The Showroom’s Key Role in Creating the Market

We recently did a name brand recognition experiment in our showroom. It is an exercise we entertain every so often to teach our staff a valuable lesson about the kitchen and bath decorative plumbing industry. Over the period of a week, we asked every person who entered the showroom if they were familiar with the name Baldwin, a major manufacturer of door hardware.

Most of the customers we spoke with associated the name Baldwin with pianos. Other responses included the actors (Alec and William, specifically) and a town on Long Island in New York named Baldwin. Less than 1% of our customers – including designers, architects, builders/contractors, etc. – referenced the hardware company. I speculate that those who did most likely saw the Baldwin display in our showroom before they offered a response.

We also asked customers to identify the best plumbing product manufacturers that they were aware of. Surprisingly, with the exception of Kohler, there was not a single product manufacturer in the decorative plumbing and hardware industry that had brand-name recognition among our clients.

The point of our brand name exercises is to reinforce to our staff that our showroom is what makes the market.

The fact is, less than 10% of customers entering showrooms ask for a product by name. Certainly, customers come in with pictures from magazines and say “I want this.” But they don’t come in and say, “I want this faucet because it’s made by Company Y.”

Alternatively, customers may have been to a friend’s house and seen a product that they would like to have. Rarely, however, do they mention the product by name. Instead, they say “I saw this wonderful tub at my friend Sally Singer’s house. She said she purchased it here.” And we then look it up and identify the brand.

Even in the case of Kohler, which has had great success in branding its name, and spent large sums of money to promote that recognition, there’s not a showroom worth its salt that can’t easily convince a customer who requests a Kohler product to choose another brand the customer has never heard of.

All of this surveying of customers suggests that it’s not manufacturers driving this market, but brick and mortar showrooms. Yet sadly, the key role these showrooms play is too often overlooked.

Customer Categories

Most decorative plumbing and hardware showrooms have seven customer categories that they deal with: architects, designers, builders/general contractors, plumbing contractors, installers/locksmiths (if you sell door hardware), homeowners and repeat customers

Repeat customers are a separate category because they are by far the most valuable asset a kitchen and bath showroom can have. Repeat business is why we are in business. Without it, a showroom has little chance to survive.

Showrooms generate repeat business by treating customers the right way, providing superior service not just in word, but in deed, and having a virtual wonderland of product offerings that lets the imagination run wild. If you treat customers right, they return – and refer friends and co-workers. Conversely, if you don’t treat them right or take control of problems, they tell the world.

When repeat customers return to the showroom, they don’t come back asking for a specific product. They return because of the way they were treated and the way their project was handled.

Manufacturers attempting to achieve brand-name recognition have an almost insurmountable battle on their hands because most customers really don’t know what they want when they enter a showroom. That doesn’t mean manufacturers stop advertising to the design community – but they should want and expect a better return on investment. Better returns are achieved by partnering with the showrooms that have superior knowledge of local market conditions and advertising mediums that generate the best results.