Thomasville Integrates Lifestyle Groupings Concept Throughout Consumer Communications and Store Displays

Furniture World Magazine

From Marketing Brochures and Signage to Store Layouts, the Company Web Site and Fabric Displays, Thomasville Pioneers Total Lifestyle Grouping Integration. With American consumers looking to furniture retailers more and more to help them select furniture to suit their unique tastes, Thomasville answers their needs with five unique lifestyle groupings for its complete collection of home furnishing lines. Initiated by Thomasville in October 2000 to help make its customers’ furniture shopping experiences easier and more enjoyable, the lifestyle groupings concept is now being put into effect in Thomasville stores across the country. According to Jim Adams, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Thomasville, the company wanted to optimize the shopping experience and make it easier for customers to select furnishings that fit their individual tastes and style. Thomasville did this by grouping and displaying furniture collections according to the lifestyles they best fit into. Taking the concept a step further, the company completely integrated the lifestyle categories into all areas of its marketing and merchandising. "Thomasville pioneered the concept of integrating the lifestyle groupings concept into every aspect of its merchandising, including company sales and marketing materials, signage, furniture and fabric displays, the Thomasville Web site, and through the training of our sales staff," Adams said. "Consumers seeking furniture to fit their lifestyles, whether they enjoy traditionally elegant surroundings, continental influences, arts and crafts, cottage casual or more updated urban styles, will find our furniture grouped according to these lifestyle categories for easier selection." Adams said that through sales and marketing brochures and in-store signage, customers can examine characteristics of each lifestyle grouping and quickly determine where their interests lie. "When a customer enters a Thomasville store, they will find furniture displayed according to lifestyle category rather than by furniture piece or by room," Adams said. "Sofas are not all grouped with all the other sofas; living rooms are not displayed with other living rooms. Instead, entire furniture lifestyle groupings, including living room, dining room, bedroom, entertainment centers, home office and occasional, are displayed according to lifestyle category." According to Mark Cooper, Thomasville Vice President, General Manager Retail Development, each Thomasville furniture line’s design is not the only consideration for each lifestyle grouping. "All aspects of the furnishings are considered and incorporated into the store displays, including the furniture line’s style, fabrics, woods, prints, colors and color combinations, to compliment our customers’ personalities and enhance their shopping experience," Cooper said. "Thomasville has even arranged its fabric selection displays into lifestyle groupings to allow consumers to identify the fabrics best suited to their individual tastes more easily." Within each lifestyle grouping, customers will find helpful literature that lists the elements of the decorating style (furniture shape, materials, finishes, appropriate accent pieces, complimentary wall finishes and window treatments, etc.), suggests colors, and gives them tips on "ways to get the look" for the lifestyle category of their interest. "Because individual tastes are so unique and varied, there are no set rules on achieving a certain look within a home," Cooper said. "Thomasville’s design literature is simply a set of tools from which customers can get decorating and furnishing ideas to help them make better choices. It is up to the customer to infuse his or her own personal style into their home’s decor, and that is what makes the process so much more enjoyable." Cooper said that the lifestyle grouping store displays also offer consumers a variety of design and product ideas to help them meet their decorating needs. Thomasville customers can also browse the company’s furniture by lifestyle categories on the company Web site. Customers simply click on the "browse by: lifestyle" icon, choose the lifestyle category of their interest, and the Thomasville furniture lines in that category appear. Thomasville currently has five lifestyle groupings: Arts & Crafts, Continental Influences, Urban Perspectives, Cottage Casual and Traditional Elegance. The company places its popular Ernest Hemingway Collection® into its own category because of its uniqueness and its eclecticism. For more information about Thomasville Furniture and its home furnishing offerings, please call 1-800-225-0265 or visit www.thomasville.com.