The place for home. With this new slogan, the brands of the association of merchants, restaurateurs, and professionals of Diagonal have opted to reaffirm their positioning as a hub for interior design, decoration, and home. And it is that one out of every four retail establishments on the avenue between Paseo de Gràcia and Francesc Macià is specialized in the home sector, a fact that aims to act as a traction lever to boost commerce and the revitalization of the area.
Thus, the thirty establishments linked to the home act as a spearhead to attract visitors to Diagonal with the home sector as their banner, so that they then approach other commercial and restaurant premises on the street. It is decoration and interior design as an attraction and stimulus for all businesses on the avenue, which want to present themselves as a large open-air shopping center.
And it is that these establishments encompass a great diversity of sectors, ranging from fashion to opticians, including jewelers and accessories. All of them total 134, of which 23% are related to the home, a figure that includes local and international firms, as highlighted by the president of Diagonal Boulevard, Teresa Guirado. The veteran Pilma, Ikea, Maisons du Monde, La Mallorquina, Porcelanosa, Calma House, Natura Casa, Kave Home and Casa Viva are just some of the many firms that turn Diagonal into a home sector hub.
"We want to consolidate the positioning that Diagonal has naturally acquired in furniture and decoration, which has given us an identity," Guirado highlighted at the presentation of the first campaign jointly promoted by the commercial and also restaurant hub. This first action will be part of the Christmas season, and will offer gifts, discounts and offers to shoppers until January 5, and will be "the first of many revitalization actions."
This campaign, the new slogan and the strategy of the axis "formalize something that in practice was already happening," according to the Councilor for Commerce, Raquel Gil. And it is that the street has been attracting and concentrating businesses and professionals linked to the home spontaneously, in a process that had the reform of the Diagonal about a decade ago as a turning point. "It is evidence that urban planning actions end up generating new centralities," defended Gil, who contrasted the current Diagonal with the one prior to the reform, when for her it was an unfriendly space for walking or shopping.
After this reform, the avenue has been gaining fabric until "achieving this transformation of its commercial mix, which no one had proposed," according to Gabriel Jené, who directs La Mallorquina and presides over Barcelona Oberta, an association of which the Diagonal Boulevard axis is a part. "We have managed to make the Diagonal part of Barcelona's centrality," added Jené, who also highlighted the value of the avenue's reform. In fact, the axis so appreciates this urban transformation that its symbol is the characteristic leaf of the Diagonal's panots.
In a round table with Jené, the co-executive director of Pilma, Pau López, recalled that the family business began operating 95 years ago, and opened on the avenue in 1987. "We were probably the first to put the furniture footprint on the Diagonal," he highlighted, and praised the offer and the concept that the street has been building: "We are unique and singular, and that is very difficult to achieve."
Thus, visitors approach the avenue drawn by this unique proposal that orbits around the home. And not only individuals, but also professionals in the sector, as Alfons Tost, from the interior design studio Alfons & Damián, has confirmed: "Professionals feel very attracted by the variety of formulas they find."
The establishments on the Diagonal generate a "symbiosis that benefits everyone"And not only the establishments ofhome, but also the rest of the sectors with a presence on Diagonal, such as Rosbel jewelry."We are a 12-square-meter establishment, and on Diagonal we feel small, but at the same time, big,"has highlighted Rafa Grau, who runs with his brother a family business that started in 1870 and landed on the avenue 12 years ago.
"The symbiosis between big and small brands benefits everyone," Grau added. Thus, the firms on Diagonal add up more than they compete, in an ecosystem that calls to a visitor who often arrives attracted by home proposals but drops by its other shops and restaurants.