Showrooms: It Pays To Display

October 5, 2005

Today’s stone buyers are likely more knowledgeable than their counterparts of a few years ago. Still, fabricators and suppliers say to give them a good experience, you have to show them decent-sized samples and vignettes to help them visualize the final job.
A good showroom doesn’t have to be huge, but first-rate lighting and a good method for displaying those samples can be critical. Beyond that, it’s mainly a matter of what you want to do to create the look and atmosphere that will set your facility apart from your competitors.

DON’T BE MODEST
Despite the boom in do-it-yourself books, magazines, television programs and the big-box stores to support them, it’s still a safe bet that the average buyer planning to redo a kitchen or bathroom isn’t going to know Baltic Brown from Uba Tuba.
When it comes down to showing what you have in your yard (or what your supplier has in stock), don’t be stingy with what you’re displaying, regardless of how much space you have to devote to a showroom.
“First of all, we try to get as many of our colors up on the wall as possible,” says Chris Mian of Boston-based fabricator Louis W. Mian Inc. “It’s not something people want to buy if they can’t see it. The other thing we’ve tried to do is put up some pretty sizeable samples of our materials. Too often in the industry, people shove small samples at the customer, who thinks the whole slab will look like that and it doesn’t.”
Mian says his company tries to put up either 12” X 24” pieces of slab, or four pieces of tile attached to a board.
When MS International Inc. (MSI) opened its new showroom in Orange, Calif., last fall, one of its goals was to have enough space to display larger pieces of stone, especially those that inherently have plenty of movement.
“For travertine, we went with two concepts,” says MSI’s Rupesh Shah. “Some are displayed at 3’ X 5’ and then, for some of the lower variation colors, at 3’ X 3’. Truthfully, the beauty of travertine only comes out if you spread it out over a large area; you can’t just look at one piece.”
Shah adds that the buyer who chooses a stone off a 4” X 4” sample believing it will all look the same is likely going to be an unhappy customer. And, by taking more room to display tile samples, the company is able to show patterns, which are becoming more popular.
While not going quite that large, David Gramling of Edina, Minn.-based fabricator Northwestern Marble and Granite, says he’s set up to show 12” X 12” samples and requires the people he buys from to include matches for whatever is in each container he purchases.
And, while he says the size of the samples is important, Gramling believes it’s also critical to keep the showroom in sync with available stock.
“We want to be able to show a sample of what’s currently outside,” he says. “Then, if they’re interested, we’ll go outside and show them the slab and tag it for them.”

SHINE A LIGHT
While having good-sized samples is a start, they still have to be displayed to good advantage. The options for doing that are numerous, but it may require space, a display system and good lighting.
Phil Mularoni of Southfield, Mich.-based supplier Marble and Granite Gallery, which opened a 48,000 ft² display area in June, is a firm believer in having enough space to show his wares. He bills his as a European-style showroom, and says there are several differences between the typical American stone supplier and its counterparts across the water.
“Europeans have upgraded their warehouse facilities to make them more showroom-like,” he says. “There’s an openness to the area. It’s not just rack-on-rack of stuff jammed together. There’s open spacing, so you can stand back and look at the product like you would in a gallery.”
To further ensure a good shopping experience, Mularoni says he made a major investment in racks to display his samples at the right height and the right angle for optimum viewing.
On the other hand, Darlene Spezzi of Orlando, Fla.-based supplier Mystic Granite and Marble, has 15 acres of slabs outside, but only a 4,000 ft² showroom. She says her goal is for her customers not to be overwhelmed by their choices, even though she’s able to display 12” X 24” samples of what she has in her yard.
She also has a three-tied carousel with several different colors of cabinetry on the lowest level. A would-be buyer can put in samples of both countertop and backsplash materials at the two upper levels to get an idea of which combinations will work best together.
Whether you have a little room or a lot, MSI’s Shah believes it’s important to be able to show samples or slabs horizontally, too.
“For most jobs, the application is horizontal, and because the lighting is different, the look can be much more beautiful,” he says. “People need to see that difference.”
Not all lighting is created equal, so it’s important to have good lighting to show the stone to best advantage. Tony Beber of Anaheim Centsible Tile Inc. in Anaheim, Calif., estimates he’s spent $15,000 taking out fluorescent fixtures and installing the same type of neon halogen lighting found in large exposition halls.
“It’s a clean, white light that we have throughout the entire facility, including the showrooms and shop,” he says. “Then, we fine-tune our displays with spotlights.”
Both Mian’s Mian and Northwestern’s Gramling say they’ve also invested heavily in lighting. Mian says that company’s goal was to have the same mix of white and yellow light found in the average home. However, both say their showrooms offer another advantage – windows for natural lighting.
“We can take a sample and put it in natural light if that’s how the people want to see it,” says Mian.

SHOW ME A PROJECT
Good samples, displayed under good lighting, go a long way toward giving buyers a feel for what might make their kitchens or bathrooms special. Because many people have a hard time visualizing how the finished project may look, it’s important to show the stone as a finished product.
Marble and Granite Gallery’s Mularoni says he’s devoted almost 9,000 ft² of his display space to vignettes: not just kitchens, but baths with marble floors, furniture with granite tops and a patio area under natural light with a coffee bar.
“We’re selling ideas,” he says. “People in this country don’t tend to tile their bathrooms or put marble on the walls of them up to the ceiling. We like to show people the beauty of finished bathrooms done in the European style or with combinations of products such as glass mosaics with metal tiles in combination with the stone products.”
“The vignettes help people really visualize how the stone goes together with the sink and the faucet and the backsplash and the cabinets,” says Mian. “It really helps people to be able to see how it will all look in a kitchen rather than just seeing a piece on the wall.”
MSI’s Shah says that company has worked particularly hard to tie some of its countertops in with mosaic backsplashes that MSI also offers.
“The hardest part with the mosaics is that if you just display them as sheets, you really don’t know what it’s going to be like,” he says. “It’s hard to visualize.”
Including them in vignettes is also a way to incorporate other items you might be offering, such as sinks, faucets or furniture. In vignettes or not, it’s important to display them well.
Gramling, for instance, displays marble pedestal sinks with marble bases that he sells, as well as the other sinks and faucets available through Northwestern.
“And, everything is labeled,” he says. “We went to a museum supplier for that, but a person can walk right up and know what they’re looking at.”
Nor are vignettes the only way to show stone applications. Mularoni says his patio area doubles as a nice place for customers to rest their feet after walking his aisles. Both Mystic’s Spezzi and Centsible’s Beber utilize their products in equally practical ways.
Beber takes particular pride in his customer bathroom, which is regularly remodeled to show the latest in tile, stone sinks and custom-colored toilets.
“Here, everybody also gets to pick the material they want on top of their desk,” he says. “We put a different edge and a different stone on each desk, and it’s another silent salesperson for our stone.”
Spezzi has also invested heavily in her bathroom, which features backlit onyx and a working Jacuzzi with a little waterfall. The showroom also has a working kitchen.
“I hold functions for builders and designers,” she says. “If I want to hold a training seminar or introduce designers to my new arrivals, I cater a beautiful party and use the showroom and the kitchen, and they love it.”
The kitchen also serves as a convenient place for designers and their clients to review plans over a cool drink, and Spezzi says the overall kitchen atmosphere makes them feel more at home and more likely to stay longer to shop.
Creating an overall ambiance for the showroom can go a long way toward making buyers comfortable, not to mention helping them remember your showroom if they’re visiting several. Again, different people take different approaches.
For instance, Mian says that company’s showroom is done in neutral colors – mainly grays and beiges – so as not to detract from the stone. Mularoni’s aisles are carpeted to save people’s feet, and shoppers can get a beverage in the patio area.
Beber also has carpet on his floors, and he says it’s cleaned a few times and then changed out to present an image of absolute cleanliness. To a person, everyone stresses that keeping a showroom clean helps present a company’s best image.
Some shops go even further to make the shopping experience pleasant. MSI has an elaborate stone fountain near the main entrance to its showroom, and Northwestern Marble and Granite has a separate play area for customers’ children.
“We have an area with two tables and chairs and enclosed shadow boxes,” Gramling says. “You can move little boats and animals with a magnet under the table. Most kids have never seen anything like this, so it really holds their attention, and it’s worked well for us.”

HOT AND FRESH
The bottom line with a showroom is that – just like buying a CNC or hiring a first-rate employee – it’s an investment. Because it is so important, many companies don’t try to go it alone when it comes to designing a showroom or keeping it updated.
When Gramling moved into a new building four years ago, he hired an architect to design a showroom that would be memorable to people who might be visiting several stone shops.
“I interviewed three different architects and then hired the one I thought would do the best job,” he says. “We wanted one that wasn’t mundane but was really creative. Then, we did it with the best materials and we change it on a regular basis.”
Mian’s Mian is another one who says outside professional help has gone into that company’s showroom. In his case, however, the search has been much less formal.
“We do work with a few designers who are customers of ours,” he says. “We have good relationships with them, and they give us ideas for the showroom. It works out well.”
If nothing else, it’s a matter of keeping up with fashion, says Mystic’s Spezzi.
“You have to keep up with what’s selling,” she says.
So how often do you have to change your showroom? At a minimum, as soon as a slab is no longer available, the display sample in the showroom should be replaced. With the rest of it, the main thing is to have a commitment not to let things get static.
“We change our granite countertops from time-to-time,” says Gramling. “If we get something new that’s coming in and we really want to highlight it, we make a new top and the old top goes into a library. If it (the stone) never shows up again, we sell the top at a sale.”
“We update it constantly as far as displaying material,” says Mian. “Right now, we’re thinking about revamping a few of our areas that could be used a little better both in terms of display and the colors we can put out there.”
Centsible’s Beber says he tries to be a creature of habit. While samples go out as they’re discontinued and new ones are brought in, he tries to do a major overhaul of his showroom early each year.
“I’ll start going to the shows in January to see all the new stuff and the different vendors and what’s being pushed hard,” he says. “Then, to keep the guys busy, I’ll make a big push in February and March to get the showroom updated, because I figure once people pay their taxes they’ll be coming in to buy from me again.”
Whatever a shop decides to do with its showroom, however, the main thing to keep in mind is that you’re there to sell a product that, despite its popularity, probably isn’t going to sell itself.
“You need to put the product out for the homeowner to look at,” Spezzi says. “Don’t assume the homeowners know what they’re looking for. They don’t. You need to spend some time and money to show your stone.”