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This market, the goodies did grab my attention

Heath E. Combs, Staff Writer -- Furniture Today, April 15, 2007

The American Home Furnishings Alliance and the High Point Market Authority did a good job with the press gift bags at the spring market. Big deal? Coming from a writer who rarely notices these touches, that's a big compliment.

I typically don't collect a lot of market gifts and stuff, unless it's a ready-to-drink 16-ounce bottle of Jose Cuervo Margarita, like they had in Vegas last July.

I certainly DO collect the press kits that companies send to the press room. I read them and pick up news that I might've missed. They also get a lot of attention from the hundreds of reporters coming in from Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland or wherever for the market.

So please make sure you give your showroom location in the press kits, because some of you didn't.

Back to market gifting. I especially do not pay attention to free little gifts, and probably never will unless I become a reporter for Entertainment Weekly and score a goodie bag at the Oscars, when they're REALLY worthwhile. But I digress.

I heard about the High Point market's press gift bag from a fellow reporter, who pulled out what looked like a pen and discovered a flash drive inside. Written on this slick pen were the Web sites for the AHFA and the Market Authority.

That was enough for me to drag myself to the press center early in the week to grab one of the gift bags, because it just sounded nifty. It was a see-through plastic, neon greenish bag, the same color the Market Authority uses in its logo. They gave me my flash-drive pen in a neat little futuristic metal box.

The floor in the press center was done up in a path of leaves from the tree you'd recognize from the Market Authority's logo. Nice marketing. I really liked another gift item, a pedometer, also with the logo printed on it. Nice branding. I wore that thing all week. Somehow, I logged a mile while sitting down, but that's the kind of information I need to keep me going during market.

I took the gift bag along on a visit to Primo International, and it was like a magnet for female eyes. They claimed the spoils I didn't want. That included a Market Authority-branded chap stick and hand sanitizer, a plastic massager of some kind in that greenish color, and other stuff I'm sure I didn't notice.

I don't know who put together the gift bag, but whoever you are, you did a nice job, and I noticed your meticulous attention to detail. Perhaps in the past, the market powers-that-be didn't pay as much attention to detail as they should have, and this Market Authority brand you're building is good for the market.

So, from a writer who's just now noticing a few details, I can make only one suggestion to improve what is a very well-used press center. Add a window.

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