InsideFurniture

ATTRACTING AND DELIVERING: The complementary possibilities of High Point and Las Vegas

2011-05-08T22:13:32-04:00

Punto Alto y Las Vegas, the high point and the meadows, complements geographically and topographically, now commercially complimentary: More show room, more opportunity.

No one doubts that opposites attract. The seemingly polar difference of Las Vegas and High Point is obvious — bold neon with distinctive structures and the village of nondescript showroom boxes, save one, Showplace — but, nonetheless, complementary.

Let your mind wander in a positive context. Yes, opposites attract, forming an alloy and ally for strength.

I attribute most of the mercantile marriage of High Point and Las Vegas to the thoughtful intervention of Bob Maricich, president of the World Market Center and a sagacious planner honed by his contemplative, yet active pastime of fly-fishing.

So aptly metaphorical, fly-fishing, is the relaxing intensity that provides solitude for the engine of ingenuity, allowing the unconscious mind to benefit from potent detachment.

The big catch, High Point and Las Vegas, emerges from the patience of the fly fisherman, always casting, always optimistic, teasing with the attractive, delicious- appearing fly, so irresistible. It’s all about proactively identifying opportunity just below the surface of the still and sometimes churning water.

When Bob relocated to Las Vegas a few years ago, the move prompted curious thoughts, even some doubts. I had them, so did others, given the implied and expressed challenge. Even so, I am not surprised that the confident fly-fisherman didn’t give up in attracting the big fish that he knew were there, here and everywhere.

Clear retrospection confirms Bob’s methodical style, his assiduity and what can be an obsession to succeed personally and professionally despite the detractors.

I recall years ago when I visited the Century showroom late in Market. I encountered Bob, hunched over a table, peering intently on draftsman plan of a big custom job. In shirtsleeves a top navy New York-pin stripped trousers, stylish Bob looked up, invited me over.

In the view minutes together, we discussed business and marketing opportunities. I presented Bob with a smart marketing device to captivate his interest and prompt a discussion about brand positioning and reinforcement. With delight and earnestness, he thanked me for the opportunity to share progressive ideas. I planted a seed.

Reflecting on those moments, I realized that Bob was always planning, finding new streams into which to wade and cast mental lines to attract and catch ideas and possibilities.

Now Bob comes back to North Carolina as a thoughtful fly-fishing New Centurion, casting with confidence to attract and catch the business from patience in alternation between the streams in the meadows and high points.

I have no doubt about Bob’s tenacity. He’s just doing what he does best, in the active stream, casting, contemplating and ready to attract the mercantile fish and getting into position to deliver sustained opportunity.

Viva Punto Alto y Las Vegas!

MARKETING MYOPIA: Out of the bunker thinking provides fresh perspectives, permitting radiant sunlight of opportunity

2010-10-19T17:25:00-04:00

My confession: I am a vigilant optimist. Sure, call me a cockeyed optimist, a Pollyanna and a little crazy but always positively enthusiastic. For me, the metaphoric glass of life is always half full. How about you?

I know the answer from the disappointing dearth of furniture retailers that needed to be at the High Point Market.

What a profound opportunity cost for the all those bunker-minded merchants — the thousands of self-proclaiming souls, wrongfully praying to idols of doubt. Sadly their fear consumes them as economic prey. Why? They mistakenly believe they are wholly indispensible and must be tethered to their stores.

No one can convince me otherwise. Getting out of the store, I mean, bunker, and into the constellation of High Point showrooms would lift spirits and produce new insights. That is, if all those absent retailers would just relax and really think about their future beyond the next sale. The operative work is think.

Tell me that any living and breathing merchant and designer could not benefit from capturing many new ideas in a few days of visiting High Point Market showrooms?! In a planned escape from their incarcerating bunkers, all those people missed the opportunity to engage their minds in substantive merchandising and marketing discussions, not to mention the visual stimulation.

But, too many are paralyzed. The fear factor grips most merchants. They feel they know it all and don’t need any new ideas, requiring spirited imitative. This is stinking-thinking or, more accurately, non-thinking.

For merchants and designers wanting viable paths to new ideas for survival, they need to know what they don’t know, be willing to admit and act. That means seeing what they haven’t seen, and discovering what they need and not what they believe they want.

The only way to achieve success is to move forcefully with an earnest commitment that new ideas and opportunities always abound . . . if you seek them.

Let me paraphrase a powerful thought and plan of action from the inimitable Sir Winston Churchill: If you’re going through hell, keep going.

For merchants, designers and manufacturers going through hell: Keep going. Act instead of reacting. If not, you will surely burn your opportunity in the flames of a self-imposed pity party, where waiting for change never occurs.

Oh, here’s another Churchillian gem: Never, never give up.

PASS THE iPAD, PLEASE: Insight as a main course at the dining room table, as delicious marketing nutrition

2010-10-18T10:18:46-04:00

Delicious insight and opportunity converge when you least expect it . . . like, at the dining room table when passing the iPad became the main course.

What I learned provides insight for the furniture industry.

Last night, our dinner guests dined on a great meal prepared by my wife, Wendee, while I was cooking away during the day at stove of hot showrooms in High Point at the Market.

Sure, the special salmon (want the recipe?) was fantastic, but the most nutritious dish — real food for thought — was the tasty iPad. Get this: On Saturday, I won it in a drawing, attending the insightful Better Homes & Garden’s research presentation, inspiring its collection attracting attention at Universal Furniture (thank you, Jeff Scheffer and staff).

Back to dinner, please: Let me set the literal and figurative table for what I learned in passing the iPad last night. Our guests: Gale Steves, author of Right-Sizing Your Home (a book you need to seize the next wave of opportunity), plus Shelly and Tom Carl, family friends and sales representatives for Cresent, Key City, Shifman Mattress and others.

Naturally, the discussion focused on the furniture, merchandising and marketing. As topics came up, and we wanted more information, we slid the iPad to one another to get answers and show pictures, a flow of action that enhanced and embellished our digestible discussion.

What does this mean other than bragging about the joy of my new business toy? A lot. It means more convergence, but something simple and instructive the marketers call ethnographic research and desire for information.

Here’s the highfalutin definition of ethnographic research: Qualitative research method often used in the social sciences, particularly in anthropology and in sociology, employed for gathering empirical data on human societies/cultures. Or, as I like to say, watching and learning how people interact with living space, objects, situations and, amazingly enough, furniture.

In marketing, if you want to know something. Just ask or observe. That’s what I did last night, dining (mentally feasting) on how all of us used the iPad.

For furniture marketing, the same holds true. For example, in the Lee Industries' showroom yesterday, Bondi Coley walked Gale and I over to a captivating double chaise, which served as a comfy drop zone for snuggling and more. Bondi wanted to know more about “more,” asking us for insight.

We offered a few ideas, then I suggested to Bondi that she strategically placed the chaise into a situation or context where people can interact with it and, watch, watch, watch, and learn, learn, learn what they say and do with it.

So, please pass iPad for a good meal on finding new-old ways of approaching and creating opportunity. It’s just delicious marketing. Bon appetit.

MULTITASKING FURNITURE: Trend watcher Gale Steves says smart retailers and manufactures will benefit with more functional, multipurpose furniture

2010-10-15T22:43:23-04:00

Everyone benefits from right-sizing, the “functional” watch word emerging from this Fall’s High Point Market, where author and home furnishings trend watcher Gale Steves will conduct a seminar on how the struggling furniture industry can succeed in helping consumers economically “make their homes fit their lifestyles.”

The seminar, Right-Sizing Your Home, is scheduled Sunday, October 17, 4-to-5:30 p.m., Court Yard, Market Square, 317 High Street, High Point. Full disclosure: I am working with Gale to spread her mantra of right-sizing.

She will detail how right-sizing techniques can prevent the nightmarish problem dramatically presented in the adjacent photograph.

“In this turbulent economy, people still want to live comfortably and more efficiently, and are especially attracted to multitasking furniture and home furnishings that demonstrably delivers more than esthetics,” she said. “This real consumer pent up demand opens significant opportunities for retailers, designers and realtors, who can literally open doors to sustainable business with adopting right-sizing techniques.”

In the seminar, Steves will enumerate practical insights from her book, “Right-Sizing Your Home" (www.right-sizing.com), and from years as editor-in-chief of Home magazine, as well as incorporating smart insights from interviewing thousands of consumers on ”using space more wisely.” She will present a variety of images how people created more space in transforming rooms and other areas to confirm to their needs and lifestyles.

Steves will explain how designers and merchants can focus on the merits of multitasking furniture, especially with a variety of pieces featuring what she characterizes as “hidden assets” or special functions and storage areas for safe keeping valuables.

“Even though this terrible economy has convinced many people to remain in their homes and not sell, people I call the ‘improve-don’t move’ group, adopting a right-sizing perspective gives smart realtors a unique opportunity. They now have fresh ideas as they help their clients recognize that every house has more value if right-sizing underscores the sales discussion,” Steves said. “Right-sizing allows those home buyers a way to imagine greater space and function possibilities.”

At the High Point Market, Steves will be “discovering multitasking furniture” to feature in an exclusive news story she is writing about satisfying “real consumer needs.” Also, the author will discuss how the industry can benefit from producing furniture and home furnishings that meets people’s “real needs and not what they think they want. We have learned that no one has a dollar to waste anything that’s not efficient and functional,” Steves explained.

In addition to her website, www.right-sizing.com, Steves maintains a Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Right-Sizing-Your-Home/102575219782552?ref=ts.

MOBILE MARKET: Häfele's showroom/design center on wheels rolls out vital solutions at High Point Market

2010-10-15T22:26:18-04:00

Catch a glimpse of Häfele's mobile design center at the High Point Market. It rolls into Furniture City on Sunday, October 17 parking at Centennial Station, and staying until October 20.

The 40-foot mobile showroom contains many product displays demonstrating Häfele’s advanced technology in the areas of lighting, connectors, table base systems, table legs, feet, casters, file drawers, ventilation grills, decorative hardware, wood ornaments, closet accessories, lever handles, sliding door systems and kitchen accessories.

Focusing on inspired design with practicality for efficient function, Häfele is moving, literally and figuratively, to become more widely known for it puts into and on furniture and cabinetry.

Always optimistic, the business glass of wine is always Häfele full.

THE M.A.D. MARKET: Attending High Point Market is Making A Difference for retailers wanting to make a difference

2010-09-21T16:12:50-04:00

Hey retailers go M.A.D. — Make A Difference — at High Point Market, as a courageous sign of strength even as the going is tough. Be tough, smart and proactive and make a difference!

Easier said than done? Maybe, but business won’t be any easier if you’re done discovering new ways to be different in merchandising and marketing. Doing nothing is doing nothing and being indifferent is doing nothing, and that’s surrender.

Smart retailers are fresh and different because they are actively fresh and different, giving themselves the added oomph to attract attention for the people still in the market for furniture and home furnishings.

Business is there. Go M.A.D. for it. That’s the reason to invest in going M.A.D. in High Point. Think of attending High Point Market this way: The showrooms are similar to an inspiring coach who makes you do something you may not want to do but glad you did.

Seize the power of the economy. Recognize that people want to live comfortably. They are staying in homes, not selling, but probably wanting to know how to make a difference.

Help them Right-Size their homes with multi-tasking furniture discoveries in High Point, where just walking around the constellation of showrooms will prompt ideas. That fresh perspective will open new merchandising horizons.

Retailers who understand the improve-don't move mentality will reward themselves. Get more information: Right-Size Your Home, a new book by Gale Steves. Full disclosure: I am working with Gale to help retailers and manufacturers seize the power of a new way to successful marketing. Gale will conduct a lively Right-Sizing seminar (trade only) on Sunday afternoon, October 17 at 4 o'clock, Courtyard Tent, Market Square.

Back to going M.A.D. in High Point, to make a difference. This will be a rare buyers market where you are literally thinking out of your box — your store — making a difference.

Visit all new showrooms. Tell your regular vendors your M.A.D. market plans to exert a little positive tension. Sure, they may bristle, but they are likely to go M.A.D. in their own way, deciding to make a difference and induce you in ways you never would have known unless you attended market.

No retailer of any size can honestly declare staying home, doing nothing makes good marketing sense when a world of new ideas awaits them in High Point. Expecting and hoping for different results by doing nothing different is surrender. Anyway, hope is not a sufficient strategy, never was and never will be.

For successful retailers, even in a terrible economy: Distinction is the difference, a verity in good marketing.

Go M.A.D. at High Point Market make a difference. Want more reasons. Download the Business Outlook booklet and the Market Planner to realize the benefits of going M.A.D. in High Point.

BRASSIERES, PANTIES AND FURNITURE: The relationship between cherished undergarments and home dressing is all about an evolved perspective of life

2010-09-13T17:53:00-04:00

Most men in furniture could benefit from recognizing and cultivating their feminine dimension.

Men possessing a healthy feminine perspective probably enjoy a more balanced and fulfilled life, personally and professionally.

Of course, for some straight men, the mere thought they could actually possess any kind of feminine dimension prompts defensiveness, snickers and varying degrees of discomfort that can unleash a torrent of baseless fears.

Get over it, guys. A man (an industry) in touch mentally with his feminine side has little or nothing to do with sexual orientation, but everything to do with human orientation.

The reality is men possess a feminine dimension embedded within their psyches, whether they want to acknowledge it or not. If you’ve got it, use it.

For savvy men, tapping into this fantastic, rewarding and fascinating reservoir actually demonstrates and enhances strength, confidence, courage and expanded empathy. Sounds manly to me.

Possessing gender balance acknowledges in a profound way a verity we all know: Women see and feel the world differently than men. This fact is good and necessary, just as much as the converse is: Men see and feel the world differently than women.

The difference is where the twain meets, which is the other verity: Most women are accustomed (out of survival) to thinking (out-thinking) like a man much more than most men know how or want to think like a woman. For any men still fidgeting about this concept, I said think like a woman and not necessarily act ss a woman, if that really matters.

Okay, enough psycho analytics for now. So what do men’s feminine dimension have to do with brassieres, panties and furniture, anyway?

Quite a bit because the relationship between cherished undergarments and furniture is all about a person’s grounded perspective of life. It's what she holds near and dear, literally and figuratively.

Personal undergarments and home dressing are powerful personal expressions and acknowledgments of how a woman feels about herself. Foundations are critical for stability, physically and mentally.

Any doubt whether a woman's sensibilities about herself significantly influences and shapes her action?

Clearly, her action defines the depth and confidence she possesses in the way she honors and recognizes her special self and the comfort she can provide and influence in her life and others.

Now about brassieres and panties. Whether simple or ornate, these undergarments possess significance more than function for woman.

In women’s psyches, underwear becomes integral, actualizing adornments, honoring and holding a special package as a nurturer of life, in a decidedly special way of acknowledging and sensing herself that few men may ever contemplate, although they should.

My observation is not advocating a case for cross dressing physically, but is an argument for mentally comprehending the significant difference and acting accordingly — cross gender thinking for whole brain health.

Why? Women’s innate sense of needing special adornment is necessarily conflated with their unique world-view, affecting virtually every way they comport their lives.

Regarding furniture, she seeks to validate her innate sense of personal “specialness” and responsibility and extends this tremendous gift of perspective and empathy to her environment, all the more critical in a familial setting.

For all the furniture men, getting in touch with your feminine dimension would help you realize that women validate their world to discover ways to adorn their lives and family whenever possible.

So, when women are bombarded with reflexive male injunctions (marinated in testosterone) and declarations about price and discount, they immediately disregard and dismiss the insulting bluster. It's the equivalent of a rude whistle or a fatuous catcall to compensate, possibly, for insecurity and lack of self esteem.

Women instinctively filter the blather to discern how the latest gimmickry-filled promotion could be helpful in any way to them and their family of one or several to live better and more comfortably with furniture.

If they can’t discern how furniture can become a special adornment to their home (and their lives), they leave the store or studio, reject the ad or click to another website.

Guess what?: Women know they have to pay for furniture, and that all stores provide some kind of financing program.

Men in control of their feminine dimension are aware of this reality. They act to succeed for a simple reason of: Transforming furniture’s typical message into an aspiring adventuresome invitation is to inform, guide and educate women wanting to honor a store for earnestly helping them discover how to live better and more comfortably.

Good things are in store for courageous men who really know the difference between men and women, and willing to think and act about it.

UPFRONT AND PERSONAL: Promoting personal integrity as a distinct advantage

2010-09-08T14:56:30-04:00

If the past is just prologue, then my post — slightly modified from a previous blog incarnation — still possesses intriguing gravitas.

As you can see below, the upfront and personal marketing concept can be helpful to merchants and manufacturers seeking simple and effective ways to differentiate themselves.

Building personal relationships is what good business is all about.

Putting a personal face on advertising could persuade people that a no-hype, honest approach possesses integrity.

Here's a full page newspaper advertisement (click to enlarge) worthy of emulating according to needs of a specific market, demography and merchandise assortment:

INDUSTRY JOURNEY: Moving from ME to WE can reposition industry

2010-08-22T16:50:06-04:00

My friend, Charles Simmons, known as Seemore to friends, is a High Point sage, a lovable and persistent gadfly whose polite intrusiveness always provides and provokes keen insights that could help furniture industry out its doldrums.

With sparkling eyes, this octogenarian always sees (seize) and dispenses practical wisdom. More people need to hear him instead of dismissing his insights.

Simply put: Seemore believes in achieveable socially responsible turnaround — from ME to WE, a vertical flip from narrow interests to the greater good.

Seemore’s curbside wisdom inspires more thought. In a catchy phrase (others have used it, too) the dense simplicity of ME to WE can be a marvelous catapult, a lauchpad for High Point and the High Point Market.

Incidentally, few others in the industry, business community and area governments have invested the personal time and energy as Seemore.

Yes, words are cheap compared to the rigors of rewarding action. From ME to WE sounds good as a delectable thought.

Thoughts in the absence of action are only brilliant and momentary skywriting, blown away by the next profound gusts of terrific ideas in the absence of action.

For ME to WE to succeed in High Point beyond the brainstorm and mental typhoon, this tantalizing perspective needs transformation into responsible action.

How will the fragmented furniture industry congeal to benefit from ME to WE?

The first step is leadership, a willingness to sublimate ego, move past unenlightened self-interest and, if I may employ a mixed metaphor, row together in the figurative vessel called High Point.

Let’s row together. Who will earnestly join ME to WE? Contact me:ivan@insidefurniture.com

ANSWERS FOR GENERATION WHY: Pulaski’s ‘Tangerine’ collection confirms the power of counterintuitive marketing based on savvy ethnography

2010-04-29T18:35:22-04:00

Don’t think of pink elephants! Well you did. Gotcha. You (and I) couldn't help it because our minds think quickly in pictures and associations.

Well, the same, smart marketing psychology underscores Tangerine, an out of the ordinary furniture orchard name and collection that apeels, make that, appeals to a generation attuned to questioning for authenticity.

So, what does Tangerine have to do with furniture? Not much, except as a fresh thought and action path to attract business from an unconventional association. Why? Because it is delightfully and innovative, different, cool, edgy and superbly counterintuitive. The operative word is counterintuitive, a concept the furniture industry needs to know for marketing success.

Ask Ed Tashjian, Pulaski’s (Home Meridian) enthusiastic chief marketing officer, about counterintuitive strategies. “We give retailers a unique and memorable marketing story right for a demographic segment in tune with what is attractively different,” he says, demonstrating that being thoughtfully different can mean business.

What Pulaski has accomplished is to help us think of tangerine furniture, as the fruit of marketing insight. Tangerine is a seemingly incongruous link that immediately prompts the “why” questions from Generation Y who wants to know why.

The Gen Y cohort group, aged 25 to 35, personifies a technology gadget lifestyle, which is a key element in Pulaksi’s marketing strategy. Here’s where the ethnography comes into play.

Pulaski studied how the Gen Y-ers live and work, and that disciplined attention (research) of human behavior is ethnography, an important element in effective marketing. If you don’t know how your market's lifestyle, how can you meet their needs? Guessing or hoping isn't a strategy. Duh!

What did Pulaski learn?: Gen Y-ers have limited disposal income, as most are on the verge of building households. They need smaller scale and functional furniture. That means they can be attracted to furniture whose function is congruent with their tech-savvy lifestyle.

Armed with fresh knowledge, Pulaski is betting Gen Y-ers will be receptive to the Tangerine 30-piece collection, especially its nightstand, featuring an internal gadget recharging station, which is literally and figuratively top drawer in every way.

Given Pulaski's understanding of savvy marketing to Gen Y, Tangerine probably has sustainability, and that means for retailers the new collection can be more than a one nightstand.