Real simple: Smart merchant Steve Phillips is laughing all the way to the bank. At his Ashley units serving Greater Saint Louis, he will end the year “hugely ahead.”
At a time when other merchants mumble sorry and sordid tales of mercantile woe, Phillips smiles broadly, declaring that investing in building trusted relationships burnishes a glowing reputation that attracts and sustains friends doing business with and as friends.
Oh, yeh, it's investment marketing because Phillips' simple method of satisfying customers who eagerly become ambassadors, spreading the positive news of honor and ethics. So simple, yet so difficult for other retailers who just don't get it.
For decades, Phillips conveys trust, honor and respect, allowing him to declare with conviction and humility: “We’ve been treating our customers right a long time and it’s paying off . . . with our business ending the year hugely ahead in big double digits.”
Expect more in 2010 from the Phillips honed brand of trust marketing, a natural virtue his family practiced for nearly three quarters of a century. Phillips operates four Ashley HomeStores in Missouri and has reinstated the Phillips Furniture brand in Gateway City and across the Mississippi River northeast in Edwardsville, Illinois.
Converting the couple of Ashley stores to Phillips Furniture, reinforces a trusted name, permitting Steve to compete with his Ashley units comfortably with the complementary new stores featuring more contemporary styles set in a lifestyle merchandising context. He also competes with his brother’s Weekends Only Furniture units, Crate & Barrel, Ethan Allen, Rothman, Value City and others, all of whom maintain the pressure.
Incidentally, what a great story of friendly brothers competing with one another in the same city.
Trust marketing is from-the-heart customer service, a branding distinction, a Phillips tradition he can take to the bank especially in a down economy.




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