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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Still with many secrets to reveal,
Sara and Rita, BRABBU’s CEO and COO share, in first hand, who was the brand in the past, who is it today and what can we expect from it in the future.
With Portuguese DNA, BRABBU Design Forces was revealed for the first time to the world in Decorex International Tradeshow, in September of 2011. The brand achieved a privileged spot in the interior design world thanks to the creation of pieces full of fierceness and inspiring memories that travel the cultures of the world that also became the interior design professionals and lovers’ reasons to breath.
Recognized as a design authority by some of the most reputable and well-known magazines of the sector as Architectural Digest and Elle Décor, BRABBU is the leading figure of some of the most prestigious residential and public interior design projects and conquered an unbeatable online audience that surpasses the 70 thousand followers on Instagram.
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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
1.BRABBU provides the most differentiating solutions to serve a complete interior design project. Which is the brand’s recipe to guarantee such extraordinaire products conceived by unique concepts and still be so responsive and versatile to any interior design project needs?
specific attitude
of Fierceness, of Union, of Resilience and Proactivity
This recipe consists in allying functionality and emotion: trying to understand which are the most searched and used typologies of products of the top interior designers in the present moment and to transport this knowledge into the creation of a unique collection. To always be aware and sensitive to the best references in the world that inspires ours: the product design world, the fashion world, materials, and the most wanted trends used in the latest interior design projects, as well in some luxury brands that we consider fundamental references to always be on trend and that helps to constantly re-invent ourselves. We always listen to our clients’ needs and wishes. We look forward to understanding the type of project that we both have in hands and how can we help to make it perfect by suggestion the piece that will perfectly match the project inspiration and make it unique. We design and we prototype products that deeply represent the brand heart-beating soul: through the inspiration from nature, cultures of the world and the cosmopolitan lifestyle, representing an intense way of living. 2.What was the hardest thing to achieve since the beginning of your days till the present? Almost close to celebrating 7 years of existence, BRABBU has already faced many challenges. We probably could tell you about many of them, but the one that represents the greatest achievement for us is this one: to conquer and to maintain the loyalty of our stakeholders. Everything that we are and have today was achieved thanks to a specific attitude of Fierceness, of Union, of Resilience and Proactivity from the ones that did not accepted to be defeated by the hardship of some challenges – to this we call Invictus, another core value of the brand. 3
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
This was the attitude that leads BRABBU to what we are today and that kept us so strong and unite: our strength and identity remain on the merit of our team, in our partners, and on all the support that our clients and followers gave us through the years. The confidence and loyalty of all this intervenients on BRABBU’s story is something that you only will achieve (and maintain) with hard and passionate work. Off course, this also requires a team that shares the same feelings about the brand and that are committed with it every day to understand which are going to be the next steps. It also requires some strategic thinking and vision to always improve ourselves to become better and bigger today and tomorrow. However, we also cannot leave without saying that one of the hardest parts of the process was to build a brand from scratch and to transform it into a business that already invoiced 4 million euros. Again, this year we will surely be saying about it that the hardest part was to make BRABBU count with more 5, 6 or even 7 million euros. It will mean that our stakeholder’s confidence and loyalty is fueling our mission. 3.Casegoods, Lighting, Upholstery, Pillows e Rugs are the categories of products that represent the wide offer of the brand. If we could describe each one of them as a style of person our give them a personality, which type of personality/person would they be? There is an aesthetical connection that gathers all the categories of products from BRABBU. That connection is, at the same time, eclectic and balanced, like a strong personality that assumes itself in the world without imposing nothing; this person also embodies a good storyteller and someone that inspires comfort, wisdom and that breathes a continuous will of discovering our planet deepest secrets. This personality lives its life intensively. So, BRABBU’s categories are all the same type of person. A curious and fierce person that travels the world to seek the diversity of styles that the different cultures of the world
express – the styles that are the reflection of different cultures of the World where the persona BRABBU already has passed or still wishes to discover. 4. BRABBU is a brand especially known by its upholstery category although it presents an impressive integrated offer and a wide range of products. Can we consider upholstery the biggest take of the brand and the great focus of the latest years? BRABBU is working to be a reference in the interior design world. BRABBU is evolving to be a reference for everyone who is looking for solutions capable of constructing complete interiors full of personality. We want the interior design professionals to find a diversity of solutions to fulfill their projects needs. We also want that they have the possibility of executing any project, from the beginning till the end, without having to search for other solutions in other brands. 4
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
We also invested in new customization options that include the possibility of applying our client’s fabrics into our chairs. We invested in target partnerships with tradeshows as Maison & Objet Paris, the perfect event to create exquisite lounge area ambiances with our pieces. Some of our bestsellers are upholstery products, which MAYA armchair, IBIS dining chair or MALAY Bar chair are
in which we use exotic new fabrics with a bolder patterns and colors.
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Upholstery is part of the solution that answers to the integrated offer problem. This is the category for which BRABBU is known, because it was one of the brand’s big investment along the years, although this investment became more focused in the development of upholstery techniques and on the release of new products. We also have invested in the re-edition of some of our best-selling chairs: this re-interpretation of our bestsellers created a new exclusive collection – the Rare Editions - in which we use exotic new fabrics with a bolder patterns and colors.
THE RARE EDITIONS
great examples of. You will find out these pieces as the favorite choice of many stunning interior design projects from our clients, such as Providence Hotel, in Paris; or with the interiors designed by our partners Pierre Moussié, Elodie Moussié and Sophie Richard, where the two MAYA armchairs are perfectly integrated in the room decor. Nevertheless, in all of BRABBU product categories we have some winning best sellers starring the latest design trends. In Casegoods we have KOI center table and SEQUOIA center table as key products of the category. In Lighting, we have VELLUM wall light, one of the brands first releases, which since then till today it remains as one of our trendiest products: VELLUM still is one of the 5
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
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The almost exclusively handcrafted production and the close relation between designers and craftsmen adds bigger value to the products, placing us in a competitive position on the market, especially for those who look for meaningful products beyond functionality.
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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
most wanted BRABBU products from all times. We work to create a balanced reputation for all the product categories and by developing a singular communication for each one of them. The main goal of this communication strategy is to give some autonomy to the categories as if they were 4 independent brands: BRABBU Casegoods, BRABBU Upholstery & Softgoods (including our Pillow collection here), BRABBU Lighting and BRABBU Rugs. 5. BRABBU released 9 new products since the beginning of the year. Which one of them was the biggest innovation and production challenge? In any of BRABBU products - including the 9 new releases that were presented in the beginning of January at Maison & Objet Paris and later at iSaloni Milan, in April - the biggest challenge is to combine a loyal representation of Nature’s forces, cultures of the world and the cosmopolitan lifestyle in one single piece. Moreover, it is challenging to guarantee that the combination of these new products will allow the creation of complete ambiances: ambiances full of memories and sensorial experiences that also evokes comfort and the intense way of living feeling. Another challenge is to make these products timeless but, at the same time, to meet the colours, materials, and finishes trends that professionals and final clients are looking for. We overcome this challenge by creating the possibility of customization. Our products can be customized in every single detail and with no limits: colour, materials, finishes and dimensions. This fact allows us to have a wide range offer of products, enabling our clients to completely personalize each product and make it even more unique in the world. This is only possible due to the nature of our production, solely occurring in Portugal, especially in the northern region which thrives with artisans specialized in the handcrafted art integrated into our products. The almost exclusively handcrafted production and the close relation between designers and craftsmen adds bigger value to the products, placing us in a
competitive position on the market, especially for those who look for meaningful products beyond functionality. 6. How was the impact of the Pillow collection, BRABBU’s most recent launch? This collection allowed BRABBU to reach new heights of interior products with the concept of accessorize your home. This feature is vital so that the interior design professionals can leave an even more personal trademark in their projects, and to better match their clients’ styles and offer more comfort. We know that this collection hasn’t reached the visibility that we want, but we are convinced of its potential as we plan to take the promotion and sales platforms of this products even further as to meet the final consumers with Amazon, eBay or even our own online store in our blogs. On the other hand, in terms of Social Media, the Pillows collection had a fantastic feedback as it is something very visual and extremely shareable with the potential of going viral; in a phase where our audience values the inspirations that will hopefully be taken as a reference for their projects as this content could make or break the way we establish ourselves in the online world. The Pillows collection is the perfect example of how eclectic BRABBU is: we have five pillow collections in different colours, patterns, textures and styles – Classic, Eclectic, Essential, Geometric and Modern – while integrates differentiating details like the contrast of the piping with the main fabric, the feathers, the tassel trimmings, the braided leather appliqués, and many others. For these reasons, we are sure that this category has everything to be a success. 7. We know that the brand presented a new concept at iSaloni 2018 – BRABBU Apartment. What should we know about it? About the BRABBU Apartment concept, it is important to know that it was launched for the first time at the 2018 January edition of Maison & Objet. BRABBU decided to change the stand’s concept to convey a more cosmopolitan langue, through a 100% 7
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
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BRABBU’s mission and what they can expect of our product: an intense way of living through an integrated offer that can create unique and full of character ambiances where comfort is present.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
habitable BRABBU space, where the purity of materials, textures, colors, and scents of nature, bring memories and experiences of different cultures. In terms of the stand ambiance, with this new concept we wanted to enhance the idea of a house – allow the visitors to feel as though they are entering a lived-in, comfortable space as they hope to live in a space like this. This experience enables the visitors to better understand BRABBU’s mission and what they can expect of our product: an intense way of living through an integrated offer that can create unique and full of character ambiances where comfort is present. However, this concept is not confined to the stand tool, but it extends to the brand’s holistic communication, as a way of enhancing once more BRABBU’s mission, its product categories, and its partners. Besides the usual living room and dining room areas, in the 2018 January edition of Maison & Objet we introduced new features regarding the bedroom space and integrated the bathroom
space, promoting our partner – Maison Valentina. We also integrated PullCast and displayed our pillow collections. At iSaloni, we replicated the concept taking advantage of the fact that Maison Valentina had its own exhibition space at EuroBagno and used the extra area to present a new house division – the office, that aroused a lot of interest not only from the trade show visitors, but also from our online followers. We also promoted the brand-new project of the Group that we are a part of, which strengthens our value in terms of craftsmanship. This project actually is a Foundation – the Brhands Foundation – which has the mission to pay tribute to the artisans that shape our products and who, above all, make sure that the art of craftsmanship continues alive for years to come as an active and integrated element of our industry and culture. 8. In which part of the world can we see BRABBU best represented? 9
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
On the one hand, Paris: the city where we can be found in Covet Paris Showroom, also furnished with the other brands of the group. This is also the city where takes place one of the biggest trade shows in the world of furniture, design, and interior design: Maison & Objet Paris, with editions in January and September, in which we take part since 2012, the place where is possible to see and have contact with our product and have a complete brand experience more often. On the other hand, the United Kingdom, mainly London, is another place where BRABBU is well represented: besides being in the Group’s show flat – Covet London – it is the market where we are present in different contract and residential projects and, in addition, it is where we have a much more important presence, immaterial, in the minds of our stakeholders. The United Kingdom is one of the priority markets for us, where the brand’s visibility is more balanced due to the sales volume, the result of what we were capable to sow in the past and what we are collecting now. 9. The presence in the digital world is one of you most powerful weapons if we look over the numbers of the brand’s main social networks. How have you built such an empire? With the constant innovations of the digital world, how did BRABBU adapted to all these changes? Our presence in the digital world and our adaptation to its constant changes are the outcomes of a solid research and the implementation of new tactics that our team is constantly testing and reinventing. We work by trial and error, doing a weekly analysis of what brings us more results with less human and financial effort - this is to say with more return on investment. We know that what works today, may not work tomorrow. We are not afraid of taking risks and of questioning ourselves on what we can do more and differently, searching always for better results. This wouldn’t be possible without a strong investment in human resources working exclusively the web, not only BRABBU’s team, but also internal departments of our Group specialized in digital marketing strategies.
While in an initial phase we invest in a strategy of almost exclusive mass promotion, today we ensure that the actions we carry out bring us results with more quality, more segmentation, and personalization in the way on how we reach our targets in the web. We always search for the continuous improvement of the online experience we provide our visitors, especially potential buyers, meeting the needs concerning inspirations for projects or more straightforward specifications of the products they want to buy. It is important to understand that we are addressing a very diversified audience of stakeholders such as professional clients, final consumers, press, opinion leaders/influencers, design lovers, and many others, that we want to inspire and to connect with. They are agents that, by themselves, contribute to the dissemination of our messages and boost our brand even more. Since the beginning until now, BRABBU has always worked to create a 360º strategy in the digital world, looking up to be on all fronts. We are conscious our website is our biggest “window” and that all the digital universe where we are present is our most sincere mirror. Regarding this, one of BRABBU’s greatest goal is to inspire the world with our unique products and, therefore, we look to adapt our contents to what the digital world is creating, whether it is mood boards, infographics, videos and who knows, in the future, holograms - our own virtualized reality! 10. DESIGN FORCES GROUP: who is involved and what is its vision? We are always stronger with allies than by our own. As BRABBU’s biggest goal is to have an integrated offer, so the Design Forces Group is the new design power that emerged naturally from this need. With BRABBU as the impelling brand of the Design Forces Group, it joined forces with complementary brands to accomplish the goals of this mission. Instead of BRABBU becoming a brand with a wide variety of product categories, we intended to form this group with brands that have specific and complementary products and services, to allow the creation of unique and complete projects. For example, if the product 10
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
is to inspire the world with our unique products and, therefore, we look to adapt our contents to what the digital world is creating, whether it is mood boards, infographics, videos and who knows, in the future, holograms - our own virtualized reality!
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ONE OF BRABBU’S GREATEST GOAL
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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
11. BRABBU is part of one of the best design groups in Europe and the World – Covet Group. What value does it add to the, what does make it so unique and, in the other hand, what does the brand won’s in being part of Covet Group? BRABBU was born in the core of Menina Design Group, now known as Covet Group, as a complementary brand to the others already existing: Boca do Lobo, Delightfull as internal brands and KOKET as an external partner. BRABBU was created with the aim of adding to the group’s portfolio of brands a new and exclusive integrated offer with pieces that would distinguish BRABBU for its diversity, style, and the customization possibility. This would amplify the possibilities of choice for an interior designer professional that is looking to create an entire interior project with one single brand.
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What makes BRABBU unique and so special is the combination of styles, among which we see the classic, the modern and the midcentury touch, that culminates in a style that it can be both timeless and temperate, but still full of character.
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development for bathrooms is not BRABBU’s main focus but is something that helps to fulfill the mission, then it is in our interest to collaborate with a brand like Maison Valentina, to make us stronger and get us closer of our main goal.
What makes BRABBU unique and so special is the combination of styles, among which we see the classic, the modern and the midcentury touch, that culminates in a style that it can be both timeless and temperate, but still full of character. In the opposite side of Boca do Lobo that assumes itself as an extraordinary brand thanks to their extravagant creations, Delightful that assumes itself as a brand exclusively designing lighting pieces, and KOKET as a brand that stands out in this world for their exuberant designs, BRABBU is the brand of the group that has the biggest ability to fit and to adapt to a plurality of different spaces, not just for the eclectic language of the brand aesthetics but also for the diversity and nobleness of the materials used in the conception of the design pieces such as aged, hammered or polished brass, the marble, the natural wood veneer or the golden, plated or copper leaf, among others.
constant synergies between the brands of the Group once we share all the learning we earn from each success or failure and improve the relationships we establish and develop with our stakeholders.
On the other hand, the fact that BRABBU integrates the Covet Group is what creates
Our product categories – Casegoods, Upholstery, Lighting, Rugs and Pillows – will
12. What can we expect from BRABBU in 2020? In 2020, you will see BRABBU as the brand that represents an intense way of living and of inhabit, through its pieces, its communication and way of living. Nature, cultures of the world and the cosmopolitan lifestyle will be even more present in everything we do. We will be finally embracing the Design Forces Group, from which brands like BB Contract, Maison Valentina, and Foogo will be part of the project, as well as Rug’Society, Pullcast and - who knows? - another upcoming brands or projects with the same power to join us in this journey till 2020.
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already be working as independent brands and they will conquer expression and strength in the market on their own. In 2020, the professionals of interior design and the final buyer will be finally able to easily buy our products online, and on the other hand, they will finally have the opportunity to buy or visit us live in the physical stores that we will have in our main and priority markets and cities with the biggest affluence of stakeholders such as London, Paris, New York, Munich, Milan, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Hong Kong and Dubai. In 2020 we will have, in our focus markets, specialized teams working locally and not just from Portugal. We will be represented in every Covet House Showrooms that will open in other top cities of the world. Apart from the integrated offer that we will be continuing to feature in our collections in 2020, we will also have an Interior Design Service, specialized in developing and complementing projects, or just to provide advice to professionals. We will work for an incoming annual growth of 30% till 2020, and we want that 40% of our sales come from our online stores where we will be selling our products and the products from our partners. Close to complete 10 years of existence, in 2020 we will be almost finishing the book about our story and, of course, we will be planning the next steps that will guide BRABBU to keep the mission of providing an intense way of living.
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About BRABBU BRABBU is a design brand that reflects an intense way of living, bringing fierceness, strength and power into an urban lifestyle. With a diverse range of furniture, casegoods, upholstery, lighting and rugs, and through sensory design, we pass on a unique experience in every piece we design and produce. With BRABBU you will get more than a design piece: you will get a diversity of spaces filled with memories and unique sensations in perfect harmony with your spaces and your personality. That is why we are the first choice for the most remarkable high-end residential and hospitality projects around the world. BRABBU is present at the world’s most renowned design events with new versatile design products for eclectic environments that foresee the next trends.
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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
GET IN TOUCH! General Enquiries press@brabbu.com +351 912 354 698 Ana Lebre Press Manager & UK, ES, LA & DE PR apedro@brabbu.com +351 912 354 698 Clรกudia Viana USA & EUROPE PR cnviana@brabbu.com +351 912 354 698 Marta Moura Middle East & Asia PR mmoura@brabbu.com +351 912 354 698 Elvira Shavlovska RU & UA PR eshavlovska@brabbu.com +351 912 354 698
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