In the context of wars between nations, climate change, and twelve year olds getting pregnant and listening to gangsta rap, the futon industry may seem like small potatoes indeed. But for those of us who make our collective living from making and selling this dual purpose wonder product I share the following.

I invested twenty years of my professional life helping to define, promote and rally the troops as this simple (perhaps not so simple for those retail sales associates unable to sell any product with more than two moving parts) sit and sleep product soared to prominence during the decade of the ‘90’s.

There was a time when the industry’s collective footprint approached annual sales of $1 Billion, the annual industry trade show expanded to 120,000 sq. feet of showspace with hundreds and hundreds of buyers and sellers scooping up product by the container load. And, like a lighthouse beacon pulsing its high visibility signal, the industry PR program strategically targeted and reached literally millions of consumers with our simple message of flexible dual purpose functionality and real value.

In 1994 with little fanfare and great anticipation Mona Meyer McGrath & Gavin (now Weber Shandwick, a leading global leader in the PR business) began an eight year run as the PR firm for the industry. The plan included defining the product, targeting consumers, and getting the word out in a consistent and efficient way. The best part of the plan was the built in measurement device so we could all monitor our collective success.

One of the challenges from the very beginning was perception. Consumers didn’t understand the product and its dual purpose flexibility as a sofa and they also called the ensemble of frame, mattress and cover a futon, while industry insiders knew that the futon was just the mattress.

All that being said the plan called for three main initiatives. The first segment was Media Relations. The PR team needed to be in contact with shelter and women’s magazine editors to find out what their editorial schedules were and then decide on how to position futon furniture content in relation to those schedules. The second part was creating content for the newspaper mat article network. Mat articles are those filler articles in the Home or Lifestyle Sections of your daily and Sunday big city newspapers. The third part was the special event. This segment of the program was where we got to flex some creative muscle. The best event, which was unfortunately not well attended due to a last minute Disney Furniture for Kids event on the same day at the same time, was the first fashion photo shoot of futon furnishings on the roof of an upscale hotel in Manhattan.

The bottom line is that this was a nuts and bolts program that worked.

Simple, to the point, traditional PR. Efficient, hard working, and affordable. In seven full years the program garnered over 600 million hits as measured by Luce media services (now BurellesLuce). The industry average CPM was $1.25, our program’s CPM was $ .25. Talk about ROI and bang for the buck.

Let’s face it, over the past few years with all the changes the entire Home Furnishings Industry has encountered, things have changed and opportunity is knocking. We need to get back to basics and put a traditional program back in the works. The tsunamis have overwhelmed and the earthquakes have rumbled but we are still here selling goods and keeping our promise of comfort and value. Hopefully the industry leaders of today will see the opportunity and join forces once again to put out a unified message that resonates with today’s market, a market that is still hungry for versatility, comfort and real value.

See you in Las Vegas.