Brands tackle Cost of Living Crisis

Home brand Dunelm has launched an autumn campaign to highlight how the homeware retailer is “aiming to help British consumers during these challenging times”.

The multichannel campaign, created with agency Creature London, follows the brand’s 2021 brand platform ‘Dun Your Way’. This new addition builds on last year’s activity with a campaign focused on ‘Wits’ End’, a fictional British cul-de-sac, where things are going wrong.

The campaign will run on Channel 4 and ITV as well as social, and Dunelm is also partnering with Capital FM as the exclusive sponsor of Capital Weekends, as well as across the broadcaster’s website and TikTok channel.

“Helping our customers put their own affordable and stylish stamp on their home is at the heart of Dun Your Way,” says Dunelm’s head of creative content, Chris Roughton.

He adds: “Through this campaign we want to help customers feel that regardless of what challenges life may throw, we believe there’s still many little ways to really make your home a haven.”

The brand’s campaign comes a week after John Lewis made early changes to its minimum spend and returns policies ahead of the festive season, claiming customers want to spread the cost of Christmas over more months amid the rising cost of living.

The retailer kicked off its Christmas returns policy in September for the first time, enabling customers to exchange or return unwanted gifts purchased now up until 28 January 2023. John Lewis has also removed its minimum spend threshold for its Click and Collect orders until the 19th of October.

Already, ten times as many boxed baubles have been sold this year than in the same period last year, while sales of Christmas trees are up 37%. Sales of crackers are up 54% since last week, according to Marketing Week.

“We want to be here for all life’s moments and, despite all the cost of living pressures, we’ve seen that our customers are still determined to celebrate Christmas and are buying earlier to help spread out the cost,” says customer director Claire Pointon.

“We want to give our customers the piece of mind that items purchased in the run up to Christmas can still be exchanged or returned after the big day.”