CES shows our future
By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, January 15, 2007
Las Vegas — Flat-panel televisions, next-generation DVD players and Bill Gates grabbed the biggest headlines at last week's Consumer Electronics Show here, but furniture exhibitors played a key supporting role that will only grow in importance as sales of consumer electronics continue to climb.
Clearly, the new televisions are the biggest drivers of entertainment furniture sales. But many of the furniture exhibitors at this massive trade show said sales of gaming consoles and even smaller products such as portable music
players and cell phones increasingly are triggering demand for their products as well.
And that's nothing but good news for an industry that, unlike consumer electronics, struggled during much of 2006.
"I just don't see this slowing down anytime soon," APA Marketing President Al Schwerin said as he pointed to his company's newest home entertainment furniture. "The demand is going to be there."
Schwerin and other furniture executives said rapidly falling television prices, the wider availability of high-definition programming and the end of analog television broadcasts in 2009 — an event that should spur purchases of TVs with digital tuners — will keep priming the furniture pump for years to come.
The challenge for furniture exhibitors at CES, which drew about 140,000 people and occupied more than 1.7 million square feet of exhibit space at two major venues, was to keep from getting lost amidst the sensory overload that makes CES such a unique event.
"We sent personalized invitations to key dealers and targeted accounts, and worked with our reps to make sure they knew we were going to be here," said Karl Eulberg, vice president of sales at Kathy Ireland Home by Martin, which made its CES debut.
Plus, the company developed several products that it hoped would appeal to consumer electronics stores, whose buyers dominate the registration list here. That meant moving away from the traditional styling for which Martin is best known and incorporating some contemporary and transitional design elements.
Furniture resources such as Bell'O and Salamander Designs, which primarily sell to consumer electronics stores, were taking the opposite approach, however. Many of them moved away from the purely contemporary metal-and-glass offerings that dominate the furniture selection at those stores and unveiled products with more traditional designs.
They say they weren't targeting traditional furniture stores with their new offerings, but were urging consumer electronics stores to broaden their style offerings and give consumers a reason to buy furniture at the same time they purchase a TV.
But virtually every furniture exhibitor agreed that features and function are important to the flat-panel TV purchaser, and said elements such as wire management, ventilation and media storage are vital to any product.
Altra Furniture, for example, unveiled a TV console that includes a built-in surge protector inside the unit. Salamander introduced several consoles with optional variable-speed fans that begin operating when the temperature on a component shelf reaches a certain level.
"As your gear heats up, the life expectancy is reduced," said Michael Benedetto, Salamander's national sales manager. "Our dealers like this feature because if someone's gear is damaged (by heat), they usually blame the electronics, not the furniture company."
Joseph Miller, Altra's director of product design and development, said the built-in surge protector allows all wires, except the plug from the surge protector, to be hidden inside the console. The protector is mounted inside a small door on the side of the console, providing easy access to power cords and other wires for components.
"Once you plug the surge protector into the wall, you never have to get behind it again," Miller said
Ready-to-assemble furniture major Bush Inds. also stressed features, function and styling during CES, but took a different approach to enticing buyers to see its line. The company opened its showroom in the World Market Center home furnishings market building and ferried dealers there from the main CES venue, the Las Vegas Convention Center — about a 10-minute ride in a stretch limo.
"We think it was well worth the effort we put into it," said Jim Schmidt II, vice president of marketing at Bush. "Very few of the dealers we saw here will be at the Las Vegas Market (which starts Jan. 29) or at High Point."
He said the WMC setting allowed Bush to show dealers a broader product selection than it could have displayed in a Convention Center booth, and allowed the company to conduct business without the noise and the crowds on the CES show floor.
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