Often I hear Industry professionals tell me that they know their buyer. Experience, training and research help you to know your buyer, but I always shutter when I hear the word 'know'. Your buyer, I suggest, continues to change, to grow, to have different desires. The key is understanding. You must understand the motivation, the wants and the needs of the buyers in your marketplace.
Geographic differences are real, demographic differences are important.
This is why we in the HFC so firmly believe in consistent and periodic consumer research. For two years now, the HFC and AFMA have collaborated to focus research dollars on the consumer. This year's effort was designed by our research firm, The Wirthlin Group, to learn more about why consumers enter and exit the home furnishing marketplace. What triggers their entry and what triggers their exit, other than becoming a satisfied buyer. We have uncovered some very interesting information.