By Ron Cooper
Director of Sales and Marketing
Profit Management Promotions
Customers may be leery when you’re conducting a high-impact sale (perceiving financial instability or viability). This column will look at when and what to say to customers to maintain your store’s brand image during a sale – and to position yourself for continued patronage in the future.
The furniture business has been a declining market for many years now. Book stores, music stores, printing businesses and many others are dealing with some of the same changes in technology, consumer demand and competition from huge companies with more buying power and much higher advertising dollars. Would it be smart to just sit back and do nothing? Of course not. Did you ever notice how positive your staff gets when an old floor model is finally sold and is taken off your floor, replaced by a new, fresh set of goods? It gives you a chance to paint the walls, change accessories. Well, your customers also recognize this change as a good thing too. I can’t remember the last time I went into a Pier 1 and didn’t see some new area being “reborn” with new products, new colors. Consumers were hovering around that area to see what’s new and if they could have a chance to buy it before someone else did. Why continue having outdated, tired looking furniture on your floor?
Today’s take-away: Too many retailers hold onto their old looks, their old products, their old salespeople to maintain a brand that’s probably been seeing declining revenue for years. However, by running a planned high-impact event with a reputable furniture promotion company you can avoid the many pitfalls felt by other stores in order to maintain your existing brand OR to open a new and exciting brand that makes not just your salespeople enthusiastic but also makes consumers want to shop there too!
Editor’s Note: This is the ninth installment of a new weekly column – Promotion Possibilities – that provides tips, tactics and techniques for using sales promotions for business again.
About Ron Cooper & Profit Management Promotions (PMP) Ron Cooper is director of sales and marketing for Profit Management Promotions – one of the nation’s leading sales promotion firms serving the home furnishings industry. Established in 1985, the company is headquartered in Jamison, Pennsylvania, and maintains regional offices in New York, New Jersey and North Carolina. Visit their web site at
www.pmpsales.com
Questions about this article or any aspect of retail furniture promotion can be directed to Ron Cooper care of editor@furninfo.com.