When Benchmade Modern welcomed Dan Campbell as its new president in 2023, it was the start of a full reboot for the DTC furniture and upholstery company. Campbell, who brought 17 years of experience at Holly Hunt, began a complete overhaul with a new logo, color palette, furniture designer, advertising agency, as well as a streamlined process for customizing and rendering pieces online with lead times in the two-to-four-week range. The brand is part of Artisant Lane—the owner of well-known industry brands including Lee Industries, American Leather and Brookline Furniture, with everything manufactured in the U.S. One of Campbell’s goals was to revamp the brand by infusing it with the spirit of the trade while still making it accessible to the average shopper. “We did new trade pages and all those things, but also not going too far because it is still a direct-to-consumer brand,” he tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. “I wanted to make it very approachable, so a regular Joe could look at it and be like, ‘I could have this in my space.’”

Dan CampbellCourtesy of Benchmade Modern

Bringing that spirit also allowed for the brand’s trade relationships to grow, now making up 10 percent of the company’s business, up from the 2 percent it was prior. “When a designer starts using [the online customizable features] and understands it, they’re buying two sofas a month because they’re like, ‘This works. This is easy. It takes no time.’ They’re happy with the quality,” he says.

Whether selling to the trade or to consumers, Campbell’s main focus has been on product. When the brand surveyed customers about what they liked about the company, he expected responses to be about fast lead times; instead, customers pointed to design. Campbell says that a focus on quality and aesthetics has allowed Benchmade Modern to win, even against DTC competition that has Instagram ad buys down to a science. “I think it does go back to product,” he says. “[Competitors] could figure out the digital marketing piece 10 years ago, but the product didn’t resonate as well. [It’s] harder and harder to get in front of someone with mediocre product.”

Crucial insight: “Don’t let best get in the way of better,” was one of the biggest lessons Campbell took away from his time at Holly Hunt. “She really looked at everything like that. Like the piece of furniture: It’s good, but can we change it by a quarter inch? Can we increase the thickness of the foam? What can we do to make it better? And that really was that strive and passion to get everything right and never never cheap out,” he says. “If you make great product with good quality and good design, sales will follow. The brand will follow. Having the product be the core of the business, the other things will fall into place.”

Key quote: “I think all of the knowledge I had, whether it’s just a basic understanding of the furniture business, how to sell furniture, how to make furniture, what quality looks like, what good design looks like—all of those things that I knew translated really easily over to this. A lot of the DTC competition doesn’t have that skill set. Because they have an MBA from Wharton, they think they can sell furniture,” he says. “You kind of have to love furniture in a sense and then love the design business to create something that is special or different, as opposed to just making XYZ somewhere.”

This episode is sponsored by Ernesta and Hickory Chair. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Thursday Show

BOH executive editor Fred Nicolaus and host Dennis Scully discuss the biggest news in the industry, including the latest round of Trump tariffs, the microtrends that are here to stay, and what designers really want from trade programs. Later, columnist Warren Shoulberg joins the show to discuss the mood in home retail.

This episode is sponsored by Jaipur Living and Hector Finch. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.