Wherever we turn, people are telling us that working from home and shopping on the Internet are becoming the new norms. Is that true? Not yet, but COVID-19 has required many of us to work out of our homes and forced us to navigate the virtual mall — the Internet.
Over the past five decades, showrooms have grown from necessary nuances to contributing profit centers. They have both helped and benefited from the story slowly leaking out that plumbing fixtures can be as elegant as Vladimir Kagan furniture creations.
When Richard Feynman read a white paper, he would read it until he fully understood the stated problem. Then he would stop, walk away from the document and try to solve the problem himself. Now, why would one, no matter how bright and accomplished, take the time to solve a problem that had already been solved?
You have taken great care to create and merchandise your showrooms to display every style and configuration of faucet available in countless finishes. You are confident that any customer walking through the front door will be able to sort through the many products and find the faucet just right for their job.
In the pandemic year 2020, your showroom has a velvet rope around it and is only open to those with appointments. All the while, it remains lovely inside; elegant products adorn every wall and talented sales people are at the ready.
A vendor creates the product and the distributor takes it to market; a simple, linear process that has evolved over many decades to best leverage the strengths of each player, and offset their weaknesses.
We have heard it a thousand times, marketing is now a dialogue; it is no longer just simply post and pray. When we post to our websites, Facebook or Instagram, we can see how many people visit, who they are and which of our products and stories they like.
Never miss an opportunity to remind your targeted market, your social media followers and all of those people who found gold on your website that you have displays right in their neighborhood.