Furniture Retailers Sign on for "Is It Home Yet?"

September 1, 2010  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Advertising on September 2, 2010

Over 500 furniture retailers are ready for the 2009 National Home Furnishings Month Is It Home Yet? consumer campaign, sponsored by World Market Center Las Vegas.

This year's promotion, running throughout September, features a Home Mortgage Sweepstakes, which will allow the winning homeowner to live mortgage-free for a year. Retailers can customize the sweepstakes as their own through a unique URL and collateral materials in their stores.

In addition to Is It Home Yet? retail participants, some 8,000 retail stores also are signed up to take advantage of the store locator on www.homeyet.com.

"National Home Furnishings Month was created to unite retailers, providing them with the necessary tools to inspire a new-found customer enthusiasm," said World Market Center Las Vegas President and CEO Robert Maricich. "We believe the new addition of the Home Mortgage Sweepstakes for 2010 is compelling for both retailers and consumers, providing an exciting opportunity for families to ask themselves what long dreamed-of items they would purchase for their homes if they had the extra money in their pockets each month. Thus far the campaign's success has been evident by the strong support we are seeing from retailers nationwide. From Honolulu to Houston and up and down the east coast, retailers are quickly signing up their stores to promote the Home Mortgage Sweepstakes in-store this September.€

In addition to offering the Home Mortgage Sweepstakes in their stores to help drive traffic and adding their store information to the homeyet.com store locator, participating retailers have access to various ads and promotional tools, compliments of World Market Center Las Vegas.

Aside from retailer's own media commitments, the campaign will be promoted through MarthaStewart.com as well as through a dedicated Facebook channel and a high volume of ads on Facebook that will be hyper-targeted to reach millions of engaged users, those with the highest affinity toward decorating and purchasing for their home. Consumers can become fans of the Is It Home Yet? Facebook fan page where they can get trend updates and interact through activities including a "What's Your Style Design Quiz." The campaign's Web site also features new content including home makeover tips and trend information.

The Is It Home Yet? initiative also encourages retailers to offer special values and incentives during the 10-day sales event in running Sept. 18-26. So far, more than 300 retailers plan to hold NHFM sales which consumers can discover on the store locator when searching by zip code.

Ashley Furniture Homestores are active participants in 2010 NHFM campaign with more than 60 dealers representing 178 Ashley stores signed up nationally. In addition, Ashley marketing specialists have been recruiting key accounts to get other retailers involved and have initiated direct mail as well as store signage, in addition to on-line and television marketing to support the national sale.

One example of an Ashley account getting involved in NHFM is Honolulu-based C.S. Wo & Sons who in addition to offering special coupons, will be giving away two $1,500 shopping sprees state wide.

"We are excited about the Home Mortgage Sweepstakes and are happy to be able to pull our retailers into a national campaign like Is It Home Yet? that is doing something to help brand our industry," said William Herrmann, vice president of sales, West Coast, for Ashley Furniture. "This promotion provides us with additional possibilities for what we can offer during National Home Furnishings Month to be able to  really turn it into a nationwide event."

Dave Fletcher of One Stop Home Furnishings in Camas, Wash., said there are a number of reasons his store is participating in NHFM.

"First, the Home Mortgage Sweepstakes offers a unique prize that we think will create a lot of interest and attention," Fletcher said. "Who wouldn't love to take a year off from making their monthly mortgage payments, especially during these challenging economic times? In addition, the timing of the sweepstakes is perfect. September is the kick-off to the fall selling season, and we think that this event will help bring more traffic into the store."

Retailers who want to participate in NHFM can still do so at no charge through the end of the month. For more information, visit the campaign Web site or e-mail here.