HOME GENTER MERGHANT

BILL FISHMAN

Bill Fishman & Affiliates

11650 lberia Place innovations in marketing are San Diego, Ca. 92128 phenomenal; however, a buying decision is no longer the buyer's decision. At the

AS MORE and more contract typical major home center the buyer is

Illumberyards convert into do-it- "helped" by his merchandise manager, yourself home centers in rural areas and the controller, the sales promotion neighborhood communities and the manager, the marketing director, the giants continue to invade the urban areas computer, the district supervisor and the along the major thoroughfares, area manager at the store level. manufacturers and distributors may find Five years ago the average dealer had they are asked to play a new role. never heard of the expression "stock offer of collateral services: prepricing' advertising, circulars, signing, display' store layout programs, sales training, and employee indentification.

The do-it-yourself retailer now recognizes his role as a purchasing agent for his customer needs, not as an outlet for the manufacturer, the mill, and asks the distributor for more help than ever before. Look at what it takes to fill the bag of the salesman now calling on this new breed of retailer. It must contain how-to-displays. POP displays can no longer just look pretty. They must show and tell. They are the silent and maybe not-so-silent salesmen which give the homeowner the confidence to do the job himself. How-1o displays can show stepby-step instructions on how to hang the door, or how to proPerlY measure for window replacements, or how to assemble a tub enclosure.

The bag must contain clinics and demonstrations. (I define in-store demonstrations as a short-term pitch that tells how a product is used.) These demonstrations are held at high traffic periods in main-aisle locations within the store. The retailer knows that a demonstration is his best media for product promotions.

A clinic is a two-hour session, off the floor, that teaches the homeowner how to

It's not price alone that attracts dealers

The retailer of the 80's, the big movers keeping unit'" Today, SKU and "open of building material products, have to buy" are branded on his rump. Every highly sophisticated systems and pro- retailer has his floor totally covered with cedures, each with his own unique opera- display and inventory. Almost every new tional problems. Yet few suppliers are item introduced to a store requires the familiar with all the decisions that have to discontinuance of an existing SKU. And be made before a retailer buys a new pro- today, through trade associations and induct or changes a product line. More than dustry conferences, the "Mom and Pop" just the quantity to order, the merchant is lumberyards and hardware stores have concerned with coordinating deliveries, available to them more professionalism promotions, displays, signing, pricing, and more expertise than ever before to sales training, automatic re-ordering, direct them in their retailing operation. terms, and so on.

The day ofthe hip shooter is over. The to today's successful suppliers. It's their

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