Let's lift our 'image' to match our 'reality'
By Jerry Epperson -- Furniture Today, October 14, 2001
Thank you for coming to High Point. Be assured that your presence is appreciated. We sincerely believe this could be the most productive market ever as retailers and manufacturers work together to attract consumers back to our merchandise in 2002.
Using the new year and our renewed national pride as a starting point, please help our industry project a new image as home and family continue to grow in importance.
Recently, I saw a cartoon that showed a happy young couple in a new car, with a beach and clear sky in the background. This was titled, "The Image." Below it was a second frame with a family in an old car, stuck in traffic, with the children screaming and the engine overheating. This was titled, "The Reality."
The auto industry has done a fantastic job of using its product to create an image that is far from the reality. Ads show happy, healthy, beautiful people driving off-road to spectacular cliffs where they can relax with nature. All of us buy sport utility vehicles to be able to do this, but we never do. Have you?
Auto ads show models driving shiny, sleek new cars, receiving admiring, envious glances from all those around them. Reality? Of course not.
The truth is that vehicles are obscenely expensive, costly to maintain, rapidly depreciating assets that keep our consumers deep in debt trying to maintain some mythical image. The longer you keep them, the more expensive they are, but to replace them regularly is just as expensive. The consumer cannot win. Yet the "image" continues to reign over the "reality."
We're just the opposite. Our industry has a terrible "image" and a great "reality." Our products often last for decades with no maintenance costs, offering reliable, safe comfort to consumers in their haven from stress and danger — their home. Yet our image is horrible! Consumers see furniture as overpriced and lacking in credibility because of our constant sales and promotions and, too often, our broken promises.
Part of our problem is, of course, a lack of self-confidence, which the entire industry shares. We should be comfortable offering a great product at a fair price, but we easily give up and use heavy discounts and impossible credit terms to sell our goods.
Please use these times to reassure yourself and those around you of our true value, and the reality we offer to our customers. There will never be a better opportunity than 2002.
I hope to see you somewhere around High Point. I'm the fat, balding guy on a blue electric scooter. That's my reality.
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