Daily News Archive
Brought to you by Home Furnishings Business
August 1,
2011 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in Display on August 2, 2011
Wolf Furniture has selected Crystorama Lighting to help merchandise its 11 retail showrooms.
Crystorama will provide chandeliers, pendant lights and other fixtures for Wolf Furniture's 410,000-plus square feet of showroom space in stores located in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The selection includes traditional crystal chandeliers, youth lighting and distinctive lighting for modern interiors.
In addition to selling through lighting showrooms, Crystorama caters to the design trade and retailers that focus on design services.
"It's validating to have a respected retailer like Wolf Furniture choose Crystorama as one of its merchandising partners," said Brad Kleinberg, president of Crystorama Lighting, Westbury, N.Y. "Wolf Furniture puts a tremendous emphasis on the customer experience. Its stores are designed to recreate that feeling of home with carefully selected lighting and accessories that help shoppers visualize how they can transform their own spaces."
"Adding a Crystorama chandelier to one of our lifestyle vignettes makes the entire display come alive," said Joanne Neff, a buyer at Wolf Furniture. "We find that Crystorama's lighting fixtures enhance the furniture and create a home-like atmosphere that our customers appreciate. It also helps them make better buying decisions because theyre able to visualize the furnishings in an intimate room setting."
Though Wolf Furniture is not a lighting retailer, its customers have the option of buying the lighting from the displays or special ordering from the Crystorama catalog.
"Sometimes shoppers fall in love with an entire look we have created in one of our stores, and it's important that we can offer them the option of one-stop shopping," Neff said. "Crystorama is able to fulfill those requests."
August 1,
2011 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Bedding on August 2, 2011
The International Sleep Products Association has announced the "first ever" university level Certificate in Product Safety Analysis program for sleep products.
Developed in partnership with the Center for Supply Chain Management Studies at the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University and ADK Information Services, the program is intended for product safety managers and other professionals involved with product safety management and compliance.
The course will be held Dec. 5-6 at Saint Louis University's John Cook School of Business in St. Louis.
This course features industry experts in the areas of product risk assessment, compliance and regulation, and supply chain management. It allows a unique networking opportunity for product safety managers to meet their colleagues and discuss issues and current trends in the product safety field.
"ISPA is offering its members a unique benefit through this program," said Ik-Whan Kwon, director of the SLU's Center for Supply Chain Management Studies. "The course will give mattress industry product safety managers and others a broader view of U.S. and international product safety practices and trends at the university level, while providing insight into risk assessment and supply chain management."
ISPA President Ryan Trainer added: "Mattress manufacturers have a long history of being proactive on product safety issues. We congratulate Saint Louis University for developing the first university level course in this field, and are proud to offer a customized version of this program specifically tailored to the needs of ISPA members and the rest of the mattress industry. The course will focus on best practices developed by a number of other industries in designing and manufacturing consumer products. ISPA members can use this knowledge to develop better and more efficient methods for assessing product safety issues and complying with relevant safety standards."
For more information on this program, or to register, e-mail ISPA or ADK Information Services, or call 215.589.9231.
August 1,
2011 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Mattresses on August 2, 2011
"Americas Strongest Man," Derek Poundstone, is now endorsing Paramount Sleep's Heavy Duty mattress brand.
Poundstone, also known as the "World's Strongest Cop," has won five major Strong Man titles including the Fortissimus, The Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic, The World Strongest Man Super Series, and America's Strongest Man. Poundstone also serves as a full-time police officer in Naugatuck, Conn. The son of an Air Force sergeant, he travels the world as an official spokesperson for soy protein on behalf of Solae, and also serves as a Global Ambassador for Special Olympics International.
"Weve designed the Heavy Duty brand of mattresses for hard working Americans like Derek Poundstone," said Richard Fleck, chief marketing officer of Paramount Sleep. "Heavy Duty mattresses are constructed to provide a solid night's sleep, and the materials we use in HD mattresses are tailored for maximum support and durability."
When not training for his next Strong Man competition or enforcing the law, Derek Poundstone is extolling the virtues of "Poundstone Power"--living a high-performance lifestyle through diet, exercise and time managementto people around the world.
"With my busy schedule, it's important that I get the best nights sleep possible," said Poundstone. "Paramount's Heavy Duty mattress allows me to do that. Whenever I return home from traveling the world, I know that the most comfortable mattress ever made is waiting for me."
August 1,
2011 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Advertising on August 2, 2011
Walter E. Smith Furniture and celebrity cook Paula Deen have teamed for a television ad campaign promoting her "Down Home" furniture collection with Universal.
The new tongue-in-cheek campaign debuting this on all major local networks in Walter E. Smithe Furniture's Chicago market. Deen's collection will be available exclusively in Chicago at all 11 Walter E. Smithe's locations beginning this month.
"We are extremely proud to be the exclusive provider of Paula Deen's new collection of furniture in the Chicago area," said Tim Smithe, chief marketing officer and one of the owners of Walter E. Smithe. "We think this is a great line of comfortable, down-home products that perfectly matches what our customers are always asking for--furniture that fits their lifestyle. We absolutely love Paula and are thrilled to be 'in bed' with her in this new partnership."
The first ad, which debuted Monday, features Deen tucking the three Smithe brothers into bed. This initial spot will promote Deen's custom bedroom furniture in the first in a sequence of new ads featuring Deen and the Smithe brothers promoting the new "Down Home" line. The new ad can also be viewed on the Walter E. Smithe Web site(http://www.smithe.com/). Three additional ads will be unveiled throughout the year, each featuring a new part of the home including the kitchen, porch and living room. All of the clever ads showcase the humor and down-home charm of the Smithe brothers and Deen.
In addition, the Smithe brothers will release a series of outtakes via social media that capture the hilarity and spontaneity of the shoot, which took place in Savannah earlier this summer. The humorous new ad campaign is designed to create buzz around the exclusive launch of the collection, letting viewers know they can "bring comfort home" by visiting any Walter E. Smithe retail location.
"I just loved every second of hopping under the covers with those adorable Smithe brothers," said Paula Deen. "We had so much fun shooting these ads and I'm absolutely delighted to finally share them with all of Chicago. I think this is a match made in heaven."
July 31,
2011 by in UnCategorized
By Home Furnishings Business in Internet on August 1, 2011
The Western Home Furnishings Association has just launched its new Web site.
To celebrate the new Web launch, WHFA is hosting contests throughout the month of August for site visitors and is giving away fun promotional prizes this week at Las Vegas Furniture Market in the Retail Resource Center, WMC-C496.
WHFA partnered with Grey Suit Retail, a Web site design company specializing in the home furnishings industry, to create a dynamic 2.0 site that makes it easier for retailers and industry partners to find the information they are looking for-quickly. Visitors to the new WHFA Web site will notice a brand new home page, WHFA.org features intuitive navigation, expanded content, a top-notch store and more resources.
Newly expanded sections of the Web site include an industry calendar that allows visitors to save industry dates directly to their Google Calendar, an Article Library that allows visitors to comment on, Like or Tweet specific articles and readers can now flip through a digital issue of the Western Retailer magazine. The Web site still contains favorites from the past, such as information on WHFA's programs and services, a Members Only area, business resources and more.
The largest overhaul comes in the brand new WHFA Store, which sells light bulbs, warehouse and touch-up products to home furnishings retailers at reduced truckload pricing. Launching in early August, the new store will be easy to navigate and will allow retailers to email product suggestions to other co-workers, rate products and check out in a few simple steps.
"With this redesign we have created a website that is easier for retailers to navigate along with providing even more valuable industry resources and tools. This new site delivers a wide assortment of useful information in an easy to use format," said WHFA Executive Director Sharron Bradley. "Partnering with Grey Suit Retail was wonderful. They were able to create a great shopping cart for our WHFA Store that will make shopping for warehouse, touch-up and light bulb products even easier."
WHFA is giving away free prizes throughout the month of August. Daily prizes will be given to visitors who visit the www.WHFA.org home page and add their information to "Join Our Mailing List." WHFA is also giving away a Grand Prize, which is a nook color eBook, to one winner on Sept. 1. To participate, visit www.WHFA.org and locate the new article titled "WHFA Website Contest." Follow the instructions in the article and be entered to win.