National Home Furnishings Month Promotion Set

July 28, 2010  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Business Strategy on July 29, 2010

World Market Center Las Vegas will sponsor a home mortgage sweepstakes as part of September's National Home Furnishings Month promotion.

The 10-day retail promotion and sales event, championed by World Market Center Las Vegas and endorsed by eight leading trade associations, will occur Sept. 18-26.

To generate retailer participation in the second annual National Home Furnishings Month, WMCLV is sponsoring a nationwide consumer sweepstakes that will liberate one homeowner from paying his or her mortgage for one year. The sweepstakes runs throughout the month of September and will get extensive online promotion, and the support of participating stores.

Participating retailers can opt-in to be a store where consumers enter to win the grand prize at no cost. Retailers are encouraged to promote this contest in their advertising as well as take advantage of the many free promotional marketing tools WMCLV is offering in support of the program.

"In our second year sponsoring National Home Furnishings Month, we wanted to eliminate all barriers for entry for retailers by developing a sweepstakes that we believe will be truly valuable to consumers in today's marketplace," said Robert Maricich, president and CEO of World Market Center Las Vegas. "This promotion hopes to lighten what can be a hefty burden on today's families while giving them to the freedom to rejuvenate their home with new furnishings. To make it truly turn-key, we are offering creative content and free tools for retailers to 'plug and play' this campaign with their own brand and in their own markets which, in essence, will multiply the collective voice and effect we can have on consumers buying for their home.€

Retailers around the country can run the sweepstakes as their own and promote it in their advertising to increase store visits and capture sales. Participating stores will receive a unique URL that their customers can use to enter the sweepstakes on-line after visiting their store; the point of entry will branded with that store€™s information and logo.

The complimentary advertising tool kit provided by WMCLV includes branding and usage guidelines with public relations ideas, print ads, in-store POS displays, an e-mail template, in-store sweepstakes banner and more. Stores may also opt-in to the online Retailer Locator tool to generate added impressions and web traffic. Retailers who are also participating in the sweepstakes will get a premier listing on the Store Locator.

Retailers can sign up online for National Home Furnishings Month and the Home Mortgage Sweepstakes, or while at the NHFM kiosk in World Market Center C Atrium or C-496 during next week's Las Vegas Market.

WMCLV has also extended a partnership with Sale-in-a-Box, America€™s premier supplier of sales event materials for the retail industry, to ensure the promotion toolkit is easy to adopt for store owners and marketers. Sale-in-a-Box will produce printed materials for retailers who want to activate the NHFM campaign in their store.

Created by WMCLV, the Is it Home Yet? advertising campaign and NHFM was an industry-wide initiative that encouraged consumers to celebrate the idea of "home" and refresh their living spaces through new home furnishings purchases. In addition to the Home Mortgage Sweepstakes, the Is It Home Yet? Web site features advice from top designers with home makeover tips and trend information. Exclusive information about sales and promotions at participating retailers across the country is also available online.

In its inaugural year, World Market Center said more than 7,000 retailers nationwide participated in the program and were included on the site€™s store locator section. Nearly 2,000 retailers downloaded the National Home Furnishings Month Retailer Toolkit last year, which equipped them with marketing tools to support the initiative in their advertising programs.

The average age of consumers who engaged with the inaugural campaign was 49.9 years old. Of all consumer respondents, which skewed 2:1 female, 78 percent said they planned to make home furnishings purchases in 2010, with the living room ranked as the first choice of rooms to be refurnished in their home.

This all-industry marketing initiative is endorsed by National Home Furnishings Association, Western Home Furnishings Association, Home Furnishings Independents Association, Sustainable Furnishings Council, American Society of Furniture Designers(http://www.asfd.com/), Specialty Sleep Association, Women in the Home Industries Today and International Sleep Products Association.