Jennifer Adams Worldwide

Adams has been a highly sought-after and award-winning interior designer for years, and her tips on design have made her a regular correspondent on nationally syndicated “The Better Show” as well as a syndicated columnist in major newspapers from the Philadelphia Inquirer to the San Diego Union Tribune, reaching 1.2 million homes a week and creating millions of impressions. Adams also signed on to produce and star in news packages that will air on the national airport news network ClearVision TV, which is seen in major airports across the country and watched by more than 25 million travelers annually.

Based on the success of the Jennifer Adams Home® Eternal Collection’s bedding line and its simple but elegant looks and wrinkle-free fabrics, Adams was able to create a successful expanded line furniture of products, which can also be found on Costco.com. Today, the Jennifer Adams Home® special events of pop-up stores could be found in Costco stores across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The Jennifer Adams Home® brand also has expanded in the recent past to include a line of licensed designer fabrics, furniture, kitchen and bath textiles, pet accessories and coordinated bath accessories.

Millennial Motivation

One of the biggest elements of the success of the Jennifer Adams Home® brand is its willingness to evolve and take on new ideas, and 2016 will bring more evolution and new ideas to the company. One of the biggest changes in the works is the brand’s embrace of millennial culture, which is driving continuous changes to the brand’s business model and design philosophies. Adams says the millennials are one of the largest generations in history and are just beginning to enter into their prime spending years, so they also represent a huge opportunity for Jennifer Adams Worldwide.

Through the guidance of the company’s own millennial employees and focus groups, Jennifer Adams Worldwide is tackling the challenges that come with appealing to this unique generation. “I would say it’s a shift from our typical approach, and we’re learning as we go, but getting a lot of guidance from experienced advisors, which has been a big help,” Adams says.

Adams says millennials are defined primarily by their independence as they choose to create their own styles rather than let their styles be shaped by outside influences. She adds that the brand is reaching out to these young consumers by creating designs and products that can fit into more eclectic collections. Unlike previous generations, Adams says, millennials aren’t looking for a designer to tell them what looks good, but are getting advice and choosing what they think looks good. “We’re not telling them what to do or what to buy because they do not want to be told what to buy,” she says.

The proliferation of digital platforms like Pinterest are exposing millennials to a wider variety of looks and ideas for home décor and design than previous generations ever had access to, which also makes them more savvy about getting exactly what they envision for their homes. “They’re much more confident in their ability to put their homes together because they’re immersed in these resources,” Adams says.

Another major trend that is helping to define “home” for the millennial generation is a blending of global themes and elements. Thanks to social networking and video-conferencing technology, it’s easier than ever for young people to maintain relationships with others in different parts of the world, exposing them to a more cosmopolitan collection of styles. They also tend to live in shared spaces with roommates or family, and their tastes run more toward casual and down-to-earth styles than the extravagant.

Adapting to the millennial point of view has had an impact on more than the design side of Jennifer Adams Worldwide. Adams says the company’s distribution model has had to evolve to focus more on ecommerce platforms than ever before. Although ecommerce has always been a major component of the company’s distribution model, the fact that millennials do a significant amount of their shopping online and on their smartphones makes it even more important for the company to ensure that its ecommerce platform is functioning at peak performance. “We have to make sure our products are where they’re shopping,” Adams says.

Branching Out

Jennifer Adams Worldwide, Inc., and the Jennifer Adams Home® brand continue to grow in other ways, as well. Later this year, the company will open a new office in Carlsbad, Calif., where Adams says the company will be closer to the creative community in the Los Angeles area. The new office will also feature a creative lab where the company’s creative staff will be located to develop new ideas.

Also part of the new California office will be an in-house production studio where the company can create new content for its media partners with a quicker reaction time. Adams says the company used to operate on a six-month editorial calendar, but the new studio will give it more flexibility in content. Flexibility can be extremely valuable in the fast-changing world of style, and Adams points to the warmer winter in New York City as an example of how content prepared much earlier in advance can lose its relevancy. With the new studio capabilities, Adams adds, the company can be more nimble and shift the focus of its content on the fly to be more relevant to emerging trends.

Adams says she also is excited about some new team members joining Jennifer Adams Worldwide in 2016, including its new design director who will be leading the company’s entire product development and textile development efforts. The company also will add a new director of licensing and a new digital director this year, as well.

Creative Culture

No matter what the future holds for Jennifer Adams Worldwide or however the term “home” is defined, Adams says the brand will continue to focus on creating styles that make people love coming home. The key to realizing that mission statement in everything that it does is hiring inspired individuals and building a corporate culture that allows them to be entrepreneurial and creative, Adams says.

With those values in place, Jennifer Adams Worldwide continues to be a source for lifestyle solutions that define “home” for its customers, whoever they are.