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ON MESSAGE

Since the pandemic struck, the National Bed Federation (NBF) has redoubled its efforts to communicate with the trade and consumers, embracing new channels in a bid to reach an everwider audience, explains marketing & membership manager, Simon Williams.

WE’VE BEEN FINDING ADDITIONAL WAYS TO ENGAGE WITH

OUR MEMBERS

By SIMON WILLIAMS www.bedfed.org.uk

We’ve all learned many different things over the last 16 months, not least the importance of communication and staying connected – whether that’s with our friends and family, colleagues, business contacts or customers.

At the NBF, our audiences include our members, the wider bed industry, bed retailers and the bed-buying public. Communicating with these segments entails different approaches with slightly differing messages.

When the pandemic hit, the importance of communicating with our members and providing them with the latest Government advice became even more critical. Coupled with keeping our members informed on all the postBrexit issues, we were sending out information on an almost-daily basis. Over a 12-month period, we sent out more than four times the number of member communications than we did in the previous year.

Of course, there’s always the danger of over-communicating, and we’ve all experienced email overload where it becomes overwhelming and it’s easier to just press delete. So, we’ve now settled into sending a regular Friday morning bulletin, and have seen open rates increase to well above the (email) industry average.

As well as emails and social media channels (we use Linkedin and Twitter for the NBF), finding additional ways to engage with our members and keep them up to date with key topics and important business issues led us to launch our series of BedBiz Podcasts (Musings on Mattress Matters). Our first featured Hypnos’ sustainable mattress packaging, and we’ve since covered such topics as how to resolve consumer complaints on mattresses with The Furniture & Home Improvement Ombudsman, help with training and apprenticeships via FIESTA’s Skills Plus service, and how our members can get involved with The Sleep Charity.

Continuing the audio-visual route for improving member engagement, we are planning to start regular news vlogs. It’s more personal and effective, with content retention rates much higher than text.

Turning to bed retailers, in an effort to forge closer ties, we launched our NBF Retail Champions scheme last year and already have over 225 independent retailer participants, with a total of over 280 branches between them. As well as receiving PoS items and digital assets to promote their NBF Retail Champion status, we engage with them via a Champions Chat e-newsletter, and from time to time ask their views via surveys on key topics affecting the bed industry, such as sustainability, rising costs and extended manufacturer lead times.

We aim to develop this scheme to have more of a members’ club feel, and are looking at how we offer further benefits, including VIP visitor status at the Bed Show, lapel badges to wear instore and exclusive competitions.

Finally, when it comes to advising consumers, we use our new consumerfacing website (www.bedadvice.co.uk) and social channels Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (@bedadviceUK) to engage with the bed-buying public, promote NBF member brands, answer questions and hopefully manage people’s sometimes-overreaching expectations! We also direct the consumer to their nearest NBF Retail Champion.

Our ongoing social media and SEO programmes will build on the current 26,000 monthly visitors to the site, and we will be producing a number of short video clips to address key consumer questions around the bed-buying process and post-purchase issues

INDUSTRY PARTNERS

THIS MONTH, WE’RE ASKING …

Andy Stockwell (Gardiner Haskins): My remit covers a lot of different sectors aside from furniture (housewares, cook shop, tiles and flooring, luggage, bedding), and there really aren’t huge differences in the way that they operate. The biggest frustration with WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST them all is when they sell direct to the consumer at prices which undercut the FRUSTRATION ABOUT retailers that support them. It essentially puts them in direct THE WAY THE TRADE competition with the retailer WORKS? Lee Ness (Global Upholstery Solutions): Like wine, I think trade buyers don’t understand where value is. If it is expensive, it doesn’t mean it is good, and vice versa

Adam Hankinson (Furniture Sales Solutions): The most forward-thinking businesses are always working on getting better, but many others are reliant on their history – and this, unfortunately, holds less and less importance for many younger people entering the market. You have to be working on the next three steps in every part of your business

Anne Davies (Room to Grow): As a small retailer, our commitment to volume is limited. We look to find new products that are design and trend led, rather than price led, but finding manufacturers who will supply lower volumes of design-focused pieces can be a challenge at times. That doesn’t stop us, though – we’re committed to offering our customers something different, and more choice! Rob Scarlett (Scarlett Design): The lack of focus on originality

Gavin Boden (Rhenus Home Delivery UK): Too much production in the Far East

Dids Macdonald OBE (ACID): The lookalike culture, with little respect for IP ownership

Mike & Karen Rowley (Core Products): A tendency to follow, not lead

Peter Harding (Fairway Furniture): The time taken from new models being introduced by suppliers at shows to being delivered to us as retailers – it is often far too long

Steve Adams (Mattress Online): That so many manufacturers are still playing catch-up with their online strategy, and are reluctant to embrace the internet as a sales channel and route to market

Royce Clark (Grampian Furnishers): As a trade we need to be slicker. We can take lessons from other industries and brands in terms of speed of delivery and the aftersales process – we’re way behind the likes of Amazon and Zappos

Henrik Pontoppidan (S2U Design Containers): There’s not enough desire to stir things up and try something new – to forge new business relationships outside the slightly incestious environment most of us work in. Most actors choose the ‘safe’ route – which sometimes becomes their achilles heel

Adam Ashborn (Reborn Marketing & Design): The seasonal sales-oriented marketing and general shopping experience. Consumers are far more aware of marketing than ever before. Smart use of advertising revenue that creates that emotional connection while still informing of a product’s features and benefits far outweighs discount/ sale-oriented marketing. Creating a desire and need to buy will ultimately drive more sales and increase foot traffic to stores – encouraging visits should be the prime focus, and, even if the consumer doesn’t purchase an item, it’s still creating that underlying desire which could lead to a sale down the line

DREAM TEAM

Why MLILY might be your perfect match

#382 July 2021

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