Nourison Unveils Interactive Kiosks For Dealers
Nourison, a leading importer and manufacturer of oriental rugs, headquartered in Saddle Brook, NJ, recently unveiled an interactive kiosk. The kiosk program, developed in collaboration with First Wave, Inc., allows dealers to lease a kiosk to provide consumers with instantaneous access to a virtual inventory of thousands of rugs.
“The Nourison kiosk is an excellent addition to any dealer’s showroom,” said Thomas Dust, Nourison’s Director of Multimedia. “It allows a consumer to browse 46 of Nourison’s collections and search through them by size, color and style, or any combination of criteria.”
The Nourison kiosk is easily updated remotely via phone lines so the latest rug collections and styles are always featured. Additionally, the kiosk automatically runs a customizable attract loop during periods of inactivity. This allows dealers to display sales promotions, store hours or other information. The kiosk also provides reports on consumer preferences.
“The dealer instantly expands their inventory by thousands of rugs while giving up only two square feet of showroom space when they install the kiosk,” said Dust.
Display Introduces Ambi-Pur Liquifresh
Sara Lee Household & Body Care is using this 48 ct. pre-pack to promote Ambi-Pur Liquifresh two-in-one Air Freshener and Bowl Cleaner. The modular unit has a scratch `n sniff label which allows consumers to try the product before they buy.
The pre-pack display has been well accepted at food, mass, and drug outlets. The display has helped LiquiFresh drive trial through secondary locations, and has helped gain distribution in retailers where it could not obtain shelf placement.
The Ambi-Pur display was created by Oxford Innovations, Division of Tim-Bar Corp., New Oxford, PA.
Burpee Features Modular Spring Tray Display
This unique, modular spring tray display system helps to enhance the Burpee brand and its position within the seed industry by providing a strong, well-merchandised image.
The display’s modularity enables Burpee to meet the needs of smaller as well as high volume retailers by reducing the number of 20” x 30” trays. Since the spring trays deliver product to the front of the display as it sells through, it is a truly consumer friendly merchandising unit. This, along with the ability to provide more sales per square foot, has made the Burpee Modular Spring Tray Display a hit among retailers this 2001 selling season.
The Burbee Modular Spring Tray Display was produced by Triangle Display Group, Philadelphia, PA.
Carpet One Debuts Selectafloor System
Carpet One has launched “Selectafloor,” a simplified selling system that makes shopping for floor covering an easy and enjoyable experience for the consumer, which in turn translates into increased sales for member showrooms.
“Research shows that consumers frequently find shopping for floor covering confusing. In fact, 25% of people who start to buy carpet stop and do not buy anything because they are overwhelmed,” said Dean Marcarelli, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Carpet One, North America’s largest flooring retailer located in Manchester, NH. “With Selectafloor we have done something no other floor covering company has ever done—designed an in-store merchandising system from the ground up to meet consumers’ needs.”
The Selectafloor system organizes shopping into three easy elements: Lifestyle, Product Promise and Color. Recognizing that most consumers are looking for a carpet to meet a particular need, Selectafloor first points the shopper to displays of one of six carpet styles: Berber, Casual, Traditional, Formal, Trendsetters, and Home & Office. Photography, signage and simple copy points explain each Lifestyle category. A new color-coded Product Promise system also allows the consumer to define the level of warranty protection they want: Titanium, Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze. In addition, Selectafloor organizes Carpet One’s portfolio of exclusive collections and brands to highlight the 11,000 colors available to suit any taste.
Lifestyle, Product Promise and Color come together in sleek new display units, each fixture merchandising a specific type of carpet. Vertically hung sample cards provide a dynamic, visual presentation of the products, with a color coded warranty strip, swatches, technical information, brand and style, and room scene photography highlighting the carpet type. The cards are easy to view. Additional photography, signage and p.o.p. materials throughout the showroom further educate consumers and assist in the sales process.
Sears Opens “Tool Territory” Nationwide
Sears, Roebuck and Co. is introducing “Tool Territory,” which offers Craftsman and 72 other brands, as well as tool experts and interactive displays, in a customer-friendly environment. Tool Territory departments average about 10,000 sq. ft. and feature 18,000 tools in all. Special sections are devoted to carpentry, woodworking, mechanics, and general-purpose tools, as well as specialty power tools for lawn/garden use.
“Sears goal is to be the tool authority—America’s complete tool store,” said George Kurkowski Sears Marketing Manager for Tool Territory. “But, we also want Tool Territory to be a fun place to shop. Staffed by friendly and knowledgeable associates, we provide an attractive, well-organized shopping environment.” Tool Territory’s ad campaign highlights the fun and interactive features of the new tool department—calling it a “playground for men.”
Housewares Record Sales Gains
There was a 7.3% growth in dollar sales for total housewares in 2000, approximately the same increase seen the previous year, according to NPD HomeTrak, from The NPD Group, Inc., Port Washington, NY. The number reflects year-end data for the home products industries, including cookware, bakeware, dinnerware, microwaveware, flatware, and beverageware, sold in mass merchant and department store channels. As the housewares industry gained as a whole, each category within the industry also gained in dollar sales for the year.
The housewares category with the biggest increase in 2000 was dinnerware, which saw a 13.2% dollar gain over 1999. Quality casual china and formal fine china were up 18.1% and 11.9% respectively. Cookware, the largest of NPD’s housewares categories, posted strong 2000 dollar sales growth. While the total cookware category grew almost 8% in dollars, stainless steel cookware surged by 12%. The product category with the smallest increase was beverageware, which grew 2.0% in dollar sales.
GE Launches Profile Arctica Refrigerator
GE Appliances has launched the GE Profile Arctica side-by-side refrigerator. Its features include: The CustomCool ExpressChill setting, which cools foods and beverages in minutes, not hours. ExpressThaw thaws meats and other freezer items in hours, not days. Larry Johnson, CEO, GE Appliances, said, “People want to save time. GE has answered the ‘need for speed’ with our exclusive refrigeration technology.”
Coffee-mate Runs Contest With Linens ‘N Things
To promote a packaging makeover, Nestle’s Carnation Coffee-mate non-dairy creamer has partnered with national retailer, Linens ‘N Things, to launch the “Redecorate with Coffee-mate” Contest. Coffee drinkers will have the opportunity to transform their favorite coffee-drinking spot in their home with a redecorating makeover. Over $38,000 in prizes will be awarded to 17 winners.
“In addition to making Coffee-mate easier to use, we also wanted to make it easier for consumers to enhance their overall coffee-drinking experience,” said Terri Haywood, Communications Manager for Nestle USA Beverage Division.
Thomasville Kitchen Cabinetry Lifestyle Galleries
This display was designed to support Thomasville Cabinetry’s brand marketing strategy, which emphasized premium environments. The unit helped consumers plan and self-select their ideal kitchen. The design marketed kitchen cabinetry by aiming specific styles of décor towards individual consumer lifestyles and décor tastes. It presented whole kitchen solutions to the consumer instead of just cabinets by presenting samples of cabinet doors, suggested cabinet hardware and photography of available wood colors, suggested wallpapers and coordinating paint colors.End use photography showed suggested accessories and available cabinet options. This display, which won a Gold OMA in the Home and Garden Category, was created by Cormark, 1951 Touhy Avenue, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007.
Create-A-Castle. The base of this display featured the customer's wallcovering product to #200 Bleached, White/OS, B-flute corrugated. The graphic panel formed the back of the display. The customer product was laminated to the center of the display to create the castle tower. Created by Oxford Innovations, Division of Tim-Bar Corporation, 201 S. College Avenue, P.O. Box 189, New Oxford, PA 17350-0189. SILVER AWARD.
Nutrite Plant Fertilizer Floor Display. The display featured an indoor plant fertilizer, a product difficult to merchandise and the display had to allow immediate product association to build product awareness. The display had to be impactful and carry a small footprint to gain entry into the plant section of stores. The giant rotating flower pot with colorful flower images gained attention and awareness. Created by Point 1 Displays Inc., 5454 Cote de Liesse, Quebec, Canada H4P 1A5. SILVER AWARD.
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