• by Karl Greenberg , October 6, 2010

Premium kitchen major appliance brand Thermador is in the midst of the largest marketing campaign in its history.

The company, which is pairing the launch with introduction of a new steam oven, has redesigned its brand trademark, and has also tinkered with its positioning against an affluent "culinary enthusiast" consumers, with a "Real Innovations For Real Cooks" platform.

The campaign will gear up this quarter and expand further next year with national print, outdoor, retail and digital/online advertising, and perhaps TV. Coming this month is a redesigned multimedia "cooking experience" Web site with video content. The company is also upping its spend on social media campaigns and grassroots programs.

The new Thermador logo incorporates a star-like visual cue representing a burner technology the company introduced in 1998, called Star Burner. Creative elements will include such messaging as "Hotter, Cooler, Faster, Better."

Zach Elkin, director of Thermador brand, said the new work and a new product design language follows a 24-month examination of the target consumer and the segment.

"In the past we were much more focused on affluent traditional households, the mid-fifties empty nester, predominantly female," Elkin says. "About two years ago, we began spending lots of time with [Ipsos] Mendelsohn data and found that there were two groups of younger affluent style setters who shared a love of entertaining and cooking."

Thermador discovered that the culinary enthusiasts are a big group, about 53% of affluent households. "It ties into this idea that the kitchen is the new living room, and a macro trend in which people are eating out less and entertaining at home more," Elkin says. "And these people are between 35 and 53, younger than our previous target."

In addition to holding events for bloggers at its Scottsdale, Ariz. headquarters around the launch of its new steam oven, Thermador is also doing programs on Facebook and Twitter. "The blogger aspect is very exciting for us," Elkin says. "We are planning several other gallery programs."

Last week the company started the new ad push in regional and national papers like USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, and will advertise in about a dozen luxury magazines.

Elkin says the company is relaunching its web site on Oct. 22. Content will include interactive video vignettes with culinary aficionados in their kitchens talking about Thermador products. Print ads will focus on products without people in the pictures.

There will also be a grassroots program in several cities called "Do You Cook?" "Our plan is to make the culinary enthusiast the star of the kitchen, and you will see that play out in weeks to come," says Elkin.