Product
Over the last decade, Restoration Hardware has endured many challenges to be where they currently stand in the home furnishings industry. After facing bankruptcy in 2001, Gary Friedman, former Williams-Sonoma Inc. executive, was brought on to the Restoration Hardware team in hopes of revamping the company (Berfield, 2014). In doing so, Restoration Hardware found it self with a new overall vision, especially for their products. This luxury brand offers furnishings such as furniture, bath ware, baby and child products, and everything in between (Restorationhardware.com, 2014).
Since Restoration Hardware’s rebirth, a main focus was to change the perception of their products. One way to do this was to reproduce antique artisan designs with high quality materials. Friedman traveled with a team to many parts of the world to gain knowledge and inspiration for the reproductions, resulting in beautifully crafted and aesthetically pleasing contemporary designs (Marks, 2009).
Restoration Hardware’s products may be high in price, but with high price comes high value. The target market is not only paying for high quality pieces of furniture or linens. Given that most of the products are based on vintage items, a sense of nostalgia may be brought on to the consumers by resembling home furnishing that were present in their households as children. Aside from that, the products bring a particular ambiance into the home that can give an impression of high class and wealth to outsiders.
When it comes to branding, Restoration Hardware, or simply RH, which is how they often like to be referred to, prides them selves on their new concept of recreating vintage designs in every type of furnishing they produce. With the word “restoration” directly in the company name, consumers can easily identify one of Restoration Hardware’s main goals: producing authentic reproductions of historical themed pieces. Additionally, RH states, “We serve as a curator of the finest historical design the world has to offer” (Restorationhardware.com, 2014). In saying this, the company implies that they only choose designs and materials with high standards of quality in order to maintain the image that has been made for themselves over recent years.
Restoration Hardware typically competes with three types of retailers, including companies exclusively with upper-middle class consumers, department stores that also provide a home furnishings department, and design centers. Some examples of these companies are Williams Sonoma, Bloomingdale’s, and the Pacific Design Center, respectively (Loversky, Kantor, & Vourman, 2013, p. 11). In comparison to companies like Williams Sonoma, Restoration Hardware produces a significantly larger variety of home furnishings, giving them a competitive advantage in regards to consumer base. Customers can end up purchasing an item they did not intend on purchasing in addition to the item they did intend on purchasing by visiting Restoration Hardware instead of Williams Sonoma.
When looking into the second type of competitor, department stores, Restoration Hardware may see a slight disadvantage due to customer loyalty to the well-known department stores, such as Bloomingdale’s or Nordstrom’s. Some of these department stores also provide a larger variety in brands, fabrics, colors, etc., an area in which RH is lacking (Loversky, Kantor, & Vourman, 2013, p. 11).
As for the third type of competitor, design centers, most feel as though these are places for only the best in design. Although Restoration Hardware may think of themselves as a top-notch home furnishings company, they must prove that they are worthy of competing with companies likely to be found in large design centers which has been an ongoing battle for the company.
The style of packaging RH uses is one containing vintage designs. Their color schemes consist of many different shades of browns and blacks, as well as very dull shades of colors all across the color spectrum, which can be readily found on many of their furnishings. Font styles on packaging resemble that of the RH logo, staying consistent with the sense of sleekness the company seems to be striving for.
Restoration Hardware falls into the second stage of the product life cycle, the market growth stage. In this stage, we see rapid industry sales growth, as well as a rise and fall in profits. RH has seen an increase in sales since they decided to change many aspects of the company, but have also recorded losses for some years, likely due to a number of competitors that have joined the same market. Because of this we can classify the market as monopolistic competition, another trait of the second stage in the product life cycle (Perreault, Jr., Cannon, McCarthy, 2014, p. 228).
Restoration Hardware provides a warranty solely for their contract sales. The warranty covers shipped items, both inside and outside the US and Canada. In their Terms and Conditions, RH states, “RH Contract warrants to you, the original purchaser, that our products are free of material defects in material and workmanship for three years from delivery if properly stored, handled, assembled, maintained and used under normal conditions in a personal residential setting” (Restorationhardware.com, 2014). Additionally, they provide a phone number, email address, and fax number for contract sales customers to use to report any problems that may arise that fall under the warranty qualifications (Restorationhardware.com, 2014).
Berfield, S. (2014, February 27). Restoration Hardware CEO Gary Friedman's Luxury Retail Ambitions - Businessweek. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-27/restoration-hardware-ceo-gary-friedmans-luxury-retail-ambitions

Loversky, L., Kantor, P., & Vourman, I. (2013, April 19). Retrieved from http://economics-files.pomona.edu/jlikens/SeniorSeminars/Likens2013/reports/restorationhardware.pdf

(Marks, J. (2009). Restoration Hardware Unveils Gallery Concept. Home Textiles Today, 30(23), 7-88.)

Perreault, Jr., W. D., Cannon, J. P., & McCarthy, E. J. (2014). Basic Marketing (19th ed.)

As well as the company website which im sure we all used so I didn’t include it here.