Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM JUNE 2021 54 P rimeTime has been a staple for Nationwide Marketing Group for many years, dating back to the early 1990s. Furniture and bedding has a more recent history for the group, with Nationwide getting pretty serious about the channel within the last 15 years. At that time, we took a hard look at the curriculum and how we were going to get our message out on the bedding side of things. That resulted in the formation of Mattress University, which after being introduced 10 years ago quickly became a PrimeTime staple. That event has evolved to include not just getting vendors on stage but actually getting members on stage to talk with each other about bedding and retail strategies. It's become a must-see event at every PrimeTime. To be quite honest, though, with all of the attention around Mattress University, the Nationwide Furniture and Bedding team was doing a disservice to the members by not holding a similar type of event for the furniture category. Now, we know that the furniture and bedding industries and the brands within them operate at different levels and under different market conditions. That reality made it difficult to really wrap our arms around how to bring the Mattress University experience to the furniture side of things. Then came our second Virtual PrimeTime this past March, and with the virtual show format, we had the opportunity to try and do things a little differently. So we said, "You know what? Let's launch our furniture platform here at the show, just to see what type of participation and feedback we get." From the outset, we knew we wanted to create an event that resonated with furniture dealers as much as Mattress University has with bedding dealers, although we knew it couldn't be an exact copy. We discussed bringing different furniture vendors on stage to talk about the industry, or maybe diving into supply chain and raw materials issues. But then we leaned into our mission, which has always been about putting the members front and center, and we decided to create essentially a roundtable discussion with our retailers. That's the Furniture Forum origin story. We thought we had something when we told our Furniture Advisory Council about the idea. And their response was pure excitement. But even so, when you're dealing with virtual events you just don't know what type of response you're going to have. So, when we had to expand registration to include more members than we initially planned for, it became clear that we'd struck a chord. Still, expectations were tempered, because the Furniture Forum was still so new. We had to ensure the content and conversations were engaging. This couldn't be just another awkward Zoom call during a virtual conference in the middle of a global pandemic. This had to be different. During Furniture Forum, we assigned each participating member to one of several discussion rooms, each with five or six members and a Nationwide representative who took notes and asked questions – a quieter, more relaxed setting. Then we started posing questions about what was going on in their communities and inside the industry, and we let them talk. And, boy, did they rise to the occasion, sharing with each other the challenges they were facing and the best practices they were using to overcome them. Throughout the conversations, we regularly heard members saying things like, "Oh, my gosh, that's a great idea!" Or, "I'd never even thought about that before." And that's when we truly knew we'd created something special. But we didn't want to keep all those great ideas in a vacuum, only to forget about them after the event. We had all of the moderators who'd taken notes bring those best practices and ideas together to create a booklet that we sent out to the entire furniture and bedding membership. Now we're hearing not just additional feedback on those best practices, we're hearing from members who want to know how they can be a part of the next Furniture Forum. Moving forward, we expect that, like the retail industry itself over the past year, Furniture Forum will continue to evolve. Of course it will continue to be a part of PrimeTime, whether it's virtual or in person, but like everything else, it will be tweaked as we look to improve on the event and the experience. We'll continue with the roundtable discussions, but being in person will allow us to expand the length. This first Furniture Forum was just a single 45-minute session, but with additional time we'll be able to bring in more elements. Maybe we'll add vendors to the mix to offer their opinions on the current obstacles facing the industry. We've even discussed having some of our key retailers participate in member-led panels on how they're successfully navigating certain challenges. There's a great deal of opportunity for Furniture Forum to grow and expand as we look toward the future. At the end of the day, it's an event that embodies everything we're about here at Nationwide. And that's letting our members get together and thrive together. FURNITURE FORUM FINDS ITS FOOTING Jeff Rose Furniture Trends Jeff Rose, Sr. Director, Furniture & Bedding, Nationwide Marketing Group RO

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