New MFI ads emphasise good design

Furniture chain MFI is taking on Ikea with a new marketing strategy that will focus on the design of its products for the first time. It will be backed by a major advertising campaign that breaks this week.

The chain’s advertising has been focused around price in the past but it has come under pressure from rivals such as Ikea and new entrant Ilva, a Danish furniture retailer, both of which place more emphasis on design.

The MFI television and press ads have been developed by Publicis and use the strapline “You Dream It. We’ll Make it Happen”.

The TV ads feature a woman daydreaming about a room she is planning while sitting through a job interview, looking at holiday snaps and having her nails done. In each execution, she finds her “dream room” in MFI. Media planning and buying of the campaign was by Zenith Optimedia.