Lane takes showroom on the road
By Joan Gunin -- Furniture Today, October 13, 2008
HIGH POINT — Lane Home Furnishings is taking its home entertainment message on the road with a mobile showroom designed to draw traffic to stores.
At next week's High Point Market, Lane will preview its Home Entertainment Tour experience — a 1,000-square-foot, custom-built 18-wheeler mobile showroom. It will be parked all week on the 100 block of High Street, next to Noble's restaurant.
After market, the truck will make a few V.I.P. visits and then will hit the road full time in early 2009 with stops planned at 50 to 60 stores. Plans call for the mobile showroom to stay on the road into 2010.
“We have had tremendous initial reaction and dealers want it on site. We're fired up,” said Lane President Skipper Holliman. He said the company has invested “well over $1 million” in the traveling showroom.
Lane's marketing group and the company's Memphis, Tenn., public relations firm, Chandler Ehrlich, worked on the concept, as did Alex Hodges, vice president of marketing for parent company Furniture Brands International.
In addition to the truck, there's a companion Web site and celebrity hosts who appear on video in the mobile showroom.
“We believe we have a leadership role in not just home theater, but in home entertainment in general,” Holliman said. “Whether it is a complete home theater or just a stationary sectional around the television, we have a great solution for people entertaining in their home. We decided to develop a marketing approach for the market and around the country to communicate all the things Lane stands for and to show that we can provide solutions.”
At market, Lane dealers will be able to register and, for a buy-in fee, schedule a mobile showroom visit to their stores. Lane will finalize the route and schedule based on registrations at market. The customized trailer will make appearances at two or three retailers per week for two- to three-day stints or over a long weekend.
“It will be a combination of metropolitan areas and some smaller towns, and possibly some sports-related venues with large crowds (like NASCAR races or college football games),” Holliman said.
Lane's regular market showroom in the International Home Furnishings Center, C-800, will feature settings identical to the mobile version. Both environments will offer home entertainment and case goods pieces in three vignettes.
Hosting the presentation — on video screens — are Jon and Kate Gosselin, a couple featured on TLC's “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” a TV show about their family of 4½-year-old sextuplets and 8-year-old twin girls.
Among the latest products in Lane's entertainment lineup are its Smart Seating with power adjustments, built-in cupholders, hidden storage and computer tables, and cabinetry designed to give optimum viewing height. Features include storage space for components and electronics, built-in power outlets, subtle cooling vents and selections from Lane's Lifestyles Fabric Collection.
Visitors aboard the rolling showroom will be given a hand-held computer that asks questions about product and lifestyle preferences. At the end of the tour, guests will receive a printout detailing a selection of home entertainment solutions to meet their needs. The customer can purchase the products on the spot.
When the truck is parked, both sides of the trailer can be extended out to create a 1,000-square-foot showroom. It takes about a half-day to set up the truck, which can then accommodate about 40 visitors.
Before the truck visits a store, Lane will work with retailers on co-op advertising, including print and radio, to publicize the event and build traffic.
“Not only the mobile home entertainment truck, but the Web site, consumer print, point-of-purchase materials — every touch point — the whole program is integrated into this major push for 2009,” Holliman said.
Lane's Web site at www.lanefurniture.com will have a micro-site that will track the truck's cross-country travels.
