Ekornes "Charity of Choice" Raises $280K-Plus

February 15, 2010  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Community/Charitable Support on February 16, 2010

Norwegian seating manufacturer Ekornes Inc., whose U.S. headquarters are in Somerset, N.J., generated more than $280,000 in contributions to various charitable organizations through its second annual Charity of Choice promotion through its dealer partners.

"We are extremely pleased that 73 percent of our dealers chose to participate in this promotion," said President Peter Bjerregaard regarding the seven-week promotion. "When we can create a program that will help sell recliners and benefit organizations in need, it€™s clearly a win-win situation for everyone."

The promotion ran in North America Nov. 27-Jan. 18, and asked consumers to donate $50 to the charity of the dealer's choice. In return the consumer received $200 off the purchase of a Stressless recliner. Ekornes and the dealers shared in the cost of the product discount.

"Ekornes Inc. sold over 5,550 recliners, for a total of $4.3 million during the promotional period," Bjerregaard said. "This is one of few times of the year that we run price-driven consumer promotions and it has exceeded our expectations."

The promotion was supported with national television advertising, in-store POP and advertising support materials for the dealers, including print ads, flyers and graphics for dealer Web sites.

"December is a hard time to get customers to come in," said Jeanne Kero, of Chelsea, Mich.-based Merkel Furniture. "I thought this promotion could be a waste of money and didn't put much advertising towards it. To my surprise, with the national Stressless advertising and the good will of our customers, we were able to donate $1,500 to Food Gatherers, our county food bank. We profited by selling 29 chairs. We even had one donation without a purchase.

"We were able to supply approximately 600 neighbors with a plate of food."