'Home Yet?' program entering next phase
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, February 15, 2010
LAS VEGAS —
Calling the launch of the “Is It Home Yet?” marketing campaign last year a success, the World Market Center said it is readying for the next phase, which will include a nine-day sale event in September.
This year's sale period will be Sept. 18 to 26.
“Our goal for 2010 is to make this a national sales event for retailers by providing the creative content and free tools for them to 'plug and play' this campaign with their own brand and in their own markets,” WMC President and CEO Bob Maricich said. That “in essence, will multiply the collective voice and effect we can have on consumers buying for their home,” he said.
The WMC said it has extended a partnership with Sale-in-a-Box, a supplier of sales event materials, to ensure the toolkit is easy to adopt and “turnkey” for stores. Sale-in-a-Box will produce printed materials for the National Home Furnishings Month campaign.
World Market Center spokesman Andrew Maiden said the digital toolkit will be free and available in the spring, and that Sale-in-a-Box will set a package price for printed materials it offers retailers.
WMC said the launch of the multi-year, multi-channel marketing campaign “reached its first-year goals — to unite home furnishings retailers with a cohesive branding and sales event, while inspiring today's 'everywoman' to reconnect with her home through furnishings-related content, information, and ultimately driving to retail.”
More than 7,000 retailers signed up last year for inclusion on the site's store locator — with 49% from the West, 19% from the Midwest, 23% from the South and 9% from the Northeast, officials said.
Nearly 2,000 retailers downloaded the toolkit with marketing tools to support the National Home Furnishing Month initiative in their advertising programs, the WMC said, although officials couldn't say how many actually participated in the promotion.
The marketing campaign was developed by Ogilvy North America. Initially, the WMC called it a $20 million, multi-year campaign.
Steve DeHaan, executive vice president of the National Home Furnishings Assn., which encouraged its membership to participate on the homeyet.com store locator last year. But he noted that since the HomeYet.com campaign was launched, NHFA has launched its own HomeFurnishings.com consumer Web portal, where it has since focused most of its attention and encouraged retailer participation. HomeFurnishings.com currently has about 3,700 stores on its locator.
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Second phase set for ‘Is It Home Yet?'
Jan 28, 2010
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