Marketing Children's Furniture
Marketing children's furniture today is light years from what it was only a few years ago.
Consumers are more sophisticated and demanding. Technology has dramatically changed how we do business. And children's furniture retailers must meet the challenge by changing with the times.
The most significant change is that there is no one children's market. It's actually four distinctly different markets, each with it's own unique features and requirements. Recognizing and understanding these differences is the key to marketing children's furniture profitably.
The four children's markets are: Babies, Toddlers, ‘Tweens and Teens. Let's look at how to handle each one:
The Baby Market
Marketing to this audience should be directed at the parents and grandparents. These consumers, especially first-time parents, are looking for guidance and reassurance that they are making the right choices.
Because this is relatively new to them, they are hungry for information. Use this opportunity to provide helpful education about the variety of furniture products available and to match them to the customer's needs. As the furniture expert, you can point out the strengths of and differences between makers and models. These consumers are especially concerned with the safety features of the products.
The Toddler Market
The toddler segment's marketing is still directed to the parents and grandparents, but the message is different. The focus is on transition. This consumer needs help in solving the problem of children who have evolved from babies to toddlers. To facilitate this transition, a good idea is to incorporate familiar themes and characters that are readily recognizable by both parent and child.
These consumers are concerned about the problems that come up when they try to move the child from the security of the crib to a standard size bed. These problems include the child coming into the parent's bed, being afraid of the dark, and the difficulty of getting the child into a scheduled bedtime.
Marketing should be centered around making the bedtime and sleep time experience fun. Manufacturers have helped by utilizing familiar themes and characters like Barney, Sponge Bob, and Strawberry Shortcake, to name a few.
The 'Tween Market
The ‘tween segment (between toddler and teen) has only crystallized recently. These youngsters are surprisingly style-conscious and very prone to voicing preferences of their own. They will be involved in the purchase decision. Consequently, the marketing message is directed at both parent and child, with greater emphasis on fashion and styling and their appeal to this young audience.
The Teen Market
The teen market is the trickiest audience of them all. Teens have very strong likes and dislikes, which often frustrates the parents. Nevertheless, while parents will still be paying the bill, teens will make most of the decisions themselves.
The message, then, should be directed primarily at the teen. It should focus heavily on style and fashion—what's "in".
So, how do children's furniture retailers get their marketing messages across to this fragmented audience?
Unless you have unlimited advertising funds, a two-pronged advertising strategy will keep the costs down and give you a greater chance of success.
First, is the broad, general market approach, aimed at all facets of the children's market. The idea is to let consumers know that you have the solutions for every segment, as well as the gaps in between. The message is, "whatever you're looking for in children's furniture, we have it".
The second prong is to specifically target each of the four audience segments. This is not easy, because it involves finding the right media and possibly developing a database of these prospects. But, it's worth the effort because it's much more cost- efficient to pinpoint your target audience and tailor your message to them than to use wider—but wasteful—general advertising.
Now that you've established your marketing and advertising approach and have plenty of prospects flowing through your doors, you have to make sure the products they see correspond to the messages you've sent.
Have trendy, stylish merchandise on your floor because that's what grabs the consumer's attention and interest.
It's just as important, though, to feature functional, multi-use furniture that offers flexibility and allows for growth. Many manufacturers are responding to consumers' requests for one product that can be modified as the child grows or the needs of the room change.
One clear example of this is cribs. Most cribs only fill the needs of those in the baby stage; however, more and more manufacturers are offering convertible cribs. With slight changes, these cribs can metamorphose from baby furniture all the way to a bed for teens. To many consumers, the added value of lasting through several life stages becomes a powerful reason to buy.
Trends and fashions come and go, so along with the attention-grabbers, make sure you feature a core group of solid utilitarian products, so you have something for everybody.
When you recognize that the children's furniture market is really comprised of four distinct audiences, it's much easier to manage, not only from a marketing perspective, but also from a purchasing standpoint.
All of this leaves you with more time for the fun stuff, like talking to customers.