Creating ‘the Experience’ in your showroom

BY PETER SCHOR

Showroom specialist

I would highly advise that you share this article with your showroom managers, as well as the executives and management team of your entire company.

The premise of this article is that “Lifestyle” products brand themselves in the very high-end luxury market. This is one of the most important concepts in understanding why someone would spend $2000 for a faucet when you have one that looks exactly like it for $200.

For 20 years, I’ve been quietly consulting with high-end luxury bath/plumbing manufacturers (100+) in helping them take their products to the market place. This includes putting everything in place from “soup to nuts,” including price market matrix, sales reps, showrooms, marketing, and public relation. This also includes branding. 

One of these companies is a high-end luxury custom-made “lifestyle” bathtub manufacturer called Palazzo Baths (www.palazzobaths.com), which is manufactured in South Africa and sold worldwide. It is stocked by a factory-authorized stocking agent in Florida for North, South and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. The stocking agency, T & L International, happens to be related to the owner.

Palazzo Baths is sold throughout the world as a bathroom “lifestyle” product and has won numerous awards, which are listed on their website. These bathtubs far surpass the normal “brand perception” and are way, way above the price of any free-standing bathtub made today. They are sold to the very high-end residential and luxury hotel segments through distribution. If you want to know why Palazzo Baths can sell at a much higher price point than other brands, go on their website and read “What Sells a Palazzo Bathtub.” It is positively a “lifestyle” product to own, not just a bathtub. On the website, you will note the many industry awards Palazzo has won.

Pick up a Duravit Product Catalog and note that in between the pages of the Philip Starck-designed products, there are pages showing decadent and lavish bathroom scenes with beautiful people. What the catalog is saying is that if the client buys Duravit, they will be living and buying into the “lifestyle” of the branded picture images.

Palazzo Baths exhibited at k/bis 2008 and I wrote about them in my pre- and post-show trends articles and product showcases. Yet only a handful of the luxury wholesaler showrooms across the U.S. have it in their showrooms. However, there is a plumbing wholesaler showroom in the Western states that is displaying Palazzo Baths and they sold 10 bathtubs just last week to a single project.

Since one picture is worth a thousand words, please note the photo that accompanies this column. It is the Palazzo “Lifestyle” bathtub at the high-end luxury custom project, The Four Seasons Private Residences in Denver, Colo. The Four Seasons will market the Palazzo Baths “lifestyle” tubs to their very affluent buyers through the marketing efforts of myself and the manufacturer. You will note in the picture that the bathroom was built around the beauty and prestige of the Palazzo bathtub.

Many of you older showroom people may remember when a well-known and successful plumbing wholesaler with  multiple showrooms took on the Kallista Baths line (prior to Kohler’s acquisition) semi-exclusively in the 1980s. The specification of the “lifestyle” Kallista product line, even if it was for a powder room only, brought that wholesaler showroom much high-end luxury “lifestyle” affluent buyers and specifiers  that they did not have access to before.

What is a brand?

A brand represents the sum of all experiences over time between an individual and a company, product or services. A brand represents an expectation, a level of quality and a measure of trust. It’s more than a “logo.” Products occupy a space on a shelf; brands occupy a space in your mind. Most of us are acutely aware of the concepts of branding. It surrounds and influences our decisions every day.

Branding has now become a common term used in your marketing. Branding is essentially burning your company (showroom) or website name or slogan into the minds of potential customers. Consider  Waterworks, Restoration Hardware, Klaff’s (Conn.), afny (N.Y.), The Bath and Beyond (Calif.),  Splash (Mass.), The Fixture Gallery (Ore./Wash.)  and hundreds more.

I would also suggest that each of us is a brand. Not in the context of a Kohler product, but in an attitudinal frame of mind. How each one of us positions ourselves within our individual showrooms, as well as the business community as a whole, dictates our future success. The same branding principles used in companies every day can be tailored to individuals who want to stand out from the crowd. If great brands are above relationships, then we have a great opportunity to brand ourselves.

Building the rapport and the branded promise

I have said in many times in my showroom columns, which I tend to repeat, that building customer rapport is one of the most important parts of the sales process when it comes to luxury bath and plumbing products. Customers buy people first. Customers want to build a personal (one-on-one) relationship with an individual -- not necessarily the company brand by itself. I agree that we all represent our company’s brand, but genuine long-lasting relationships are driven at the individual level.

The reason for the customer to believe (or not believe) is how well sales, marketing and customer services professionals position themselves in the eyes of their customers. Next is how well they deliver on their personal brand promise. Please do not confuse this when selling a consumer a towel bar versus working with a professional trade (repeat) or a consumer who has one or more complete baths or complete custom home. This is where they want your valuable time.

Are you the branded showroom of choice in your market?

While generic Cola’s or even Pepsi-Cola may win blind taste tests over Coca Cola, the fact is that more people buy Coke than any other Cola. Most importantly, they enjoy “the Experience” of buying and drinking Coca Cola. They prefer the fond memories of childhood and refreshment over a little better cola taste. It is the emotional relationship with brands that make them so powerful.  Let’s face it, nobody asks for a “Curaid,” people ask for a “Band-Aid.” Most people ask for a “Jacuzzi,” not a “Whirlpool Tub,” when they want a whirlpool/air massage tub. What is “the Experience” of your showroom brand?

The fundamental commandments of branding are:   

• Unique/differentiated -- Stand out from the crowd. What can you do in 2008 to separate your showroom from the pack of the lower-end that is bridging the gap toward luxury? Remember to think “out of the box!”
• Relevant --  Do you stand out in a way that is meaningful to your customers? Is it what you think the Baby Boomers and Generation X-er’s need/want, or what they really “desire” or “expect”?
• Credible/believable --  Be able to tell your showroom story in a convincing manner and consistently deliver on your brand promise. The selection and ordering process, shipping on time, and the after care (the personal thank you note) at the end of the process.
• Esteemed --  Am I am running my business life in a way that builds respect and trust? I have always believed that people and their human behavior (esteem/skills) are the showrooms greatest assets. This is why I am constantly honing my own skills to be a more effective showroom and industry educator.
• Knowledge --  Be knowledgeable about your company, customers, competition and industry. Do the customers that you serve know what you do? Are you wholesale only, do you sell retail, do you offer installation? Most new customers who walk into your showroom don’t know what your showroom offers.

How does one properly position oneself?

It first starts with the right attitude. Attitude determines altitude -- how high you can soar. See the September 2006 column on the www.thewholesaler.com in the archives if you need a “check up from the neck up.” No personal brand can ever maximize its true potential without the right attitude. Next is research that you do yourself.

First, you need to differentiate yourself in three places:

• Within your company
• Within your industry
• Within your targeted audiences.

You do this by gaining insight into the desires and wants of your target audiences. You learn what is important to them. Positioning in branding is focusing on your skills collectively. You cannot be everything to everyone.

How to know and feel ‘the Experience!’

Let’s take a walk into “Differentiated Successful Luxury Bath/Plumbing Showroom.” The greeting and waiting room has a comfortable couch and chairs, coffee table, company awards on wall.  There is a mirrored tv in the wall (which you sell) on a large screen, with video/cd/dvd player that could either explain your showroom plan services that you offer by appointment. The tv could show some of your exciting product lines all spliced together and on a return loop to play over and over again while clients are waiting.

The client is greeted by a person who is designated to greet clients and qualify clients to find out the purpose of their visit. This person has great people and qualifying skills, but does not need to have product knowledge (this is extremely important for showrooms over 3000 square feet). This person offers the potential client  bottled water, soda or coffee and then pairs the client with the right showroom person unless the client was referred or asked for a specific person.

The showroom has a large “plan and library table” that seats six people. There are many bathroom books in the library/plan table so clients can see complete bathrooms. This way they do not waste your time and can identify what shapes and styles of product they like with some privacy until they are ready to meet you.

How is your showroom doing in these challenging economic times?

I wrote a comprehensive article in the January 2008 issue, which you can find on www.thewholesaler.com in the archives. The article listed 33 things you can do in 2008 to increase your sales, profits and market share in these strenuous economic times. Many are out of the box ideas that it are being done by several showrooms.

For example, offering Outcall Service to those who want to cosmetically fix up their bathrooms by sending three trade partners to go out to their house and take pertinent measurements. These trade partners will then share that information with you so you can help them select the products that will fit.  Perhaps charge a small hourly showroom fee refundable against the purchase of the products from your showroom.

Some ideas may be costly or do not fit into your existing models, yet I am sure that your creativity is flowing. You should then have a brainstorming meeting with your management to determine what fits the company’s brand and create a better experience. You will positively be amazed of the increase of sales and gross profit dollars.

Peter Schor, president of Dynamic Results Inc., is an educator, motivational speaker, consultant, coach and writer in our industry and many diverse others. For the past 17 years, he has conducted 100 educational programs yearly, including 34 industry conventions. Schor has great expertise in the field of showrooms and has won many industry awards. He also works with manufacturers in the field of sales, marketing and public relations. Schor can be reached at 1491 Ivy Arbor, Lincoln, CA 95648, phone 916/408-5346, fax 916/408-5899, by e-mailing pschor@dynamicresultsinc.com or website www.dynamicresultsonline.com.