Lexington readying Liz Claiborne ad blitz
By Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, August 22, 2004
Lexington, N.C. — With product for its Liz Claiborne Home licensed collection hitting retail floors this month, Lexington Home Brands is readying a big marketing program to support the line.
"Inquiries on the Liz Claiborne brand Web site have shown high consumer anticipation of the Liz Claiborne Home furniture collection," Bob Stec, president and CEO of Lexington Home Brands, said last week.
Such interest and brand loyalty is behind the company's extensive advertising, training, and store display efforts, he said.
In addition to running national ads in shelter publications and publishing a 32-page Liz Claiborne Home consumer magazine, Lexington will back retailers with a certification and training program for showroom sales staff that includes an incentive program to encourage sales of Liz Claiborne product. It also will provide merchandising materials and standards, and plans to roll out additional product at the October High Point market.
The Liz Claiborne Home magazine, which will be off the press after Labor Day, can be customized with a dealer's name for direct mail or newspaper insertion. Lexington is providing mailing lists and co-op postage costs.
In addition to introducing consumers to the line's three collections — Homecoming Sundays, Friends and Neighbors, and Family Days — the magazine will offer ideas to help consumers create a plan for their home, make use of furniture's hidden storage assets, blend fabric patterns and colors, and select furnishings that can adapt to changing needs.
Lexington counts on 20 million consumer views of Liz Claiborne Home ads in shelter publications running from October through December 2005. Two-page ads will appear in Better Homes & Gardens, Country Home, House Beautiful, Southern Living, Sunset and Cottage Living.
Consumers will be able to see a virtual catalog of the line at www.lexington.com, and will find a 100-page Liz Claiborne Home catalog at around 380 retail locations.
"Research has shown that the Liz Claiborne Home customer wants a well-designed, classic, relaxed home with a modern sensibility and a distinctly feminine point of view," said Jennifer Rumple, Lexington's brand manager for Liz Claiborne Home. "This is the message conveyed by the coordinated array of programs and materials developed to support the brand."
Lexington's tools for retailers will include Liz Claiborne Home merchandising standards and point-of-purchase materials, the catalog, downloadable ad templates and high-resolution images. A custom postcard program supports six store brand events this year and next year.
Lexington and Liz Claiborne also plan to place a story about the collection on wire services and newspapers. In addition, Liz Claiborne Home will sponsor Southern Living and Sunset magazines' 2005 show homes, a deal that includes coverage in the magazines' August 2005 issues and in the resource guides distributed to consumers who visit the homes or the publications' Web sites.
Lexington will introduce new products and fabrics for the line at this October's High Point market.
"We're bringing 12 new furniture pieces and 25 new fabrics," Rumple said. "We're gearing that toward hitting the stores in time for a Mother's Day promotion next May."
Signature pieces will include a hand-painted jewelry armoire on a swivel base with full-length mirror. New fabrics were developed off tones and patterns found in Liz Claiborne bedding.
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Lexington readying Liz Claiborne ad blitz
Aug 25, 2004
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