The High Point Furniture Market, like the Dallas Lighting Market, occurs twice a year on basically the same schedule. It is a frantic week for buyers like myself, but an even busier month for the furniture manufacturers and sales reps who have to prepare for the onslaught. I know from past experience how grueling it can be for the manufacturers, importers, and distributors that maintain showrooms (someday I'll blog about my short tenure as Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for one of our major suppliers).
There are also lots of educational opportunities for buyers at the market. The National Home Furnishings Association is one of our important industry trade groups that provides resources and seminars to industry members, and maintains a big presence at the market. If buyers have the time, there are some great opportunities to learn more about marketing, merchandising, finance and retail operations. There are also speakers (I spoke with the Goddess herself, Martha Stewart, at the last one!) and entertainment.
During the October 2008 High Point Furniture Market, I was a guest speaker at one of NHFA's seminars, presenting with Mike Lorenc from Google regarding our use of Google AdWords to promote the business. We gave a basic overview of how other businesses could also use AdWords. Maybe I just gave ammunition to our competition, but I don't think so. This article appeared in the National Home Furnishings Association's NHFA Retailer magazine, March 2009 issue (page 51). This nice article summarizes how we use Google AdWords and how we measure the success of that program. Our business would not exist in its current form without programs like AdWords, and the ability to analyze the return on investment for these programs is especially important during slower sales cycles such as the one we are in right now.
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