Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Color Splash Effect

Watching HGTV is hazardous to my wallet. Donna and I enjoy several HGTV programs, but we’re hooked on Color Splash with David Bromstad. We watch. We learn – or at least I do. We look around our house and that’s where the trouble starts. The living room needs updating. The bedroom needs a makeover.

Donna has a great eye for design and color, just like her mom. I don’t. I’m functional, utilitarian when it comes to furniture and accessories. Donna’s got her foot on the accelerator, mine’s more on the brake. And as a shopper, I don’t buy things often, but when I do, it can turn into a cascade. Thanks to Color Splash, it just did. New artwork for the living room walls. A new area rug, throw pillows, TV and stand. A new bed frame and comforter.

I prefer to buy locally whenever possible, but shop online when we can’t find exactly what we want. Using the classic 4P’s of Marketing, let’s look at brick-and-mortar and virtual store experiences:
• Product – I like to see and feel the rug, pillows and furniture at a local store. And you can’t beat up close and personal when shopping for a TV. But the depth of product choices is vast online. Add buyer reviews – even if some of them seem “planted” – and you get a dimension unmatched by a smiling salesperson.
• Price – is often lower online, sometimes dramatically so. The advantage is enhanced if the virtual store charges no sales tax and offers free shipping.
• Place – do you want immediate gratification? If so, the local store has the advantage. Two days after ordering a TV stand online, a phone call from the vendor informed us that the style we chose was out of stock. When we found a replacement – at a different virtual store – it took 10 days to be delivered. Meanwhile, our new TV sat on the living room floor.
• Promotion – local radio ads helped us choose where to begin shopping. Google key-word ads have made telephone yellow pages nearly obsolete; we searched locally and the vast Internet expanses with iPhones in hand. There was nothing we could not find!
• Pleasing the Customer – Marketing’s 5th P is where local stores can and should make their advantage evident. Customer service, going the extra mile – helpful advice, quick delivery and set-up, scheduling delivery according to the customer’s needs – can make the difference in clinching the sale.

Donna and I just watched a Color Splash kitchen redesign for the Yemoto sisters – and it was a stunning transformation. If we didn’t live 250 miles south of San Francisco, where David films his home re-design projects, I’d love to have him come up with something uber-fabulous for us. We better start saving for new countertops and appliances now. I can feel a new project bubbling to the surface.

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