When money is tight, you have to out-think and outsmart rather than outspend your competition. Bill and Ed debate, and rank by effectiveness, retail marketing tools.
Editor’s Note: Here's more from Furniture World's point/counterpoint duo Bill Napier and Ed Tashjian, having previously debated topics including: celebrity licensing, digital advertising overload, the millennial myth, whether or not furniture brands matter, the future of furniture markets and the future of independent reps. See all of their commentary here.
POINT: Ed Tashjian
One of the great marketing controversies today regards the use of digital media. Digital media is a broad term and includes much more than the ads you see on Facebook. It is a comprehensive marketing toolbox that includes SEO, SEM, Display, Retargeting, Affiliate, Video, Social, e-mail, and your website. To do it right, it requires a lot of skill and intense analytics. Very few people are doing it right. Long ago I learned not to trust people who told me that I wasn’t smart enough to understand, so give me your money and I will do the heavy lifting for you. There is an old marketing maxim about this, “When we started out, I had the money and they had the experience. Now they have my money and I have the experience.”
But the goal of this Point-Counterpoint article is not to get into the weeds. Rather, Bill and I want to use our combined 80 years of marketing experience to articulate how we would allocate our marketing budget if we owned a retail store.
A sign saying, Circus Coming on Saturday, is advertising.
Put the sign on an elephant and walk
it into town, that’s promotion.
If the elephant walks through the
mayor’s flower bed and the local newspaper
writes a story, that’s publicity! |
We have varied backgrounds, but each of us has spent a considerable amount of time in retail. And, both of us are data geeks. I was vice president of marketing for Krause’s Sofa Factory and Expressions Custom Furniture: multi-store chains in 13 markets. As a consultant, I’ve had numerous retail clients, but most relevant for this article was a year-long stint at Calico Corners. What all of these retailers have in common is multiple stores across broad geographies. This allows one the ability to test different things in different areas and measure what moves the needle. The obvious advantage of retail is that you have the ultimate sale as the dependent variable. You know who bought when and what and how much they paid for it. You start with the purchase and you correlate that back to the antecedent that caused it. This is both a science and an art. If you have enough data, you can use a statistical tool called regression modeling. The art comes from guessing which hypotheses to test to measure statistically if there’s a relationship.
I recently read an amusing but accurate definition of marketing by Allan Dib, in “The 1-Page Marketing Plan.” Let’s say, the Circus is coming to town. “If you paint a sign saying, 'Circus Coming to the Showground Saturday,' that’s advertising. If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed and the local newspaper writes a story about it, that’s publicity. And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations. If the town’s citizens go to the circus, you show them the booths, explain how much fun they’ll have spending money there, answer their questions, and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales. And if you planned the whole thing, that’s marketing.”
Marketing is the whole shebang. And when money is tight, you have to out-think and outsmart rather than outspend your competition. Unlike the circus, you have a lot more to think about including signage, website, and floor salesperson training that comes out of the same budget. So, let’s cut to the chase.
Here is how I would rank the top 15 marketing tools and why.
Even online companies,
like Wayfair send me about three postcards per month. I have never seen a study where the ROI from digital was higher than with postcards.
- Ed Tashjian
#1: Training
Hands-down, this is the wisest place to spend your money. The greatest short-term path to profits is increasing the closing ratio, and the greatest long-term path is to increase the lifetime value of each customer. Training is not just for the floor salespeople. Invest in yourself. Managing people is hard. Leading people is even harder. Furniture is a people business. The people are every bit as important as the furniture on the floor. Customers don’t buy just goods and services. They buy relations, stories and the promise of a beautiful home.
Your salespeople need to believe in you and your story. This should be so deeply inculcated that it is second nature. When they have confidence in themselves and what they’re selling there’s practically no limit to what can be achieved.
The store manager is the single most important variable. I have plenty of experience in moving a store manager from one location to another. A store can have bad signage, poor access, and no advertising… but somehow when you bring in a manager from a high-performing store, sales increase dramatically.
#2: Signage
Time and time again, statistics show that the stores with the best signage and access outperform other stores. Here is why. It is your most consistent messaging anchored to a geographic location. Unlike groceries, people don’t shop for furniture every day. They shop when they have a need or a desire. Every time their car passes your store, they subconsciously associate it with a place to shop once they are ready. There are limitations to signage based on local ordinances. However, I would not lease a new store without the first consideration being signage and access. And, I would buy the biggest sign allowed. If you have a sign that is old and worn, and connotes a shabby rundown store, change it immediately!
#3: Public Relations
Bill Gates famously said, “If I was down to the last dollar of my marketing budget, I’d spend it on PR.” If my point of view for this article wasn’t that of a retailer, I would probably put public relations at the top of my list. Be careful not to confuse publicity with PR. Seth Godin says it best, “Publicity is the act of getting ink. Publicity is getting unpaid media to pay attention, write you up, point to you, run a picture, make a commotion. Sometimes publicity is helpful, and good publicity is always good for your ego. But it’s not PR. PR is the strategic crafting of your story. It’s the focused examination of your interactions and tactics and products and pricing that, when combined, determine what and how people talk about you.”
Unless you have a compelling story about why you are different and better, any money spent on marketing is wasted. You must start with a strategy before you can even think about tactics. In the Art of War, Sun Tzu writes, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
#4: Website
Nearly all customers do research on a website before they come to shop. And here’s an important thing to remember. Unless you’re actually doing e-commerce on your site (and 98 percent of you are not) the sole goal of your website is to get the person into your store. I would always look at my website through that lens. The website can be an enormous time and cost sucker. Every dollar I put into my website would be prioritized with the question, will this motivate someone to get in the car and come see me?
#5: Consulting
This is going to sound self-serving and it is. They say a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is. And that may be true. However, if you have a watch and you don’t know how to tell time, it can be very useful to have someone who can teach you. It’s the same reason you hire a guide when you go fishing. The good ones know where the fish are. Once you learn, you don’t need them anymore. In the meantime, you don’t know what you don’t know. The amount of money they can save you can be staggering.
#6: e-Commerce
Experts predict that as much as 30 percent of all furniture purchases will be conducted online in the near future. You need to have a strategy for this. It could be as simple as adding a line of DTC furniture or even a few items to your website.
#7: Retargeting
Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a form of online advertising that can help you keep your brand in front of bounced traffic after they leave your website. For most websites, only two percent of web traffic converts on the first visit. If someone has taken the time and effort to find your website, and they have looked at a product up close, they are interested. In the old days, you would pay attention and call the customer back. Today, you can send a targeted message that shows up in their Facebook feed or when they’re browsing the web.
#8: Direct Mail
This seems to work for almost everyone. Again, remember the goal is to get them in your store, not to make a sale. This does not have to be a complicated message. And the beauty of this is that it is the most measurable of any variable. You know who you sent the postcard to. You know who purchased. You know the cost of the mailing, and you know the gross margin from the sale. I think that it’s very interesting that even online companies like Wayfair send me about three postcards per month. I have never seen a study where the ROI from digital was higher than with postcards.
A store can have bad
signage, poor access,
and no advertising…
but somehow when you bring in a manager from
a high-performing store,
the sales increase
dramatically. |
#9: Pop-Up Stores
America is overstored. But this can be good news for furniture stores who may be able to launch lifestyle-based pop-up stores on a temporary basis in high traffic places without a long term lease, and on-the-cheap.
#10: Social
Here, I am lumping together Facebook, Instagram, Houzz, Pinterest and the like. It works when it is genuine, the same way that old-fashioned Word of Mouth used to work. When somebody writes a positive review, especially about trust, reliability, above and beyond service, it can be valuable. When it’s fake, you’re just shouting in the wind. And since businesses and individuals get mixed together on these sites, there is a lot of clutter. Social should be viewed through Seth Godin’s definition of PR which bears repeating: “PR is the strategic crafting of your story. It’s the focused examination of your interactions and tactics and products and pricing that, when combined, determine what and how people talk about you.” What do you want people to think or do after they see your social media content? It better be "come to my store" because that’s the only place where a transaction can take place.
#11: e-mail Marketing
I have mixed feelings about e-mail marketing. It is cheap and easy. But I get so much spam from so many people that I mostly just ignore it. This only works when it is personal, and you have permission. In other words, if it’s personal, people are expecting it, and it is part of a dialog, it is great. If it’s not, it’s spam.
#12: Newspaper
This was once the mainstay of retail furniture marketing. And I have spent millions of dollars on newspaper advertising over the years. I now believe that the newspaper is almost dead. It is OK for that boomer who has made a decision to go furniture shopping and is looking to see who has a sale. If they don’t already have your store in their consideration set, you are in trouble. Few people under 60 read a newspaper.
#13: Display Digital
This seemed to have so much promise, but honestly, I have never been so disappointed in anything in my whole life. What makes display digital seem so compelling is that it is dirt cheap compared to conventional advertising. The argument is that you get millions of impressions. And, you can measure when someone clicks on it. And, if you’re really scientific, you can tie that IP address to a street address and compare it to sales at the register. I personally have put thousands of hours into this and have never been able to make it work. This is especially true when you set up a control cell and subtract out the people who would have bought anyway. Full disclosure. I know a lot of marketing people and none of them have been able to make this work. The digital agencies are excellent salespeople. But they’re selling vapor or rather pixels. They can inundate you with data, but I’ve never seen it work in driving traffic, increasing sales, average transaction amounts or lifetime value.
#14: Television
If you’re a store like Nebraska Furniture Mart or Mathis Brothers, and dominate your market, television can make sense. It's is an expensive medium, but it reaches a lot of people. And if you’re a massive store that sells everything for everyone, or you have multiple stores in the same trading area it should be part of your mix. If not, I recommend against it.
#15: SEO SEM
What a joke. You will never be able to afford the keywords of generic furniture. The keyword you want to own is your brand-name. And you want it to stand for something distinctive. I have also seen people buy their competitors’ brand-names so that their store shows up in the search. Personally, I think that’s dishonest and immoral.
Nobody thinks it’s easy to run a furniture retail store. Any kind of retail is hard, and furniture has its own special challenges with long hours, lots of staff and the logistics of deliveries to contend with. Furniture does not sell itself. It does not deliver itself and does not do its own customer service. Those of us who’ve been in this industry a long time appreciate what you do and how difficult it can be.
I know a lot of marketing people and none of them have been able to make this work.
The digital agencies are excellent salespeople. But they’re selling vapor or rather pixels.
- Ed Tashjian
COUNTERPOINT: Bill Napier
Ed and I discussed this idea at great length because we believe that many in our category embrace the “noise” of going all digital with their marketing strategies and tactics without doing their due diligence.
Ed did a great job defining the paradigms available to retailers and brands to present their brand platforms, so I’d like to chime in here with my thoughts, and, of course, the research I’ve done to further define what works and what probably doesn’t work. Because of the space restraint, my comments will be short and cryptic where applicable.
#1: Signage
Ed is totally on target here. He wrote about the benefits of using outdoor signs, but here I’m going to touch on the benefits of the in-store signage.
According to POPAI – (Point Of Purchase Advertising Institute):
- 82 percent of ALL purchase decisions are made “in-store”, and 68 percent of those purchases are unplanned.
- Total merchandise sales go up 15.7 percent in stores that utilized signs vs. a negative 4.7 percent in stores that do not.
- P.O.S. signage delivers a 2.6 percent to 45.5 percent sales lift.
In summation, studies have found that POP displays are effective at influencing the decision making of shoppers and increasing sales.
#2: Public Relations
Ed did a great job of explaining the difference between getting publicity and crafting a strategic PR message. But, here’s the BIG problem. The most common message retailers communicate to potential customers is they are discounting 50 percent off everything! That's why I believe retailers have a ton of work to do regarding PR.
On the manufacturing side, furniture brands often use PR and other communications to generate showroom traffic in Vegas and High Point. Then, their retailers reach out to consumers with a 50 percent off mantra. Why? Because brands don’t help retailers craft a unique message with a compelling story about why they are different, and better.
The following two ideas are the most important for brands to consider when planning their PR strategy:
- Instead of you making your brand about YOU, make it about ME/the consumer.
- Research and embrace how consumers interact with Search, with Social and with in-Store experiences. You’ll quickly realize they are very visual first, content/conversation inspired second, idea-focused third, and functionality focused fourth. All these four focuses are wrapped up into a complete value equation.
Right now the industry is all caught up with celebrity endorsements, trying to create brand identities and/or Unique Selling Propositions (USPs). It's my view, that with the exception of a handful, celebrity endorsements don't work. Neilsen and Statistica report that less than eight percent of consumers believe that celebrity endorsements influence their purchase decisions. In actuality, Nielsen’s study says “that celebrity and athlete endorsements are two of the three themes that resonate the least”. Save the fees and invest those licensing fees in your brand.
Consumers want to make a “statement” when furnishing their homes. That’s why there are so many DIY home shows. They are immersed in "I want to know" and "I want to do" moments. Embrace that when formulating your brand’s platform and your unique selling proposition.
Most websites are
templated, showing categories, usually populated with poor quality pictures
taken in Asia along with unimaginative product specifications.
- Bill Napier
#3: Websites
Okay, time to get really brutal! In my opinion, if the brand logos on most brand websites were interchanged, consumers would never know the difference.
Most websites are templated, showing categories, usually populated with poor quality pictures taken in Asia along with unimaginative product specifications and quickly composed design descriptions. Why are you wasting money on room shots when you can show consumers 3D renderings that can be color draped and easily inserted into photos of consumers' rooms? You’ll probably save a ton of money. New technologies allow consumers to do what they want with your products, vs. trying to show them pretty room scenes they may not even like.
Social should be viewed through Seth Godin’s definition of PR which bears repeating:
'PR is
the strategic crafting
of your story.' - Ed Tashjian |
Most furniture websites allow browsers to search by Style. I don't have a clue what Transitional is, do you? Why not let shoppers find furnishings their own way by launching product searches using images rather than arbitrary style categories or text entries. There are so many new technologies that can be integrated easily into web platforms to help consumers navigate and engage with your business and the sale.
The worst part for retailers is that manufacturers do not standardize their products for website providers, and only a handful offer API feeds so retailers don't show discontinued products and inaccurate product data. For more information check out the Technology Point Counterpoint in Furniture World's July/August 2018 issue (https://www.furninfo.com/Series/Debate/57).
Content is KING.
Our industry is less than unimaginative in supplying meaningful and relevant
content, but very good a taking shortcuts utilizing copy and paste.
- Bill Napier
#4: Consulting
I would be all in on this one if it wouldn't come across as too self serving. Fortunately I already wrote a detailed analysis of the benefits (from a cost and results perspective) of hiring a marketing consultant like Ed or me in a previous issue of Furniture World magazine. See it in the November December 2016 issue of Furniture World. Find it at (https://www.furninfo.com/Series/Debate/57).
#5: Retargeting
I’m skipping this one, Ed really nailed his section on the value of retargeting.
#6: Direct Mail
Oh ya, the mail is dead. That’s why Ed and I get postcards from Wayfair and every other company that does well in our space. Most retailers have embraced fad marketing. You know those digital marketing platforms that deliver “conversions”. Every time I read some propaganda about how a marketing company "increased conversions" from some digital ad spend, I feel so very sorry for the company that actually bought into the conversions fad frenzy. Getting traffic to your website from a digital ad spend means nothing more than you got some traffic. Did they buy anything from that ad spend and can you track the spend back to the purchase? People, that is all that matters. We keep score with our checking accounts, not someone's eyeballs.
If you read the "Digital vs. Print Point/Counterpoint" segment in the July/August 2017 issue of Furniture World, you already know why I feel that furnishings retailers are putting more of their ad spend into digital advertising than they should (https://www.furninfo.com/Series/Debate/57). The evidence is there in black and white, so I won't repeat my heart-felt rant again here... but basically:
- Direct mail has much better response rates than mobile, emails, social media or internet display.
- People hate digital ads and use ad blockers.
- Research shows that a high percentage of shoppers say they prefer direct mail for making purchase decisions.
- Direct mail is great for reaching women.
#7: Email marketing
Everyone swears on this, I agree with Ed. Unless I sign up for it, you’re gone – bye-bye. I program my email to take your company’s name and “TRASH IT”. Additionally, the email content needs to be relevant, not just 50 percent off everything. Having a blog is the best way to communicate. Have your designers do a bi-weekly design tip. If you don’t have designers, partner locally with some and have them write for you and give them a backlink to their business. CONTENT IS KING!
#8: Newspapers
Virtually all newspapers have outlived their original purpose and have become so polarized politically, that they will be extinct in the next few years. Think about suburban newspapers that highlight local events, businesses, school events, etc. Most parents read those.
#9: Digital Display ads
In a recent study, Adobe found that about 28 percent of website traffic showed strong “non-human signals,” leading the company to believe that the traffic came from bots or click farms. The company studied traffic across websites belonging to thousands of clients. When you do the math and subtract lost traffic due to AI BOTS, Click farms, Facebook “LIKE” Farms, and ad blockers, you’ll realize that a substantial percentage of your ad dollars are wasted. For more on this check out the " Buyer Beware – Your Digital Marketing" from the July/August 2017 issue of Furniture World at (
https://www.furninfo.com/Series/Debate/57).
Consumers are
immersed in 'I want to know' and 'I want to do' moments.
Embrace that when formulating your brand’s platform and your unique selling
proposition.
- Bill Napier |
#10: Television
I’m with Ed on this one!
#11: SEO/SEM
I’m with Ed on this one as well. The fact is, content is KING and our industry is less than unimaginative in supplying meaningful and relevant content, but very good at taking shortcuts utilizing copy and paste. Just read some of the product descriptions manufacturers put out there, Case closed.
Bill's Conclusion
Everyone tells you to market to millennials, the group that has no money, more than 30 percent live at home, have an average of over $35K in student debt and can’t afford a down payment on a home – THINK huge apartment complexes going up everywhere.
People over 50 purchase 50 percent+ of everything to the tune of $3.2 trillion, yet get less than five percent of your ad dollars. I’ll bet millenials are running your marketing and marketing to themselves at the expense of doing their due diligence.
The bottom line. Too much NOISE out there on digital. Buyer Beware. Do your due-diligence on everything or become irrelevant. If you want to have a conversation on these subjects, I’d enjoy that, as would Ed.
About Ed Tashjian: Tashjian Marketing provides senior marketing leadership to the Home Furnishings Industry. It specializes in business analytics and in helping its clients to segment the market, define and communicate a sustainable differentiated value proposition. Get more information at
www.Tashjianmarketing.com or call Ed at (828) 855-0100.
About Bill Napier: Bill is Managing Partner of Napier Marketing Group. He has been the chief marketing officer of several small, medium and large companies throughout his career, most notably Ashley Furniture Industries. Bill is also a featured writer and speaker in the retail industry. His passion is to help retail brands and brick and mortar retailers grow their businesses by creating, guiding and deploying successful marketing B2B/B2C solutions integrating traditional marketing with the web/social media. He has demonstrated this with his FREE website www.social4retail.com with hundreds of articles and “how-to” strategies for retailers and brands. Reach Bill at:
billnapier@napiermkt.com or 612-217-1297.
See all of Bill and Ed's Point/Counterpoints at
https://www.furninfo.com/Series/Debate/57.