Advertising Tip of the Month

How does the fashion oriented flooring retailer reach today's consumer? Often, retailers may receive advertising advice that emphasizes discounting, financing, or other price-oriented messages. While not irrelevant, these types of messages may get lost in the sea of similar marketing bombardment. These days everyone--automobile dealers, electronics purveyors, furniture stores, home centers, etc.--inundate the consumer with advertising whose message screams "cheap," "discount," "credit." Again, these are helpful draws, but ideally they can appear in the small print, if at all.

An approach that works especially well in floor covering, since it is a fashion-based purchase, is to emphasize the professional retailer's expertise and fashion focused atmosphere. Promote fashion, fashion, and more fashion. Events such as "private sales" or "decorating and design clinics," ideally featuring "fashion consultants" or even "on staff designers," draw customers in ways mass blast marketing cannot.

Likewise, emphasizing services such as "evening hours," "special hours by appointment," or "shop at home" shows respect for the busy schedules of flooring consumers. Similarly, sprucing up the retail website to include technology such as "room viewers" or "design-a-room" can spark interest among time-crazed customers that ultimately helps close a sale. Statistics show that women make the vast majority of floor covering decisions. Especially among married women, time is a most precious commodity.

Advertising that combines a fashion emphasis with a respect for scheduling tends to generate winning results. If your website allows product review or at least links to manufacturer's sites that do, emphasize this feature in your print, radio, television and other ads--remember, the key is to stress your fashion focus and your respect for busy customers. Relatedly, consider a Thursday evening or Saturday afternoon private sale--featuring design seminars, finger foods, and of course other goodies like free measures, in home follow up or other shop at home services post-event, free area rugs with purchases of hardwood or laminate flooring, and so on. Ultimately, if you create a fashion atmosphere and court the fashion oriented customer, the flooring retailer will maximize the value he or she is able to add to the community and, in turn, maximize business.