We should dress up all those beds
Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, November 11, 2002
A look at the Best of Market product photos that ran in Furniture/Today's Oct. 28 issue — and the product pictures we ran in the market dailies — caused one thing to stand out for this writer.
Namely: There's a huge opportunity in furnitureland for anyone who can develop programs for effectively dressing up all the beds that are introduced at market.
While some progress has been made in dressing beds appropriately, according to the style and price point of the item, this is being done mostly with marquee brands or special collections.
We're a far cry from the days when a tired, bare mattress was the thing that caught a retailer's eye rather than the bed. But not far enough.
Most beds still look as though a showroom planner swept through the nearest Odd Lots or Dollar General store and bought all the top-of-the-bed closeout specials.
This past market, there were a number of furniture suppliers with decorative bedding programs designed for specific collections that retailers could buy and reorder. That's a definite increase over past markets, but still not widespread enough to make an impact on retailers, and later on their customers.
Too often, the comment from many folks in our industry is that decorative bedding is too expensive, mostly because they believe consumers are accustomed to the price wars that indeed are rampant in the home textiles world.
But when people are buying a new bedroom, they're not thinking about whether the sheet set or comforter set is the lowest price ever. They're more receptive to making their room look good from all points of view.
In many cases, decorative bedding can be a sales clincher — if done right. In other instances, it can be a sales killer if it doesn't enhance the bed.
And more than anything, it's a logical add-on sale. There are plenty of companies at the ready to help make this possible.
