High Point — Once or twice a year, Century Furniture flies in a few hundred retail salespeople to its headquarters in Hickory, N.C., for factory visits and training.
The sessions are memorable. At one point, Eric Schenk, Century's chief operating officer, stands beside a beautiful Century chair won in a drawing by a lucky attendee. As the applause fades, Schenk pulls from his pocket a razor knife and begins slashing through the chair's cover.
Audible gasps fill the room.
Schenk cuts. The carnage doesn't stop with the cover. Schenk cuts through the Dacron filling and the cushion, and pulls off the welting. Before it's over, Shank will use bolt cutters to cut away eight-way, hand-tied springs, which he passes to his audience.
The intended recipient looks dazed and confused — but the chair really wasn't for him anyway. It was just a prop to educate salespeople — the last link in the selling process — about the inner workings of upholstery.
"What it does is helps them visualize what a piece of upholstery looks like (inside)," said Ed Tashjian, vice president of marketing. "What is really important about upholstery is what you don't see.
"Where the money changes hands is between the salesperson and the consumer. So our most important job is not educating the consumer but educating the floor salesperson."
Making it easier
To boost business, manufacturers are extending their reach through retail to create ways to make it easier for consumers — faced with the choice of hundreds of fabrics, cushion types and styles — to purchase their products.
Since women buy the most furniture, the idea is to make the purchasing process simpler and less confusing. Tools include point-of-sale information and Web sites, as well as merchandising programs that make it easier to choose fabric, legs and other options.
Several major producers, including Bassett with its Simply Yours collection, enable customers to design their own sofas — the style, leg, arm, back, cushions and other parts to suit their own personality.
Henredon, Lazar and a score of other sources have simplified pricing structures so retail salespeople don't have to traverse the catacombs to find price options.
For Century, the Hickory meetings are a way to strengthen its position with the industry's front line — the retail sales force. According to Tashjian, savvy manufacturers "try to find floor salespeople who become their expert on the brand. The goal is that when a customer wants a sofa, they'll recommend your brand."
An educated salesperson, well versed on the product he or she sells, is one key to taking fear and loathing out of buying seating products. Manufacturers constantly look for other ways to take the uncertainty out of what, for most consumers, is a complicated process.
"If you ever sit down and watch a woman choose a fabric for a sofa, it can take hours and hours," said Tashjian. "You see her husband standing there with his eyes rolled back in his head. If he had a sharp object, he would probably do himself in."
Rowe Furniture has invested heavily to learn more about what the consumer is thinking when she shops for upholstery.
"What we found is that, on average, she hasn't bought a sofa in seven years," said Stefanie Lucas, senior vice president. "Which is interesting because she's probably made other major purchases like a car or even a house in that period."
What the consumer is "feeling is really confusion," added Lucas. "She's not so sure about what she needs to pay for this sofa; she's not exactly sure how far she can venture out of her comfort zone."
Eager for information
But the typical consumer is "open-minded," Lucas added. "Although she's not sure how much she's going to pay or what she wants, she is open-minded to suggestions."
To make shopping easier, Rowe offers a software program called PreVue that allows consumers visiting the studiorowe galleries to better visualize different fabric-frame combinations. The software helps consumers sort through the company's selection of 600 fabrics to see how various covers will look on specific frames.
Consumers can also design their own seating on the company's Web site.
In addition, Lucas said Rowe tailors programs for dealers.
"Some retailers have a customer that can deal with 600 fabric choices and really picture things and work with well with fabrics," she said. "We have other retailers that have customers where it becomes overwhelming."
For these retailers, Rowe offers small gallery-type environments "where we might only put in 100 or 200 fabrics and do a smaller area with pre-correlated fabrics. That way, the customer can visualize what certain pillows would look like with a certain fabric. We try to model the appropriate environment for different kinds of retailers."
La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries equips its design centers with La-Z-Boy Screen Test System software, which allows consumers to see any fabric on any frame, according to Jennifer Sievertsen, director of brand marketing. In addition, consumers can create a design using an online room planner, and save products and room plans so they can be accessed from computers at home.
Several manufacturers said cyberspace is one of the best avenues for reaching consumers.
Jack Arthur, vice president of merchandising for Norwalk Furniture, said prospective buyers use the company's interactive Web site to determine what they want, and arrive at the store bursting with knowledge.
"Retail customers walk into our stores carrying (an image) of our product," said Arthur. "They've got a printout of their room with pieces of furniture placed in it and maybe some (examples) of fabric and style in a little folder.
"They'll walk in the store and say, 'Can I see this sofa? Can I see this fabric?' Stores are just blown away when this happens. Not only is this customer pre-qualified, they're really pre-qualified."
The educated consumer loves to use the Internet as a research device, Arthur added. "We still think that, for high-touch and high-investment articles, they like bricks-and-mortar. But they like to be informed before they go (shopping)."
Creating a connection
When a consumer uses the Norwalk Web site, she becomes part of a database that can alert a dealer to their interests, Arthur says. When the store plans a sale, the dealer can call the customer or send them a card to let them know about the event.
"They can say, 'We found out from our Web site that you're interested in our Dawson sofa. Please come in and sit on it.'"
Consumers surf the Internet before they do anything, said Debra Venti, Broyhill's merchandising manager for upholstery. "I do it; you do it; everybody does it. They don't want to look stupid when they walk in.
"It's like me buying a car. I hate buying a car so I'll sit there for hours on the computer and try to figure out what I like, what am I looking for, and roughly what the cost is. It's the same thing (for consumers) buying a sofa."
Younger consumers are not afraid to spend more money on upholstery if they find the right product, said Venti. She added that consumers already are paying $1,200 and up for a computer, so paying $999 for a sofa they'll use every day isn't going to knock them out of the saddle.
"They don't mind spending the money," she said. "They've got the income. But it's very much an instant gratification thing we're getting into more and more. They want to get it now, and they don't want to worry about it."
An inside perspective
Cherry Whitener, vice president of fashion merchandising for Clayton Marcus, agrees that buying upholstery is more difficult for consumers than buying case goods.
"Many of the features that are important for quality upholstered products are on the inside — such as the frame, springs and cushioning. Quality construction features are more easily seen on bedroom and dining room furniture."
Larry Smith, senior vice president for corporate marketing for Berkline/BenchCraft, agreed.
"Case goods (are) an aesthetic product that has eye appeal with its design, carvings, finish and color," said Smith. "Upholstery is not only aesthetic but it becomes a personal seating kind of thing — a little haven. The consumer has to feel good about how it looks but also about how it feels when she's (seated) in the product."
The living and family rooms are the most important rooms in the house in terms of design, so customers tend to take more care with the decisions they make with these rooms, said La-Z-Boy's Sievertsen. "For most families, it's where the majority of time is spent, and it is where guests will gather."
No matter what tools are provided, making the customer feel good about the buying experience is essential.
"Stores must offer the design assistance and tools customers need to make confident, informed decisions, and then follow through with quick delivery, pleasant interactions and high-quality furniture," Sievertsen said.
Berkline and its sister company, BenchCraft, provide a library of POP materials, tear sheets with product photos and specs, and cut-aways that explain key features. The product's warranty also is on display.
"There's something visual and tangible that she (consumer) can walk up and pick up and it's in writing," noted Smith. "It further reinforces the psychological factor that they (the producer) must stand behind this product because they've made it public. It's one thing when they get the product home and open the package and it says, 'Here's your warranty card' and another to have it on display in the stores."
Several execs said this communication shouldn't end when the customer leaves the store.
Broyhill's Venti says a follow-up note or call works wonders.
"I think when buying a sofa it's always nice to get that 'thank you' card unexpectedly or have someone call the next week and say, 'Hey, I wanted to make sure everything was great; how's your sofa, how's your room coming together?'
"It's always nice to be recognized and remembered. That's something very important."
