Think of your kitchen and bath showroom as an island in a sea of potential customers.  There were times you felt stranded on that island, and like “the Professor”, used all your creative [and marketing] resources to grab a passer-by’s attention.   You employed every form of outgoing marketing and advertising you could – TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, home shows, direct mail, even yellow pages – just to cajole a customer to your island.

Eventually, although it took a made for TV movie sequel, the gang from Gilligan’s Island was rescued, employing science and technology (details on Wikipedia).  To make a long story longer and add another made for TV movie sequel (or two) – the castaways end up back on the island, only this time it becomes a resort where visitors find them.

…and now, back to our analogy…

Technology came to your rescue at the height of the economic downturn … in the form of smart phones, mobile devices, social media and the convergence of it all!  The Professor would be lovin’ it!

Your showroom is still an island in a sea of potential customers, but now they are searching you out.  They are “Googling” you, searching for you on apps, looking for your social media links, unearthing your blogs and researching as much as they can, just to find you.

Can you be found?

Shopping has changed.  By the time a customer shows up in your showroom, they are yours to lose.  They have done their research, they know you, and they are ready to work with you – just as long as you measure up to what they found during their due diligence.

Your marketing needs to change to keep up.  You still need to employ outgoing marketing efforts, but you also need to create an incoming marketing strategy.  For the kitchen and bath professional, that means reallocating your resources (personnel and cash) and developing an integrated marketing program.

Are you ready for the challenge today? …or do you need a few made for TV movie sequels to benefit from your rescue?

“Huh?”

“Are you happy with your kitchen?” repeated the apron.  “Is there anything you would change about your kitchen, if you could?”

“Sure” my friend responded suddenly realizing that she had become the victim of a sales call.

The apron continued with “did you know that we will come to your home, take a look at your kitchen, measure and give you design ideas – all at no cost to you?”

The big boxes have a pipeline to thousands, make that millions of shoppers who are in the store for nothing remotely related to a new kitchen.  Yet their sales team is planting the seed… shoppers like my friend are likely to go home and every flaw in their kitchen becomes magnified.  It becomes exacerbated by crowds of holiday revelers and family.  Come January the seed germinates the customer comes back to the store to take them up their offer!

…in the meantime, you’re reviewing your year with disdain and wondering how to generate additional showroom traffic.

The short answer is Marketing.

For your consideration –

• What if your apron was a commercial on HGTV, The Food Network or DIY?  Your audience is “in the store” and you are stimulating them to buy with a great offer.
• What if the customer visited a big box, became frustrated and stormed out of the store?  Would they know to come to you next?  Have you considered the mobile app of the Kitchen & Bath Channel?
• What if the big box germinated the seed, but the customer went directly to the computer or mobile device, rather than back to the store… are you be there to be found?

Believe me, after working with the Kitchen & Bath industry exclusively for over ten years, I have seen the highs and lows.  You cannot pull the plug on marketing and hope to survive, but you can be more effective in how you spend your marketing dollars.  Yes, you can compete against the big boxes and win!

If you want additional information or have questions – don’t hesitate to contact me.

There was a time when we had the time to warm up to a new technology before we “needed” to employ it.  According to Advertising Age’s History of Advertising 1704-1999, 1704 saw the first newspaper ad; it took 218 years, until 1922, when the first radio broadcast was sold to an advertiser.   19 years later, in 1941, the first TV commercial, featuring a Bulova watch hit the air.  Ahhh… a simpler time.  We could take our time to get comfortable with the new-fangled fads.

But today, we are required to move at warp speed – consider that the first web browser was born in 1990, by 1995 the web had an estimated 16 million users, three years later there were 147 million users that went to 500 million by 2001.  Facebook launched in 2004; YouTube in 2005; Twitter in 2006; the iPhone in 2007; the first Android smartphone in 2008; and the iPad in 2010.  Each one of these technologies/platforms/innovations has become an integral and required aspect of our integrated marketing programs.

As you begin your 2012 marketing plans, keep these truths in mind:

You need a presence on mobile devices:

• 40% of Tablet & Smartphone owners use them while watching TV (Nielsen)
• 17% of women / 21% of men looked up product information because of a TV commercial (Nielsen)
• 79% of consumers use a smartphone to help with shopping (Google: ZMOT)

You need to put video to work for you – on TV… online …on handheld devices.

• 37% of shoppers were stimulated to make a purchase decision by a TV ad (Google: ZMOT)
• 83% of moms say they do online research after seeing TV commercials for products that interest them (Google: ZMOT)
• 74% of consumers remember an ad when viewed across media platforms (TV+PC+Phone+Tablet) (Nielsen)
• In August of 2011 YouTube was the 5^th most popular web brand with 127.9 million visitors, spending 1 hour and 42 minutes EACH on the site (Nielsen)
• Q2 2011 – 36.2% more Mobile subscribers are watching video on a mobile phone than a year earlier (Nielsen)

These are just two critical areas, but there are more… and as the technology advances, you need to be ready to make it work for you in bringing leads to your kitchen & bath showroom.

Consider developing a fully Integrated Marketing Program for 2012 where you can leverage your resources to best fit your market, your customer and your budget.  And, of course I am always available to help you get started.  Email info@kitchenmarketing.com to get started

There are a number of recent statistics that may shock you and should (at the very least) put your current marketing plan on trial.

• We now spend more minutes each day with apps than we do with web sites.  On average 81 minutes are spent with apps compared to 74 with web browsing.  The increased usage of smartphones and digital tablets (such as the iPad) is credited for the new reality.

But as the many kitchen and bath professionals I speak with tell me – “that doesn’t affect me, my clients are older and smartphones and digital tablets are in the hands of kids.”   – if you subscribe to that concept, the reality doesn’t support your theory. According to an August 2011 Nielsen study, demographics break down evenly.

• Smartphone Owners as of Q2 2011:
  • Ages 35-44          19%
  • Ages 45-54          20%
  • Ages 55+              18%
  • 50% are Women
• Tablet Owners as of Q2 2011:
  • Ages 35-44          17%
  • Ages 45-54          18%
  • Ages 55+              19%
  • 43% are Women

As you begin thinking about your marketing plans for 2012, these numbers should represent a guide.  Yes, you still need to consider traditional marketing to stimulate the customer – TV is a good bet (as an aside).  But beyond that, are you supporting your digital and social efforts with allocated and dedicated resources.

• Is your entire website visible on mobile devices?
• Do you have a mobile version of your site?
• Do you have a presence on a smartphone/mobile device app?
• Have you allocated resources to maintain your social sites?

The 4^th quarter is when most of us pull together our budget and marketing plans for the following year – your leads in 2012 will be coming from a new reality (in addition to a new economy) – be prepared!

The designers surrounding me (young and old alike) were not surprised.  Perhaps they had read about it, gotten the head’s up from their rep, seen it before or even anticipated this advancement.

And that’s what surprised me!  because many of these same designers seem to fear technology in their marketing efforts.  Effective marketing means anticipating and keeping up with the latest technological trends and turning them into sales opportunities.  It was true of radio in the 1920s and 30s; TV in the 1940s and 50s; Internet advertising in the 1990s and 2000s; and the emerging mobile opportunities of today.

Your website is no longer enough of an edge.  SEO is confusing, difficult and expensive to corral and everyday new technology gives birth to new marketing opportunities… and all you want to do is design and build kitchens, bathroom and other living spaces.  The Kitchen & Bath Channel is your conduit to bridge the “marketing with technology” gap.  Our mission is to provide you, the kitchen and bath professional, with easy, cost effective marketing tools, utilizing the latest technology, marketing trends and industry knowledge to drive today’s customers to you.

If you will keep up with design technologies and trends, we will keep up with marketing technologies and trends!