The days when Whirlpool’s premium JennAir badge would conjure up images of upper middle-class contentment appear to be numbered.
A new rebranding effort, formally unveiled at today’s Nor’easter-challenged Architectural Digest Design Show in New York, is meant to lend the iconic appliance line an edgy, rebellious attribute that millennials should find appealing.
The campaign, dubbed “Bound By Nothing,” recalls the creative spirit of JennAir founder Lou Jenn, whose innovative downdraft cooktops helped usher in the era of open-plan kitchen design, Whirlpool explained.
“For too long, luxury kitchens have been designed with a compliant mindset that conforms to a one-size-fits-all notion of luxury,” noted Whirlpool president Joe Liotine. “This uniform interpretation of modern luxury lacks inspiration and inhibits personal expression. JennAir exists, more than ever before, to empower designers and tastemakers to bury these blind conventions and give new life to luxury rooted in confident, bespoke, earned and exclusive tenets.”
The campaign takes the form of a new logo and trademark, whose iterations embody the brand’s “emboldened spirit” and “endless possibilities,” the manufacturer said.
The updated attributes will also be reflected in the design of 70 new SKUs that JennAir plans to introduce in June. Some of the products will appear within two new collections: Rise, which “elevates the current standard of luxury”; and Noir, a more minimalist direction that “delivers swagger to the category,” Whirlpool said.
Both, added the vendor, are “born of the same spirit to rebel against tradition.”
