American Signature Gallery Opens In Value City Furniture Chain Company launches new way to shop for furniture with TV campaign

Furniture World Magazine

Value City Furniture has dedicated more than half the space in its 80 stores in 15 states to a gallery showcasing the American Signature brand. The American Signature Gallery, which launched this week, offers a unique shopping experience for customers, enabling them to see professionally decorated room vignettes. The American Signature brand is a series of premium furniture collections ranging from casual to classic to contemporary, each with coordinated home accents and accessories to complete each room. The American Signature Gallery is identified within the stores by distinct signage, point-of-purchase and customer take-home materials that detail all the pieces available within each furniture collection. "This store-within-a-store concept allows us to give our customers the unique opportunity to experience both types of furniture shopping in one location," said David Thompson president of Value City Furniture. "Our American Signature Gallery enables shoppers to envision these complete room settings, created by professional designers, in their own homes. The Value City Furniture section of the store allows customers to shop by product type – to see all the recliners side by side, all the sofas or dinettes in one area. This is very convenient for the shopper looking for a specific item." The combination of the two shopping experiences makes Value City Furniture unique, Thompson said, by addressing both types of customers’ wants and needs in one location. Humorous TV campaign to launch the Gallery The American Signature Gallery openings will be introduced to consumers via weekly print circulars and a new television ad campaign, which uses humor to deliver a strong message about how others may see your home. Additionally, the company plans a grand opening car give-away and decorating-related events at the stores over the month-long rollout. The TV campaign, "Maybe it’s your furniture" was coordinated by Jeff Maynard, American Signature’s vice president of marketing, working with GJP Advertising of Toronto. The campaign launched in 35 TV markets Oct.13. "The campaign is on the edge and bold for furniture retailing," said Maynard. "We use slightly exaggerated scenarios to get people to think about how their furniture affects their ability to entertain family and friends and to enjoy everyday family living by implying the problem may be their furniture. We then position American Signature Gallery and its combination of style, quality and affordable prices as the solution." Research driving changes Customer focus groups and market research led Value City Furniture to move the pieces of American Signature that had been sold throughout the stores into the gallery concept and to reposition the stores. "From talking to our customers in many parts of the country, we learned more about what they need to see in the store to be able to project it in their own home," Maynard said. "We learned more about how and when they want to redo whole rooms in their homes and how often they move and need to decorate and furnish several rooms. We also learned that, regardless of their income bracket, people ranked style and quality as the top factors when purchasing furniture." American Signature products offer design and construction features such as all-wood craftsmanship, hand-carved details, dove-tailed drawers and multi-step wood finishes. The upholstery features down-blend cushions with a five-year warranty, along with a limited lifetime warranty on frames and springs. About Value City Furniture: Value City Furniture, a subsidiary of American Signature Inc.,is one of the country’s largest furniture retailers. Based in Columbus, Ohio, VCF has been ranked consistently in the top 10 of Furniture Today’s annual list of the top 100 furniture retailers.