Doug Turner of Turner Custom Furniture adapts and applies big-industry marketing tactics to grow his – and your – furniture business. We’ve looked at Product Presentation and Making the Most of Your Brand Name, but today we learn how to make your fine furniture a trendy and even sexy sell.
Cashing in on trends
You may not be able to start one, but you can certainly ride the wave of established trends. I have to admit, the very thought of being trendy makes my skin crawl. But consider this – all successful businesses sell items people want to buy.
- My inbox is usually filled with people who want Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn style furniture. Love it or hate it, those furniture brands are selling – its’ what people want to buy these days. Determine the style of furniture your customers want, and push it a bit in your advertising.
- Having determined what’s selling in your area, take a step back from your work and examine it with a critical eye – sometimes a small change can make a big difference in sales. Orange oak furniture was popular in the 70’s. Driftwood style oak is popular today. Can you sell more furniture by simply offering a trendy finish? Flexibility has always been a key factor for successful businesses.
Selling a lifestyle
Luxury brands always sell lifestyles, not products. Take a look at any Ralph Lauren ad and you’ll see what I mean. This is a complex marketing technique, the effective use of which requires knowledge of demographics and psychology. As I’ve got no formal training in either, I can only point out the obvious.
- People want to be wealthier and more powerful than they are. Luxury brand marketers know this, and publish ads that imply that wealthy, powerful and worldly people use their products, the implication being that customers who use their products will be indistinguishable from the people they wish to emulate. This works on a grand scale, because only truly happy people are immune to this type of advertising, wanting nothing more than they have right now. Sadly, most of us are not truly happy. Good news for luxury brand marketers.
- Many people want to be the center of attention. Big screen TV ads are in abundance in the weeks preceding the super bowl. “Host the office Super Bowl party at your house this year.”
Product pricing
I won’t pretend for a moment to truly understand how the price of an item affects a consumer’s view of that item. It’s a complex subject, combining knowledge in the fields of marketing and psychology. However, I will share some of my observations.
- Some people associate quality with price – high price equals high quality in their minds.
- Some people need to believe they are getting a discount on everything they purchase – even if they really are not. Retailers often raise their prices and then knock a percentage off, and then offer a further discount if the customer uses their store’s credit card. Bargain! Or is it?
- Some consumers want people to know they spent a lot of money on an item – they define themselves by the brands they wear and use.
- Sadly, very few consumers are able to separate an item’s quality from its price, independently assessing both, and making purchasing decisions based on the results.
Moving merchandise with sex appeal (without being tacky)
While I don’t recommend hiring a motorcycle calendar girl to drape herself over your antique reproduction lowboy when you photograph it, I do recommend that you take a closer look at an advertising technique that works. Here are some tasteful techniques you can employ to add a little sex appeal to your marketing:
- People’s eyes are drawn to ads featuring attractive people.
- Be subtle or unsubtle as it suits your brand. A bikini-clad surfer girl won’t help you sell more antique reproduction furniture, but she will help sell custom made surfboards. Consider hiring an elegant Ingrid Bergman type model to feature in your art deco style furniture ads.
- People will look at your ad longer if it features an attractive model. Those extra seconds matter.
Thanks to Doug Turner for this thorough “Paradigm Shift” series on learning from big business marketing to help propel our own businesses! You won’t be able to use all of these ideas in every piece of marketing you do, but adopting some of the marketing techniques used by successful luxury brands is something Doug strongly recommends. Apply what works for you, and let us know how it goes!
Comments
Doug.
I believe your right on target. We sell a luxury experience. When we market ourselves as such, people take notice. Thanks for the great article!
Thank you very much. Good luck!
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