Changing Futons: WinsLoew bets in quality
WinsLoew Furniture is going through a major change that goes from marketing to management. All in order to satisfy their customer’s needs. And what are people looking for these days? High-end Futons.
After starting a demographic study, WinsLoew started noticing that people considered a futon as an essential part of the furniture and avoided cheap prices. People are looking for quality futons. Having this information, WinsLoew changed all its processes and management in order to produce high-quality futons that match customer’s needs. You should also find out more about the futon mattress
Specialized in furniture for some years, WinsLoew is known for its casual styled furniture, easy-to-assemble furniture and now, high-quality futons. With this move, WinsLoew aims towards the futon market and elevates its own standards.
Bobby Tesney, CEO of WinsLoew spoke recently about this cycle of change in the company. He underlined his goal of stop producing cheaper futons and focus on high-end futons, with new models and higher quality. He also pointed out the importance of having new management and new marketing strategies.
WinsLoew was born in December 1994. It was the result of the merging between Winston Furniture and Lowenstein Furniture. At that time, Lowenstein was selling promotional futons through the mass merchant channel. Those futons would then be sold by $99.
The company, however, doesn’t miss those times. Richard Hurwitz, one of WinsLoew vice presidents, gave an interview about the effort the company had to endure in order to produce low-end futons that would retail for $99. WinsLoew now understands the best bet is indeed quality. With a new strategy, WinsLoew shouldn’t go back to those days.
For the customers that really insist on it, there is still one model that sells for $99. Yet, this futon model is imported since the factory is focused on producing higher quality furniture.
During the interview, Hurwitz explained how this significant change started. Tesney was the first to work on a new plan. He completely redesigned the futon segment, focusing on mid and high-quality futons, that are now sold under the label New West. Fresh faces were hired to embody the new spirit of the company, and the production efficiency was thought to the smallest detail.
This new strategy was not a random inspiration from Tesney. His vision saw past the basic low-end futons that were bought mostly by students and focused on the growing market of a wider group of clients that were looking for high quality, long lasting futons.
To be absolute sure that his vision was right, and that the current demand was for high-end futons, WinsLoew hired Prince Marketing Research from Nashville. They conducted a study of 460 consumers and retailers. Some of the retailers that participated were already WinsLoew clients, and others weren’t.
As Hurwitz continues to explain, most futons are produced by regional factories that focus mainly on selling locally. WinsLoew wanted to identify all the demographic data with this study, more specifically, they wanted to know who exactly was buying futons, and for what purpose. By surveying the retailers, they also got an idea of their perceptions of the market, and what the future might turn out to be.
The final result of the survey was truly revealing and interesting. At first, the survey showed that customers were not looking at futons as a bedding product. Instead, people consider it a piece of furniture, as Hurwitz tells.
It was also said by the retailers that their perception of futons was something convertible to a sofa with a low price. This idea brought even more strength to Tesney’s new project. If the futon is a piece of furniture it makes sense to treat it as a long-lasting product with high quality, not just a trend.
Hurwitz says this information was the turning point. WinsLoew had just realized there was no point in producing a $99 futon for a convertible sofa of the same price (which doesn’t exist, consumers must pay more than $99 for a convertible). This was a non-profitable segment. So, instead, the brand would focus on high-quality futons that take place as part of the furniture for years to come.
As part of this study, the consumer’s opinions were also very interesting. As initially suspected, many clients were somewhere between 20 and 40 years old. Nevertheless, there was also a suggestion that clients aged from 40 years old on, were also a big slice of the total clients, being a potential market for futons.
Another aspect of this study was discovering what are people using futons for. Contrary to popular belief, futons are not just used in the bedroom. This study revealed that futons were used for guest rooms, second homes, and, by many young couples, as a living room pieces of furniture. The consumers that have kids in college also buy futons for them.
Hurwitz concludes that this study underlined what the company already suspected.
After the results of this study, the changes started to take place. WinsLoew is now working under a new type of management and production. As part of this cycle of change, Richard W. McLeod was hired to become executive vice-president of the futons section.
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