Z-Line Designs sets Maxim galleries
By Tom Edmonds -- Furniture Today, June 28, 2004
San Ramon, Calif. — Looking to leverage its relationship with Maxim magazine, Z-Line Designs has developed a retail gallery program, and the company says a couple of major chains are about to install it in their stores.
Set up in a circle with an 18-foot diameter, the presentation, with red flooring and stage lights and poster-size copies of the suggestive Maxim covers, is sure to attract attention to the 10 or 12 SKUs from Z-Line's Maxim line.
"When you walk into a store with one of these (galleries), it's going to be like walking into a Rolling Stones concert," said Jim Sexton Jr., vice president of sales.
The galleries will offer a mix of entertainment and office pieces, with retails from $249 to $499. The sparkle quotient on these metal-and-glass pieces is high, and when they're outfitted with wide-screen televisions or with computers, the overall effect should do more than just attract the attention of passing shoppers, Sexton said. "The key is that these pieces will turn."
Sexton said Z-Line has commitments from a West Coast electronics chain and from an East Coast furniture retailer, although he doesn't want to identify them until the galleries are installed. "This is going to put the Maxim program over the top," he said. "It makes perfect sense for a consumer electronics store, but when a traditional furniture retailer signs up, it shows that Maxim has grown beyond the girls on the cover. It's a lifestyle."
