The pillow play.

The introduction of pillows to the Hightower portfolio was born out of a personal frustration when designing and accessorizing the Hightower showrooms. Regularly I would find myself sourcing pillows last minute from big box retailers to complete the look. I soon learned that this was not uncommon for our customers and a regular point of frustration for themselves. From this, the idea of developing both standard size and style pillows along with unique one-of-a-kind designs was born. We partnered with Casey Keasler, designer of the Hightower flagship showrooms in Chicago to design her own collection and the pillow category was launched in June 2023.

Why This Concept Just Made Sense

• We were able to leverage a core competency of Hightower as a furniture manufacturer both strong in upholstery and with an already established supply chain of foam and fabric

• We were solving a known customer problem and it aligned with our current marketing funnel

• We were able to differentiate from our competitors by offering custom fabric options that set the concept apart

• We were able to garner a strong margin and additive sales to a customers current order

• We leveraged the Neocon trade show for launch and Casework and Hightower’s winning showroom notoriety, capturing the attention of the industry at a critical time and garnering extensive press and media impressions

• We partnered with Design Milk to offer a limited selection of pillows on their website, leveraging their brand name to garner additional press and website traffic

• Category was complementary to the overall product portfolio and created a new space for accessories

• The category, at the time of conception, was intended to leverage as a test category for an online shop on Hightower’s website to test direct sales when ready