Crown is out to wow DIY'ers: Crown hopes to rise to the top of the UK DIY market with savvy marketing, revamped color families and a more modern look.

When it comes to promoting paints to consumers in the UK, the folks at Akzo Nobel are not holding back. "Forget rich Belgium chocolates, cashmere sweaters and long lazy bubble baths," a press release for Indulgence, the new high-end paint range from the Crown Paint brand, tells homemakers. "The latest way to indulge yourself is to create a sensual special effect for your walls."

While the comparison between painting the bathroom walls and indulging your most salacious fantasies seems like a bit of a stretch, the Crown Paint brand has managed to build its recent relaunch around the concept that home improvement these days has got little to do with whitewashing the garden fence and everything to do with reconnecting with your innermost self.

"Rather than just giving the brand a face-lift, we wanted to give people an emotional connection to our paints," says Arif Bangi, media and communications manager for Crown. "We want people to feel the same revitalization from painting their homes that they feel when they go to the park or for a swim."

A Swank Launch Party

It's been three years since the last re-launch of' the Crown Paint brand, and with the growing popularity of home improvement shows on television and glossy DIY magazines, the December 2003 press relaunch of Crown was about as swank as paint parties get. Attended by more than 120 editors and journalists from the British media, including Elle Deco, Hello and Ideal Home magazines, the event was staged at London's Royal Academy alongside a Giorgio Armani retrospective.

According to Bangi, the journalists were so impressed with Crown's new look that they hung around for "three or four hours" and many didn't even bother checking out the Armani exhibition, even though they had been granted a private viewing.

Paint relaunches generally follow a three-year cycle. Crown's main competitor, ICI Paints' Dulux brand, staged its latest relaunch last year, so Crown felt it was time to rejuvenate its image in an attempt to increase market share. As a result of the repositioning process, which had a six-figure price tag attached to it, Crown now has a redesigned logo, new paint ranges, consolidated color families and an interesting interactive tool on its web site.

The Crown logo, which used to be gold is now silver. The idea is to make the Crown brand look more contemporary. "Gold is associated with being old fashioned and traditional," said Bangi. "We want to give Crown a more contemporary look." The design of the paint cans has also changed for 2004. They are made out of plastic, they have a silver background and a bright graphic (typically a close-up shot of a flower). Additionally, the packs include more detailed product information and a large color chip.

In February, Crown launched Indulgence as its luxury emulsion. The line comes in 18 shades and includes microsphere technology--tiny inert gas-filled spheres with insulating properties that help to give the impression of being warm to the touch. Described by color consultant Judy Smith as "the ultimate in decadence for the home," Indulgence also comes at a decadent price: 18.99 [pounds sterling] ($35.25) for a 2.5 liter can. Regular emulsions cost 13.98 [pounds sterling] ($26.13). Crown has also introduced a new trio of products to its Crown Creative Paints range. Feature Wall products are a line of flat matte, metallic and high sheen finishes available in the 1.25 liter pack size. Feature Wall joins Crown's previously launched Suede Emulsion and Shimmer Coat.

Consolidated Color Families

Because consumer demand for lilac paint is, according to Bangi, "non-existent" these days, and gold keeps getting confused with paints in the yellow product family also named gold, Crown has decided to consolidate its color families from eight to six. Purples have merged into the red group and gold is now officially part of the yellow family. The six remaining color groups are red, peach, cream, yellow, blue and green.

Finally, the Crown web site has a tool which allows consumers to take a digital photograph of a room, upload the image to the Crown web site and see what it looks like in Crown colors. The British DIY store B&Q also offers this service to its customers, but while Crown's online tool is free to use, B&Q charges 10 [pounds sterling] ($18) for a CD from which the technology can be downloaded.

Alongside the high-profile relaunch to consumers, in January, Akzo Nobel mounted a trade relaunch of its Crown and Sandtex brands at the DIY & Garden Show in London. The launch attracted 3,500 buyers and Akzo Nobel preempted the event by publicizing the two brands in a special edition of DIY Week magazine.

A Significant Shift in Positioning

Crown is hoping the relaunch of its brands will propel it ahead of its competitors. While Crown may not be number one in the market right now, Bangi believes the brand will rise to the top, in much the same way as the Tesco grocery chain and Orange mobile phone operator jumped ahead of their competitors through savvy marketing. Crown's growth is already showing positive signs: between 2001 and 2003, the brand grew from 119.1 million [pounds sterling] ($222.66 million) to 136 million [pounds sterling] ($254.27 million), a 14.2% increase. Meanwhile, the market over this period grew 11%.

"Crown's relaunch will do much to regain their position relative to their chief rival, Dulux," said Matt Sexton, chief paint buyer at B&Q. "I think the new livery scores well on providing a strong Crown family look and also more clearly differentiates between product ranges making selection easier."

But only time will tell if turning the traditionally prosaic business of painting the kitchen cabinets into something as sexy as putting on a slinky negligee, puts Crown ahead of the pack.