in our industry as well.
Yes, I completely agree.
That's a good way to think about it.
Where do you see this premium brand
identity heading over the next 35 years?
I think it has to continue to evolve.
You know, like I said, we
we have had a practice in the past where
we've looked at it, we've you updated it
and then you kind of walk away from it.
And that is that is a recipe for it
to become stagnant.
So I think the different perspective
and the approach that we're taking to it,
and as I said,
particularly around the fact
that we've restructured,
we've put people in place.
Yes, this is their primary
responsibility is to maintain
and to continue to evolve
and grow these identities.
So I would say, you know, it's
not going to change every single year,
but you can't take your eyes off the ball.
Right?
You have to continuously be watching it,
and it has to continuously
evolve as that need arises.
And I would tell you,
I don't think that that will pay
for the same for every brand.
I think depending on what
the brand's value proposition is and what
they're really supposed to be delivering
at, their price point is going to affect
how often and how frequent
we need to be evolving it.
I think that's a great way to measure it.
Yes, I think a big thing, a theme of this
episode has been not every brand
the same.
Every brand travels at its own pace
and has its own story.
So it's you can't really have a template
that works for every single brand.
I wanted to know if there was any
other MasterBrand lines that
are currently undergoing
this transformation, or can you call out
the ones that haven't yet that you plan
on moving through this transformation?
Absolutely.
So we are definitely starting
at the premium end of our spectrum, right?
Because the largest opportunity
and the most comprehensive amount
of information really needs to go
into the brand promise at that level.
Yeah.
And then as I said earlier, right
field tone star mark,
out of all the brands that we looked at,
it had the most opportunity
to go front to back, right.
Like had a good long
it had really strong legacy.
And it hadn't been touched in so long.
And the perception from many of
our designers is that they love the brand.
You know, it's got a good reputation for
legacy and quality, but it feels dated.
And that was like, that was the word
that was most commonly used right?
Like it's dated.
And it's like nobody wants to think
that their brand has this dated.
Yeah. Appeal.
And so, you know, starting with them
and starting at the premium and building
that comprehensive template
allows us to get kind of the,
the largest example of what
potentially we could touch.
And then every brand after that
can kind of pick and choose
from that formula
of what they need to enhance
or communicate or solidify
their brand promise.
So, definitely, we're kind of starting
at the top end of the spectrum,
and we're going to work our way down.
And there are, you know, there are brands
in the mass appeal or the,
the mid-price point part of our portfolio
that don't need a lot of identity work.
They just need more consistency
in how that identity is delivered.
Right. So they're not going to be
in the same place.
And then there are other brands
within our portfolio.
I think one that
we've kind of loosely talked about is
maybe like a home crest where they don't
really have a big, strong identity.
So there is a lot of opportunity
to really build who that brand is
and what that brand can serve,
and how that brand
can create benefit and value.
So there's there's definitely
I mean, we have so many brands.
So there's there's numerous ones.
I gave you a couple of examples.
But even just sitting here talking to you,
I've got some running through my head
there.
There's a lot of opportunity.
Yes, I will just say that
there's a lot of opportunity for us to,
be on this journey for a while
and do it and do it right.
But the good thing is, is it's
not just one area of our business
that is trying to work our way
through all of this.
We've really created those brand owners
within our business,
and they're always on,
they're always aware, and we'll
trickle through and give them the support
and we'll work our way through,
the entire portfolio is the goal
because you guys have invested,
like you mentioned. Yeah,
into this process.
That really shows the dedication.
And this isn't just, an idea that's
going to float away within a few months.
Right?
This is a huge investment and a huge plan
that MasterBrand has set in place
to truly elevate every single, you know,
brand that falls under that umbrella.
MasterBrand
And if you're wondering
how many brands are masterbrand.com,
there's a spot on the site
brand portfolio.
But if you go there, you'll be able to see
every single brand laid out.
It's a great resource.
I use it actually all the time,
because sometimes I'm like, I know
this is definitely under master, right?
Because there are so many.
There are so many.
So I go there all the time.
I'm probably upping your guys's
website traffic.
We appreciate that. Yeah.
So if you're interested in just seeing all
the different brands, you can go there.
Is there anywhere else
that people can find you
that would be a good resource
to just learn more about this.
That is probably the most
comprehensive place to go for sure.
Yeah, the website as a whole is great too.
Yeah, I frequently visit that one.
So yeah.
Anything else you would like to share
about the transformation?
I'm excited to see this continue
over the next years and many years to,
but anything else we can expect to
roll out to showrooms or I don't think so.
Related specifically to the journey
that we're on.
I mean, as we approach
those brands, you'll definitely start
to see some visual shift in those brands.
You know, the one that's launching here
in September 29th is Fieldstone Star Mark.
And, with that launch, you will see
all of the brand new identity.
You will start to see the tone shift.
If you navigate to their websites
after their launch date,
you will see an entire facelift
that's happening there.
So it's not just in the physical,
like selling ads.
It's it's on all the digital properties,
building that consistency.
And, you know,
it's it's really not a lot of value add
if you do all of this work,
but then you don't share
the visualization of that
and the consistency of the message.
So a big part of the comprehensive,
you know, brand identity work
is to get it out there and deliver it
consistently across all platforms.
So you will see that
that will definitely be an impact.
And then hopefully,
the little less tangible aspect of it
is we hope that this makes it easier
to sell our products.
We hope that we start to see a lift
in the brand value
and the brand loyalty and and,
you know, the selling of the brands.
When we've done all this work
and we've delivered this ease
that goes along with it.
So yeah, there's a lot to look forward to
and definitely some some opportunity
to continue to see it happen.
Yes. And ProSource is a very close partner
with MasterBrand.
I mentioned earlier that you,
you guys provide a lot of education
to our showrooms, which just makes
that partnership
even easier to then flow into,
the members buying process
and which brands they should choose.
So thank you
so much for the great partnership.
We have another podcast episode
with MasterBrand coming out.
So if you're listening to this,
make sure to stay tuned for that.
I'm sitting with Evan and Mike,
from the MasterBrand team.
We're talking specifically about,
Schrock Diamond, Kemper, which is a lot,
but they really break down
those specific brands
and explain it in a way
better way that I could do.
So it's it's a great episode.
Make sure to stay tuned for that.
But otherwise,
thank you so much for joining me today.
You're welcome.
Thank you for having me. It was fun.
Thank you for joining us today
on The ProSource Podcast.
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