Fern + Spruce

Brand Story

In 2017, our client, Sharon Power, decided to leave the world of technology marketing and enter the ever-growing vacation rental industry. With her love of strategy in tow, Sharon began Fern + Spruce as an advice blog for rental owners looking to spruce up their listings in mountain, country, and ranch locations. She soon realized the retail potential and began to grow her business of selling vacation rental decor.

Mission Statement

Fern + Spruce provides modern & rustic vacation rental decor to design-conscious homeowners looking to spruce up their rentals for better reviews and more bookings.

Naming Strategy

Our strategy was based on the location of the rentals in mountain, country and ranch areas. We also focused on what was being sold and to whom.

Two patterns evoking tree rings and woven textiles, will visually engage the viewer's tactile senses before they are able to handle the products. To maintain the brand's softness, textures will be applied at 50% opacity.

As there are no current photos or products for Fern + Spruce, we created a style for the photos to be used going forward. The style is a livable but not lived in space, with personal items and live plants kept to a bare minimum.
Photos should be of rustic but modern spaces
with a focus on decor products rather than
the architecture or furniture.

Packaging

Packaging for Fern + Spruce will commence in two stages. At startup, products will be shipped directly from the manufacturer to the consumer—giving Fern + Spruce less control over the packaging experience.

Fern + Spruce will send branded corner stickers and thank you cards to manufacturers in bulk. The sticker differentiates the box, and the thank-you card doubles as a handy

checklist so rental owners remember to stock the essentials.This ensures that customers will still get a taste of the brand experience from order to delivery.

Once Fern + Spruce grows enough to gain full control over shipment, the brand can launch a fully branded packaging experience, including branded packing tape, tissue 

paper, and the continuation of the thank-you cards. All of these new elements will be included with a simple box in the brand’s Smoky Mountain Slate color.

Website

To get her business up and running, our client chose to house her website in a Shopify template. This route is not only cheaper to start out, but also easier to handle as the company begins to grow.

Ad Strategy

“Spruce up your space for better bookings.” With a campaign line that encourages strong brand recall, Fern + Spruce reminds customers that when they spruce up their rental spaces they book better, garner more reviews, and ultimately earn more money. Customers are targeted using SEO, social media, web & mobile ads, and thoughtful event collateral to meet them at their most convenient point of purchase.

Tagline

After customers visit the Fern + Spruce web page, web banners and in-feed ads will begin to be present on their social media and average site searches. This is something

the client can place on Facebook a few weeks after making a web presence, because the price point is, on average, .61 cents per click.

Email Newsletter

The bi-monthly email newsletters serve to point consumers to the blog & website, and offer coupons, sales, and shipping discounts as purchase incentives.

One goal of Fern + Spruce is to meet our customers where they live. This includes advertising with podcasts such as Style Matters, The Property Management Mastermind Show, and Young House Love to reach customers with a friendly voice while they are comfortable and receptive to new information. To the right is the audio clip followed by the script.

"you want better bookings, your guests want an unforgettable experience. With unique well crafted pieces from Fern and Spruce, you can elevate your listing and create a vacation space that's stylish and comfortable. Shop a curated assembly of rustic modern decor at fernandspruce.com. That's Fern and Spruce dot com."

Conference Leave Behind

In order to gain presence in the industry, our client will be attending Home Away conferences. At these conferences she will hand out a square 3" card attached to a free USB drive as a convenient leave-behind, containing editable and printable documents. Unlike most conference handouts that are cliche or end up in the trash, this leave behind serves a purpose and is reusable.

Documents include templates for: phone numbers, local restaurants, how-to instructions for around the house, and other important information that property managers need to make available to their guests. (below) Inside the USB, the property manager will also find a discount coupon code to use on his or her first Fern + Spruce purchase.