Fireside Hearth & Home recognizes that vignettes have a mesmerizing effect on customers shopping for fireplaces.
By
Sharon Sanders
 |
| Gina Ott works with Fireside Hearth & Home retailers nationwide to transform their hearth vignettes into the ultimate sales tool. |
 |
| This hearth vignette lacks focus, function and style. |
 |
| This hearth vignette is a functional, stylish home office. |
Today’s design-conscious consumers want their homes to look and feel as though they came straight out of a magazine, but because of busy schedules or lack of vision, they often have difficulty pulling rooms together by themselves. Gina Ott, director of merchandising, store design and planning for Fireside Hearth & Home, says that consumers’ growing interest in home design is opening up new opportunities for hearth retailers. “Retailers can make their stores a one-stop shop for people who want to finish their rooms with hearths, accessories and furniture, but are too busy to shop around,” Ott says.
For the past six years, Ott has been working with Fireside Hearth & Home retailers across the nation, transforming their showrooms into places of inspiration. Fireside Hearth & Home is the retail channel of Hearth & Home Technologies, Lakeville, Minn., manufacturer of top hearth brands Heat & Glo, Quadra-Fire, Heatilator and Harman.
Ott is leading the charge for Fireside’s retail partner program. Her primary role is to help retailers with the design and layout of their showrooms, whether they are remodeling, moving locations, building a freestanding store or creating an in-store gallery as part of Fireside’s licensee program. She provides guidance on everything from product selection and finishing to flooring, lighting and product vignettes.
“A key merchandising strategy for us is creating realistic vignettes,” Ott says. She explains that vignettes are the best way to inspire people who don’t realize how many places they can put fireplaces in their homes. With home floor plans often using open layouts, Ott gets many requests from retailers to create hearth-focused settings depicting bathrooms, kitchens, studies, media rooms and bedrooms.
Soothing bathroom settings can include everything from a real sink or washbasin to a clawfoot tub, while media rooms are designed to show people that fireplaces and electronics (like televisions and sounds systems) are completely compatible on the same wall within a room. In some stores, kitchen vignettes are actual working kitchens used for preparing and serving food during in-store events. “Vignettes show people the endless possibilities of fireplaces,” Ott says.
She explains that the most effective vignettes are those that capture the flavor of the local area in terms of finishes, paint colors and furniture. To accomplish this, Ott visits model homes in the area to get a feel for how people are decorating their homes. “It makes it easier for people to imagine fireplace settings in their homes,” she adds.
Ott tells retailers that they shouldn’t hesitate to spend a little extra money to create appealing vignettes, as they will quickly pay for themselves. If they’re done right, they can easily double the average sale. “Because you are showing people exactly what can be done with a room, you are taking the chance out of the choice,” she explains.
For those retailers who aren’t ready to spend the money to add new vignettes to their showrooms just yet, Ott has a few recommendations for a mini makeover.
Reduce clutter: Many retailers are guilty of trying to cram everything on the sales floor at one time. Clutter makes a showroom a difficult place to shop because it can be overwhelming to consumers. Pare down merchandise to include only those items that add to the overall appeal of your displays.
Freshen it: Nothing can transform the overall look of a store more quickly or easily than a fresh coat of paint. Refresh your store visually every few years by repainting the walls in a stylish new color. Visit model homes in your area to see what colors interior designers are using.
Stay current with trends: Update your hearth products to include the newest models from manufacturers and watch trends in stone and home-decor accessories. Stay on top of what’s happening in your marketplace as well, and translate it back to your showroom.
Ott is excited about a new concept (which Fireside Hearth & Home is rolling out in stores later this year) that will make buying easy for the consumer. She explains that the majority of people who visit the retail showrooms are involved in remodeling, so not only are they are looking for fireplace ideas, but they eventually end up purchasing furniture to finish off the project. It’s not uncommon for them to fall in love with a room vignette and ask if they can buy everything in it.
Fireside’s new concept will allow consumers to purchase an entire room vignette exactly as it appears on the showroom floor, from the fireplace to the furnishings. “There is no reason to tell customers to take their $2,000 and go down the road to the furniture store,” Ott says. “This is what customers are asking for, so we are going to try it.” Fireside has teamed up with several partner companies that will warehouse the inventory, deliver it and install everything for the customer.
Ott truly believes that the whole-room concept is the natural evolution of the retail hearth industry. “We started by just selling the firebox and then the whole hearth; now, we are selling the whole room,” she says. “I’m excited to see where it goes from here.”
PHPR July/August 2008
|
