Showing Home Entertainment Options

In the sales profession, the challenge of tapping alternative markets is never ending. Such is the dilemma for kitchen and bath professionals: How to branch into areas of the home outside the kitchen and bath, and how to display such possibilities in the showroom. With American families investing more time and money in their homes, family gathering spaces hold a wealth of opportunity.

So what exactly is a "family gathering space?" Maybe it's a great room, encompassing the dining area and kitchen as well as the informal family gathering area. Perhaps it's the comfortable nook tucked out of view in the back part of the home. It could even be the "bonus" room over the garage, or a finished basement "recreation room." No matter where it is, the family gathering space is a place for sharing time with loved ones, doing things we enjoy: watching a movie, surfing the Internet, playing video games or losing ourselves in that great American pastime television.

Display Guidelines
For this reason, the built-in home entertainment center is a great addition to a showroom display area.

Perhaps you've shied away from addressing this market because audio and video technology keep changing. While this is true, it's still possible to take advantage of the possibilities within the home entertainment market. To best suit your customers' needs, stay informed about the latest technology and consumer trends, and design your displays to fit your local market.

To get the maximum impact from your home entertainment investment, keep a few rules in mind when planning your displays:

• Know your market. As always, this rule is of utmost importance when considering changes/additions to your showroom's product and service offerings. Do you have the customers who will be willing to spend the money a home entertainment package requires? Do you have the talent and/or product offerings in-house, or can you partner with a home entertainment design specialist to deliver what your customers want?
• Wherever possible, incorporate home entertainment options into your showroom. Ideally, at least one or two displays should be dedicated solely to home entertainment. But, knowing how precious space usually is, modifying existing displays or reception areas to include functional home entertainment options might be more realistic. Consider installing a plasma screen TV (perhaps on loan from your home theater partner, see below) in a multi-use area so that it can be used for video conferencing, staff training or consumer product education. A similar effect on a smaller (and more budget-friendly) scale can be accomplished with a 32-inch TV housed within a wall storage configuration or an even smaller TV within a kitchen display.
• At the very least, display the basics. To effectively display basic home entertainment for the entry-level price point, consider a stand-alone configuration that includes a tall cabinet to house a tube television, stackable components and CD/DVD media storage. It could include additional cabinets that flank the main unit, but not necessarily. While the TV should be concealed behind solid pocket doors, components should be covered by glass to facilitate remote control function. Other options to consider are a cabinet-mounted TV swivel and speaker-cloth door inserts.

The most important thing to remember is that customers at this price point will shop around in an "apples to apples" comparison at kitchen and bath showrooms as well as office supply stores and stereo or appliance outlets. Therefore, home entertainment units must be priced right to capture this market.

n Set your business apart by offering options in product and design. Because customers at the mid-range price point work closely with the designer to create their own space, competition from office or appliance stores is not as common. However, it is worthwhile to display and offer options that allow flexibility and functionality. An example might be a trim kit that can be used to accommodate larger tube television units, should the customer choose to upgrade within a few years. Little "extras" such as this give customers peace of mind and increased value for their investment.