InsideFurniture

UPSIDE TO DOWNSIDE: In the economic storm, the harsh wind blows the weak leaves off furniture’s tree

Cheer up, furniture bunkies, the weaklings are dying. Just don’t be one of them. Yes, the bittersweet truth is this rotten economy is delivering the bluntly wrapped gift of severe adjustment.

The rude, welcome cleansing removes the weak and refreshes the wary but strong survivalists.

Attribute the current discomfort to the smack and slap of Adam Smith’s invisible hand at play and work. Unpleasant but necessary harsh economic forces are forcing the weakest to disappear and strengthening the strong merchants and manufacturers.

This is good pain. Compression may have a silver lining, with the elimination of the me-too, knock-off low-ballers in a deadly race to the bottom. Say Kaddish — traditional Jewish prayer to honor the dead — for them and live strong.

Tempered by the most intense challenge yet, survivors are better off for overcoming the economic travail. The lessons learned, if they are at all, will fortify the survivors and teach savvy new entrants how to be prepared and overcome crippling and decimating adversity.

Yes, the current mercantile condition can be characterized as a conflict, but not as some facile war and peace scenario where military platitudes are used as ammunition.

This economic conflict is all about overcoming adversity with W.A.R. all right. Winning now demands the precise use of well-crafted ammunition produced to deliver positively explosive force from Wisdom, Attitude and Resiliency.

For greatest impact, success emerges under the disciplined command of leaders relying on thoughtful W.A.R. planning instead of untrained and reactionary tactics.

If the troops need reinforcement for W.A.R., then send them to the High Point Market where the mercantile ammunition is stronger, more abundant and available than anywhere else, especially at the flashy and expensive desert bivouacs.

Again, the demise of weaklings is a discomforting fact in the short term. But in the long term, the furniture industry is stronger because the strongest and smartest survive.

This is the good news or the upside of the downside.

FIRST RULE OF HOLES: Stop digging and start filling to get out of the hole

Stop digging is the obvious action, and the first rule of holes, if you're stuck in a hole, especially a hole you've dug yourself!

The furniture industry is stuck in a hole of its own doing. More like a cavern, but still a big hole that most single-minded and somewhat benighted merchants and manufacturers have dug for themselves.

Wittingly or not, they have dug the hole, a hole of missed opportunities, for themselves. No new products or furniture trade shows can lift the industry out of its holiness.

Yet, amazingly, despite a frenetic desire to escape, they keep digging and digging. That is, they keep doing the same things — selling instead of marketing — and expecting different results.

Invoking the first rule of holes, stop digging, already!

Take heed: The next step (important word, step) is start filling the hole, not to bury an old industry, but with disciplined action to establish a new foundation and firm footing to climb out with a new appreciation and desire to promote satisfaction, comfort and better living.

The fill material is commitment and desire to expand the industry's knowledge and refine its approach to the people it serves.

For a better perspective, the following Native American tale tells it all:

One day an old Native American's donkey fell down into a deep hole. The animal cried piteously for hours as the Native American tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old and the hole needed to be covered up anyway. It just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his clan people to come over and help him. They all began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down.

A few minutes later, the old Native American finally looked down the hole and was astonished at what he saw.

With every handful of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing!

He would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the hole and trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt! The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. 

Each of our troubles is a stepping-stone. We can get out of the deepest holes just by not stopping and never giving up!

All we have to do is shake it off and take a step up.

Morale of the story and predicament: When your ass in a hole, stop digging! Start filling with thoughtful action not reaction.

Repost from March 26, 2006, with slight modifications.

MORE FROM LESS: Theodore Alexander’s online newsletter gets maximum impact from minimalist presence

Simple, compact and attractively snooty adequately characterizes TA Times (requires subscription), an online newsletter from the high end furniture maker Theodore Alexander.

Clearly, TA's intentional minimalist presence, left (click to enlarge), forces the mind wonder and wander about product and purpose.

With only three intriguing photographs on the newsletter's landing page, they effectively lure the reader and with quiet strength, command more clicks.

Thinking you’re getting the whole story after the click-through is just another powerful device, prompting more clicks to get the whole story. That’s effective click-directed management. The click journey is worth it.

TA's refined and sophisticated approach outshines and outsmarts most other vapid, gushing websites and online newsletters. Wanton and undisciplined, all they want to do is gush.

All that information is more than online visitors can devour without becoming afflicted with information nausea and click elsewhere to more intriguing web environs.

No such see-sickness from regal TedAlex. At the Spring High Point Market will be a good opportunity to see in person the power of minimalist presentation.

Enough droning from me. See for yourself. Go the newsletter and get fat on the lean appearance.

THE CONSUMER, STUPID: Focusing on the sacred responsibility of helping people furnish their homes is all about being smart with consumers

Yes, focusing on the needs of consumers needs to be the commanding vision. How people live and what they want is critical, but not what merchants think consumers want and need. Oh, know, it’s what they say they want and need.

Furniture promotions need to focus on transporting people to yearn to learn about the ways living better with furniture and home furnishings.

Shouting price and terms is just costs too much. It transports consumers neither emotionally nor physically to shop with a passion.

Merchants need to be all eyes and ears about consumers. That will help them craft a realistic merchandising plan and plan to work it passionately.

The next best opportunity to activate the plan is at the Spring High Point Market in April, where and when merchants benefit from more choices to make a difference from the best and brightest sources.

It’s not too late to inform consumers in all ways that attending Market will benefit them in new and fresh styles and designs so they can live better and more comfortably.

Better  and more economical “to drive” a nice family room or dining room than gas guzzling automobile. With more people voluntarily spending more time at home, the obvious message is all about comfortable living, isn’t it?

Despite the reality, the temptation for some frightened merchants is either to stay in their stores or send fewer people to High Point, as a cost-saving decision. It’s neither cost-saving or a decision. It’s actually costly and a cop-out. Here’s why:

Tough times demand toughness, not weakness. Invest in more High Point Market representation. Smart decision makers deploy more buyers . Yes, it’s counterintuitive and damned smart.

The plan is for one buyer team to shop existing vendors, and for the other team to shop for new vendors from High Point’s robust constellation of sources that the regional trade shows can only dream about possessing.

Helping people live better and more comfortably is responsible merchandising that honors the home.

MOVING FORWARD: Ideas work only if they are part of a plan, and that plan is disciplined commitment

Taking up where I left off on Valentine’s Day . . .Yes, we all gotta have heart. Self pity is futile.

Worrying about business and really doing something about it are not mutually exclusive.

Action always speaks louder than words, and words are mostly the currency of retailers.

Based on my blogervation, one respected Western merchant responded. He directs marketing at a well known store in a major metropolitan area.

Here's what he said:

It seems as though many of my employees are practicing the art of wallowing in pity, and possibly a few naval gazing contests as well.

It's important to remind them that the seemingly sensationalist news articles regarding the housing market can hurt their morale -- and sales.

There are definitely still fish in the pond, we just need to be a bit more resourceful and patient.

This merchant realizes neither he nor his staff can catch the same fish with old methods. New techniques are necessary.

He’s acting instead of just talking. Instead of idle finger pointing, he's pointing to new energy for sustained action.

Now more than ever — which applys all the time — means furniture merchants need to be in touch with customers' lives, their dreams, wishes and aspirations.

So, helping people live better demands that merchants provide customers with counselors whose first priority is to provide assistance instead of just ringing up another sale.

What's the real reason for being in business? It's a sacred responsibility. Come back tomorrow for a new-old explanation.

GOTTA HAVE HEART: In this heart-breaking business climate, tough love and strong relationships win the day

No one says love or life is easy, even for royalty. That's especially true in the furniture industry, where love seems harder to find right now.

But take heart, love still prevails and so does lovely business, although you’ve got to really, really work at making it work.

I don’t know for sure, and want to know, but I believe some of the mid-to-smaller merchants are finding ways to love their customers in ways, perhaps, that their larger loveorned mercantile brothers and sisters are lacking.

In love and business, relationships matter. Working at them is what counts. That means knowing what your mate wants and needs, and finding a way to deliver it.

For merchants needing to differentiate themselves, the High Point Market is coming. That's the place where matching consumer needs with the broadest and boldest product assortment reigns.

In an uncertain economy or anytime self pity isn’t the answer, a resounding theme that Editor Ray Allegrezza of Furniture|Today rightly (writely) declared in his current column that remaining focused on purpose and responsibility.

Yes, yes, keeping our eyes on the prize — helping people live more comfortably and better with furniture. That’s the mantra, not destructive self-pity patois.

There’s business out there, if you want it, but it won’t come easy. Stop complaining.

Nobody can buy results. All that’s possible is opportunity, and that exists, but it is more challenging. No kidding.

Here’s a simple, hard-working example: Andy Kane of Tapestries Ltd., a purveyor of decorative accessories and home accents, said he couldn’t sit on his assets any longer, and needed to act because “you need to go out and get the business.” He did.

With determination, he went out and met with retailers and, violà, he wrote business. Imagine that?!

Andy knew what to do with the power of personal marketing. He called on merchants who developed lasting relationships with their customers. He knew that he could give those retailers a path to differentiate themselves, the missing and necessary added oomph, to helping them succeed.

No pity from Andy, except to say that on his successful odyssey, he rarely encountered other sales peers who, he could only speculate, were too busy pitying themselves instead of putting themselves in better position for continuing business.

So take heart today and every day. Because the sun does come up every day, and no one is gonna give you nuttin’. You have to devise new ways all the time.

SIMPLE IDEAS CAN WORK: Friends and family can mean business if the food is good and table is set for action

Forget about the sales nostrums and bring on the food. Yeh, vittles to satisfy the real appetite for home furnishings.

While sales just blow past most people, food is filling and food for thought can be mighty nutritious. So what do I mean?

Set the table for selected consumers, preferably newsmakers in your community. Yeh, invite them to your store for a dinner party, with the dessert served as real pie in the sky in form of tasty discounts, under the observation of the local news media.

Need a theme? How about a report on your shopping experience at April's High Point Market? There’s a whole lot of information that can be shared from such a productive business adventure.

Back to the dinner party for hungry retailers. Think cooperatively in your community. A furniture merchant, fine restaurant, fabulous dessertery and story-starved local news media all conspire deliciously for fun and profit.

Everyone wins in cooperatively assuring high mutual visibility. Can you picture as group of convivial folk, dining on in style and talking style and design, during a well planned dinner party where the furniture and the participants are the stars? I can.

What happens is the furniture merchant receives the primary attention, with the help of others, and dinner guests come away filled with positive thoughts, and the local news filled with good story.

Now do it and get your just desserts.

SNAKE OIL ROILS: In desperate times, magic mercantile potions seem to taste great until it’s too late

The maxim is true: You can always sell as salesman, and many retailers are susceptible to being sold . . . because they want what is impossible: quick action and quick solutions.

A current batch of tasty snake oil comes from fast-talking quick furniture sales guys (guise), brandishing bottles of business (hey, I didn’t use mercantile here) weapons of mask deflection.

They offer delicious quick sales potions and winning motions to bottled up merchants.

All that sweet smelling stuff seems to do the trick on many retailer folk crowding the attractive get-more-sales-quick wagon.

Afterwords when the show is over, the glib and uncuous sales-guys (guise) adjourn to the back of their wagon, clink their glasses and quaff their sicksesses and move on to the next show, their next brew-ha-ha.

The reality is compulsive impatience. Retailers want quick solutions for complex problems. Certainly, times are tough. Even so, solid fundamentals still prevail, and they are providing legitimate value within the context of living better and more comfortably.

These real methods are not snake oil, and they are nutritious, all taking time to establish. Quaffing a real sales elixir during the past few years would have positioned merchants in a better position now than quenching their desperate get-business-now thirst with buckets of tasty SnareBucks frappuccinos.

Adapting to a changing environment is key, and solid change requires adroit planning based on constant research in the form of usable information with a simple method for implementation.

For a macro insight into change leadership, listen to a discussion from (click on link and listen for few seconds until the program begins) World Business Review on the BBC's World Business Review.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR OF THE RAT

TEAMING UP ON HIGH POINT: Smart merchants bring teams of buyers to get the most out of the most in home furnishings markets

The more the merrier, especially at the High Point Market. It’s where there’s more of everything, a splendid merchandise assortment permitting savvy merchants to make a difference.

Bring ‘em on to North Carolina in April. Invoke the team approach, and scour High Point showrooms to find the deals that produce the squeals of discovery in satisfying real needs of consumers.

Like no other time, survival is at stake. Now is when merchants need to map real plans to differentiate or else,

Of course, the way to success survival in High Point is acting intrepid as opposed reacting too tepid. Here’s where’s teaming up and being bold on Market means pre-planning to discover merchandise that helps make the difference.

Managed tension is good. It helps focus. It promotes differentiation. and else can be fatal.