InsideFurniture

RISKY OR RISQUÉ BUSINESS?: Most furniture stores are too uptight and could benefit from loosening up with a little more floorplay

Repost from April  12, 2007

Sure, more furniture stores could exude, even ooze romantic allure, as natural inviting appeal to stimulate and validate dreams we all enjoy about living better and more comfortably.

Unfortunately, most stores are too uptight, stiff and hesitant for a little acceptable frolic and roll in the, “Hey, look at that luscious, comfy bed where we could . . .” You finish the thought with your dreams, desires and inclinations, just as most consumers want to do when they're shopping.

No need for any more alienation of mercantile affection in stores, where women go when the intensity of their romantic home furnishings dreams can’t be contained and prompts passionate action.

For retailers, here’s where and when a little responsible floorplay can turn torrid desire into profitable passion and an endearing relationship. Making love to consumers is good business, not risky business but acceptable risqué business.

As a terrific in-store invitation to dream, a bed and its enveloping and attendant furniture — case goods — is the right metaphor for acceptable risqué furniture business.

To be sure my insight was in reasonable focus, I checked with my alter ego and friend, Gale Steves. She’s keen observer and arbiter of home furnishings trends at the consulting group Open House Productions, New York (click on her name to send an e-mail). If you want a fix of her bravadoh!, just check into the Finding Your Sales Voice she conducted recently with Home Furnishings Business.

My sense is the way retailers present beds appeals to our conscious and unconscious emotions. We’re invited in or not. We linger and dream or we stay awake and walk away.

Typically, beds in most stores are, as Gale observes, “overly made up, as in women wearing too much make up . . . with a wretched excess of pillowing” or beds that are too perfect, as if they have been poured into an untouchable and unreal mold.

Conversely, an unmade bed in a store can be merchandising dread. Or as Gale explains, “A badly made bed is far worse than an impeccable one. In a store, a woman seeing an unmade bed represents work undone, a form of untidiness which is a misdemeanor in her world order.”

The merchandising art and craft of creating an inviting bed nuzzled into furniture is a form of mercantile stagecraft and, of course, visual floorplay to stimulate desire whatever that may be.

“If the bed is a place of relaxation and repose, create an environment that says that here is where your dreams come true,” Gale observes.

In our conversations, and e-mail exchanges, we agreed that an inviting bed is slightly undressed, relaxed with a romantic tussle of the covers, without being lewd, unkempt or sloppy.

Think of the inviting bed as an element of a store’s mercantile résumé, prompting a consumer to say, “I want to hire that look for my home,” for rest, hope, refuge, redemption, frolic, romance, somnolence and fun.

MINISTERING FURNITURE? Perhaps the methods of selling furniture conflict with satisfying the human need for comfortable living

Repost from August 11, 2006

Selling may be the problem, and ministering furniture may be the solution to satisfying people's inherent desire to live comfortably, at least physically if not mentally and financially.

The idea of ministering furniture most certainly seems paradoxical, even oxymoronic.

Upon hearing the words linked — ministering furniture — some people will laugh and reflexively dismiss an apparently silly, preposterous and stupid idea or concept, while other more cerebral people will see possibility and want to know more.

STOP reading if you've dismissed the idea that ministering furniture is just my blogging blovating, and too idiotic enough to discuss.

CONTINUE if you are attracted to fresh, bold and different ideas that provoke new paths to achieving satisfaction.

How do you minister furniture? The same way care-taking professionals provide important counseling, assistance and guidance to persons in need.

Aren't people visiting furniture stores in need? If not why are they there? To be closed, as a selling tactic, or opened as relationship-building strategy?

But business is business, you say. Yes, of course, but consider medical and other caretaking professionals. They are certainly in business. Even so, they really don't "sell" their services as furniture is sold, mostly as an object or commodity.

On the way to the dentist, did you ever think you going there to buy teeth cleaning or purchase a tooth repair?

Caretaking professionals are in place because they want to serve, beckoned to an important calling to heal, solve problems and help people live better. Of course, caretakers want and need to earn a living, but their motivation is, primarily, service and satisfaction above self.

Contrast the service-satisfaction dimension of professional caretakers with most furniture sales persons. The furniture folk, first, want to sell and make money. The commission-reward system is incongruent with serving people because it places the reward on the sales person to get the sale at almost any cost and not necessarily in the best interests of the customer.

Conversely, caretakers want to minister, first, to needs for which the reward of serving also includes financial compensation, as the secondary and important factor.

"You're full of crap!," Professor Bob Wineburg told me, after asking him whether his students at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where they are trained as social workers, could minister furniture. Bob is a renowned professor of Social Work at UNCG.

After dismissing my new way of thinking about commerce, Bob said he thought about my counterintuitive insight, prompting him to apologize for his brusque, even coarse rejection of "your provocative idea."

To my delight he "gained perspective" and enthusiastically agreed that students trained in the social sciences are inherently caretakers, driven by a compelling desire to serve others.

What's more, Bob said helping furnish people's homes can be considered important caretaking, a significant endeavor that incorporates finding solutions to help people live more comfortably.

Moving from selling furniture to ministering furniture requires more than wistful and wishful thinking. It demands further discussion, leading to an action plan, if the idea in any likely permutation has sustaining merit.

Again, this topic ministering furniture is heady and too unmanly or fru-fru for the real furniture guys in disguise as real men who know how to sell the hell out of anything.

Despite expected resistance, the idea of ministering furniture to people is necessary for an industry to consider and act upon, if it wants to elevate furniture's inherent purpose while appealing to people's desire for comfort as an integral element in their dreams, wishes and aspirations.

Realistically, the power of ministering furniture cannot be pushed or foisted upon an "get-it-while-you-can-now" industry.

With anything inherently good and substantial, the wisdom of this kind of paradigm shift will start with dedicated people, succeeding with changing the way furniture is presented and acquired by people wanting to live more comfortably.

Maybe a respected traditionalist Jerry Epperson could become a champion of ministering furniture, persuading his loyal following that traditional selling is "sale-ing" away. That would be great.

While my blogservation may ignite an idea, the flame has to spread in hearts, minds and actions of many others courageous enough to demonstrate a little Yankee ingenuity.

Share your thoughts as comments to this posting or send me a private email (click here) and let's work together to satisfy people with furniture.

AUTHENTICITY TRUMPS TITILLATION

In marketing, authenticity speaks resolutely for itself, with resonating honor, trust and nobility, all enduring virtues grounded in resounding legitimacy, wisdom and responsibility.

Authenticity emerges from stability and bona fide talent within the context of an entrenched creative class.

Conversely, titillation typically emerges when insufficient exponents demand artificial diversion only to become a brilliantly weak foundation supporting beguiling impulses that wither as superficial authority.

Titillation typically bursts from untested ferment as a temporizing expression and reaction in the form of a flashing yet fragile looking-glass.

Despite occasional confusion in marketing messages, perceptive observers can always discern authenticity and titillation.

Look below at two prime examples (click to enlarge) of marketing messages of Authenticity and Titillation and judge for yourself.

MERCHANT VERSUS PEDDLER: Few merchants and many peddlers populate the retail landscape

Merchants are in tune with the dreams, wishes and aspirations of their customers.

Peddlers just want to sell, with little or no concern about the dreams, wishes and aspirations of their customers, as long as they buy something, anything.

The reality is many people just don’t want to buy something or anything, even if the price is right.

Price is losing its command and magnetism, except for frequently purchased necessities, mainly food, basic apparel and a few other commodities.

Merchants are curious, always in search of new and innovative ways to transport customers to live better with furniture.

Peddlers are in ruts, typically barking price and terms for infrequently purchased casegoods and upholstery, which are not self-evident riches or can't live without wants.

Here’s no news: Furniture is postponable. Food, fuel and clothing aren’t. That’s the reason presenting furniture as a bargain doesn’t hunt as well anymore.

And this reality is especially true when the presentation occurs in the absence of a legitimate, comfortable context that transports people to lasting enjoyment.

Yeh, sure, a simple but complex concept. Taking people to the promised land of comfort is critical. Once they are there mentally, they will seek a path or vehicle to get there. Isn’t that what good merchants do? Present the dream and way to get it.

Peddlers exult in telling, mostly shouting to sale-deaf consumers that furniture is cheap. People don’t want cheapen living, they want the riches of comfort, beauty and function that they want and are willing to invest in.

When that context is well defined, they will be interested in good-better-best. Until that time, all the hype is just price type and hot words signifying unsophisticated marketing and merchandising.

Merchants focus on the needs of customers who will pay for what they want because they need it to conform with their lifestyle, worldview and personal standards.

Peddlers focus more on the customers’ ability to pay with a limited desire to know what they really want beyond the present. Forget about building a relationship. Slam, bam, no down payment-no interest-no thank you in lives, ma'am.

Merchants have learned how to cultivate, nuture and weave dreams with furniture playing a central role in delivering multiple levels of satisfaction, comfort and utility as an endearing and enduring solution.

Peddlers dream about price because they only want to sell something, anything, as their solution.

Merchants are merchamps and peddlers are forgotten.

THE FURNITURE FUNK: Overcoming that sinking feeling requires raising the stature of furniture and competing for mind share of consumers

Having a home filled with functional, comfortable, stylish furnishings is better than a fancy car!

Take that Detroit, Tokyo and Stuttgart. Now shove it.

How’s that for a verity? If you don’t believe that furniture is better than a fancy vehicle, get out of the industry. Because a home and its interiors are more important than the superficial stature accorded to vehicles.

A car is just that, a vehicle. Of course it’s used for work, but it’s still mainly for transportation.

Conversely, home furnishings provide a totally different and more important function. Home is home and a car is well, just a car.

The interiors of a home are more powerful in so many ways. Mostly in providing the comfortable contours of home life, which will become more important as the cost gasoline rises.

So getting over the funk that retards furniture requires guts to get the glory. Attention: All those furniture leaders with guts, report to general quarters for the battle.

How many intrepid furniture executives are ready to take on the automobile industry?

It’s as easy as declaring the preeminence of furniture and home. The costly creature comfort of a fancy vehicle is not the same as the enjoyment of an exquisite dining room, a sumptuous family room, a snuggly bed for dreams and love, plus the delight of an easy chair where the concerns of the world are there.

Just tell the story of all the reason you know in heart that furniture is better than a fancy car.

Not telling the fabulous story means more of the same: the furniture funk that can disappear as soon as the industry and all its inhabitants desire to make the change.

So me the guts, and you’ll get the glory from the story that needs to be told as bold as the purpose of heralding the comforts of home.

SMALLER STORES, BIG SUCCESSES: Discovering innovative marketing and merchandising in the smallest mighty retailers

Many smaller merchants succeed without much notice or fanfare. While the conventional trade press focuses almost exclusively on the biggest retailers, many of the strongest, best ideas are active among the smallest retailers satisfied with their prowess and position.

Big isn’t always best. Size is not always the lasting prize. But that’s what usually makes news because it’s easier and cheaper to cover but not always the most innovative. In business reporting, discovering the distinctive  fish is usually the best catch for a tasty and nutritious story.

Regretfully, most trade stories focus on the top 250 retailers. For sure, they are the power buyers and players, but not necessarily the savviest or most productive. Nor are they the merchants from whom we can learn the most.

Years ago when I served as Retail Editor at Furniture|Today, I recall friendly, feisty and passionate editorial discussions with the late great Bill Peterson and his perceptive successor Lester Craft, both real journalists.

As a reporter, I always advocated finding the exemplary small guy with the big ideas that the industry really needed to know. Fortunately, I was able to report about progressive small guys, but I still felt the irrepressible pressure to report what those behemoths did, even it was their mediocrity.

True then as it is now, the advertising order takers just love those soft gratuitous stories that most retailers dismiss as cloying self-serving space fillers.

Remember all that news about a mediocre merchandiser Heilig-Meyers and other mercantile dinosaurs? Just like the phlegmatic chain, long gone are those pandering stories with the headline grabbing retailer.

Not much has changed today. For the same reasons, the so-called news emanates from the floors of the biggies.

My rant is as much self-directed as it is to my colleagues. No doubt, we need to focus on innovative merchandising and marketing wherever it is, and much of it lurks in the smaller stores.

As advocated to Bill and Lester, we have an obligation to inform guide and educate readers, not just disseminate blather, propagate soft news, patronize the advertisers and propagandize the big retailers as mercantile messiahs.

None of us can cover the industry only by rewriting convenient news releases. The enduring stories require digging, with passion and not passivity.

Gotta go. I’ve just been told.

MONDAY’S MUSINGS: Random ramblings, thoughts, rants, ruminations, insights, tirades, opinions and more and less

Gobs of GOBs — Retail failures are good and bad news. First the limited and qualified good news: The voracious, rapacious and truculent liquidation crowd buys furniture from hungry manufacturers.

Now the bad news, or is it bad noose? With those GOB sales hanging around the industry — Levitz, Sofa Express, Bombay and more — the home furnishings could appear better to consumers seeking stability and trusted relationships.

For sure, those bombastic sales will be sucking the wind from the sales at Staying-In-Business merchants, trying to eke out a living.

China Syndrome — The question is whether China will be hazardous to the industry’s health. It could in some ways.

The Sold Rush to China has meant debilitating commoditization and the likely prospects of uneven supply, suspicious quality, potential social rebellion, currency chaos, costly supply chains and rising export prices.

Worse yet, with all the North American companies abandoning production, where will the industry wisdom be when it’s needed when importing will be a harsh reality, bad memory and imprudent and rash decision?

Oh, the answer to that question: The Chinese and, probably, other non-American companies will build modern assembly facilities in the United States. 谢谢 (Thank you) will be the gracious response.

Care Taker Gene Needed — Will 2008 be the year the trade associations advocate the lasting benefits of bona fide certification at retail?

Yes, professionals who possess the caretaker gene, whose desire is to first, help people live better with home furnishings, then be delighted to be paid.

More on this important subject in a future posting, but for now, a reminder that the business of satisfying people and help them live better with home furnishings needs to be elevated to a soaring professional level.

What’s happening how isn’t working and substantive solutions are required.

First, this industry needs professionals possessing the caretaker gene. They are trained the social sciences, armed with insight, experience and desire to minister home furnishings to people want more comfortable living from a trusted professional counselor not a sales person.

Viva Cost Vegas — Apparently, Cost Plus World Market seems to be holding the feet of the World Market Center to the fire of potential litigation over commercial use of World Market and the connection to home furnishings. Click on the story in the Las Vegas Business Press and draw your own conclusions.

Looking back at the publicized hinting about the World Market Center somehow transforming and interacting with consumers as a home furnishings destination seems to be in question and may become a different kind of Cost Plus for that regional trade show.

DIFFERENTIATE OR DISAPPEAR: More than ever, the imperative is finding new ways to create and cultivate an enduring brand

Manufacturers wanting to find a quick path to branding themselves with retailers and consumers need to look no further than AlCyn House pictured here.

Why? AlCyn House’s splendor can easily become an executive residence, corporate showcase house, living showroom, employee retreat and High Point Market lodging for select retailers, among the many possibilities. Click on image to enlarge.

As you surmised, AlCyn House is for sale, and I am honored to be involved in marketing it to savvy people who immediately see its astounding potential.

As for achieving marketing differentiation, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist marketer to realize that if a furniture manufacturer acquired AlCyn House, this splendid estate would become an immediate emblem, if not an enduring sub-brand.

I could only imagine what would happen if Martha Stewart or another bon ton designer got hold of this gem. Watch out!

Minutes from High Point in nearby Trinity, AlCyn House is tucked away on nearly 27 acres of serene woods and embraced by majestic lawns.

This special villa is a 12,000 square foot commercially constructed house, with 24 rooms —11 bedrooms including 4 bedroom suites. It is super energy efficient, with monthly utilities averaging $321.

Incidentally, the efficiency of AlCyn House prompted Duke Energy to wrongfully  suspect owners John and Carolyn Kasarda of stealing energy. An engineer and management consultant with furniture clients, John designed and supervised the construction.

He will delight in discussing AlCyn House unique history and special features. If you wish a personal visit, you need to arrange it with broker Dwain Skeen, 336-885-1701.

For the past decade, some of Henredon’s crack sales team have stayed there. Perhaps you saw the “farewell” story in the October 6 Market daily of Furniture|Today.

As for the Kasarda’s, “We’re empty nesters now and wish to downsize, and that’s the reason we’re putting the house up for sale,” he says. The Kasarda’s are planning to move into smaller quarters in High Point.