The Futon Shop People

The FUTON Shop carries that passion for quality control into their retail showrooms. The sales staff communicates pride in the products they offer because they appreciate all the effort it takes to produce a superior product. “Our Director of Retail Operations, Scott Soulman, started as a salesman with us, became the number one salesman, then a top store manager,” continued Ray. “He is the consummate professional, he communicates quality in his salesmanship, his futon store and inventory control were always pristine, and he now shares that with our other managers.” There is a two-week training booklet given to each new employee covering product knowledge, merchandise availability, the computer system and steps in the selling cycle. However, the key ingredient to help staff become professionals that can communicate sincere pride in the futons they promote is the pride they bring with them. Having long time managers (the company average is 4 years) like Karen Eldridge in Santa Rosa (5 years), Don Leyden in Sacramento (4 years), Rob Schwartz in San Mateo (5 years) Trent Garrison in San Jose (5 years) and most of the other managers help in keeping continuity. “These people know what it takes to make a shop work. They keep their shops looking great and well organized, offer great customer service and are good at developing a team atmosphere with their staff,” said Ray. The FUTON Shop compensates successful managers with a profit sharing bonus plan that promotes teamwork, store performance and inventory control. In the corporate office, Chief Controller Violeta Galang is a central figure for company moral. “She makes everyone feel like family even in a company of over 120 people,” said Diamond. “You can have all the systems in place, but you still need a motivated team to make it work,” she added.

Marketing

(Picture: Tina Slonek... crafting the look)
As I became familiar with the depth and breadth of the company’s manufacturing capabilities, my focus on the fact that The FUTON Shop was ultimately a retailer became a bit blurry. Here was a retail outfit with nineteen futon stores, nineteen store managers and staff, a fully integrated, real-time telecommunications system, and a self administered, GPS tracked, distribution fleet operating out of a very large, well stocked warehouse. Add to that a custom futon and standard cover manufacturing plant, a futon mattress factory being supplied by its own batting facility, and an off site American Oak futon frame factory. Running any one of these individual divisions would be a full time job in and of itself, making the vertical integration model simple yet complex. The bottom line is you do everything yourself so you can internally control the quality and flow of goods. You can also offer your customers a better value because, as the manufacturer, you have eliminated the middleman. The hard part is doing all of the many different kinds of jobs well. The FUTON Shop does just that, and their marketing and advertising is no exception.

Tina Slonek is on the phone as we enter her office. “Tina does all our print, radio, and TV ads, brochures, point of purchase, and signage,” said Diamond. Tina’s office walls are covered with ads, newspaper insets, and point of sale collateral. “We all work together on marketing,” said Diamond. “We are making a major investment in promoting our futon stores, and Tina is the key creative.”

In principle, The FUTON Shop spends about 10 percent of their gross sales in advertising. “Our basic approach is that you promote price in print, image on radio, and do them both on TV.” Diamond said. The basic look is pure traditional furniture store. The company produces a catalog that features most of its futons in full room vignettes and it maintains a fully interactive web site.

Another great tool that Slonek produces are large format (40” x 60”) printed posters. “These posters are a great way to feature vignettes of our best sellers. They are very dramatic,” Slonek said.

“Marketing, merchandising and advertising are vital to the image and volume of a retail store,” said Diamond. “If you ask anyone in the Bay area about futons they know about The FUTON Shop. We have made an impression in this market,” she said.

The Future is So Bright

The FUTON Shop is still expanding into new markets. With stores in LA and Sacramento, and with plans for more expansion in the future Diamond and her team are succeeding where many others have failed. They are also expanding their mind share with furniture buyers via an aggressive marketing plan that includes educating consumers that futon furniture is real furniture for the home. “In our mature markets, we are currently averaging about $210 for just the futon mattress,” said Steve Ray. “And that average includes all units sold at all sizes.” Diamond added that over sixty percent of total sales for futon frames are considered to be in the high-end portion of the market. “We want people to understand that we are in the contemporary furniture business,” said Diamond.

The system is in place, the stores are stocked, the sales staff is trained and ready to sell, the media—radio, newspapers, and TV - are telling The FUTON Shop story to the masses, and right now the future looks so bright they will have to wear shades.

This is the third futon retailer we have featured in our recent issues. If you are, or know of a futon retail dealer we should feature in an upcoming issue let us know who they are via mail. - Editor.

FL