Serving three unique markets
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, November 10, 2003
Billings, Mt. — With stores scattered across Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota, Conlin's Furniture has had to remake its floor assortments this year to cater to three very different markets.
The Rocky Mountain West likes lodge-style, large-scale furniture with some West Coast influences sprinkled in. The Midwest, which includes the Dakotas, prefers a younger, more metropolitan perspective on product, influenced as it is by Minneapolis. And the Great Plains, with its farmers and ranchers, likes a no-nonsense, middle-of-the-road merchandise mix.
Conlin's central warehousing and distribution operation, informed by a robust and sophisticated new information technology infrastructure, is helping the chain respond to consumer tastes more accurately and rapidly, said Joe Conlin, the store's president.
"We are really for the first time changing and adapting merchandising for these regions," he said. "At the same time, we're keeping good control of inventory."
Since Jan. 1, approximately 70% of the chain's upholstery has been changed out in an overhaul that did not require a single below-cost sale.
"We were able to do it smoothly, both logistically and financially, because of our IT systems," Conlin said, adding that the store's committee of buyers deserves a lot of credit as well.
To determine which products to drop, management established some minimums on GMROI. Turnover requirements defined the first cut. The second cut required feedback from store managers and manufacturers' sales representatives, pooling information from throughout the far-flung stores. The buying committee, led by 34-year Conlin's veteran Jim Beneke, determined what to buy to fill all the new holes in the stores' floors.
"Jim evolved into our merchandise director," Conlin said of Beneke, one of the chain's three district managers. Beneke is responsible for the Great Plains region. "I'm not a real furniture person, so I'm forced to see that furniture people are making the critical (product) decisions."
Now that the upholstery is mostly in place, Beneke and his team have turned their attention to accessories. Occasional furniture, too, has seen a lot of change, while bedroom and dining room have remained fairly stable. Changes in case goods categories can be more feasibly made at the High Point furniture market.
"There's a great distance between Bozeman (Montana) and Billings," said Vicky Mading, a district manager responsible for the Rocky Mountain West, "and it's more than a geographic distance."
Since Sept. 11, 2001, Bozeman has seen an influx of city dwellers from New York and the West Coast looking for a better quality of life. Conlin's has had to learn how to adapt its lineup to cater to this attractive new demographic, Mading said.
"You wouldn't see it in our advertising," she said. "We communicate the differences once you walk in the door. The advertising is designed to bring you in with values."
Traditionally more focused on image, newspaper advertising at Conlin's lately has emphasized value and price. With its reputation for good customer service firmly established, it is time for the chain to better communicate the values it offers, Conlin said.
"We've moved the needle more toward the urgent," he said. "We've come out a bit harder-hitting."
Advertising messages and media, too, are determined by committee at Conlin's, Mading said. In addition to newspaper inserts and full-page ads, the store uses direct mail and runs radio and television spots.
