Read the mind of a woman and your marketing dreams will come true.
In this episode, Adrienne is joined by special co-host, Tara Kinsley, the prettier, more energetic half of the Kinsley duo. Together, they discuss problems in showroom staging, what they want to see when they walk into a mattress store, furniture store and what their ideal shopping experience looks like.
FULL TRANSCRIPTION
Adrienne Woods: What do women want? It’s not discounts and lots of attention when they walk in the store. On today’s spa marketing show, we have an all female powerhouse cast and the fan marketing show starts right now.
Ms. Kinsley, welcome to the show.
Tara Kinsley: Thank you. I even have, um, one of my mugs that my students got me at Space Camp.
Oh,
Adrienne Woods: what is that on there? I can’t really tell. It looks like it
Tara Kinsley: says, Space and Rocket Center. We went to Huntsville, Alabama. Nice one. My kids were like, miss Tara, I bet you never see your name on things. And I was like, you are so right. That is so thoughtful. And they got me, they got
Adrienne Woods: it for you. See, these are the things that women care about.
They’re name being spelled correctly on mugs growing up. So of course my name is not it. I don’t feel like until I was a teenager and maybe later that anybody understood like, you can spell Adrian differently than a D R I A N, right? And so anytime there was key chains or you know, the little cards that like talk about the meaning of your name, my name was never spelled right.
So I can understand how you would value that and why a kid would think that was such a big deal. Yeah. So anyway, for those of you that are new to the show or maybe you’re regular to the show, maybe you don’t know. Tara is the better. Half of my co-host Mr. Kinsley, she is a rockstar teacher. She plans the best parties I’ve ever been to
And what, El what else is something interesting about your Tara that you’d want the world to? Um,
Tara Kinsley: I love to ride bikes. Oh, that’s loves true love dogs. Um, I would have a million but. is a little bit stingy with our dog. Oh, that’s fair. Yeah. So it’s really not fair. But that’s another thing women would want.
All the dogs.
Adrienne Woods: All dogs. Well, some women. Maybe. Maybe you do that for a marketing tactic. I don’t know. Well, Tara, so this is how we run the show. Just, I know you’re an avid fan, but we always start off with piece of trivia and then we’re gonna get into what we thought what women would want, because this has typically been kind of a male dominated industry, and I’m sure that they have.
Pools, um, like consumer groups where they get a lot of information. But I thought, you know, never in the history of the FAM has a show been completely co-hosted and hosted by all females. So Nice. Let’s do this. This is what, this is the inaugural event, if you will. I like it. So we do that. Thank you. Okay, so piece of trivia that I got from banking rates.com, so I’m assuming they’re following interest trends, piece of trivia.
What in 2023 is the most popular month to buy furniture? I’m gonna give you four options. Oh, do you know this? Oh, can I just guess? Yeah. Okay. We’ll wait till the end if you know. Okay. Then we’ll just wait till the end. Okay. Then I’m not even gonna give you any, you don’t know. I’m just,
Tara Kinsley: I have a guess.
Adrienne Woods: Okay.
Do you want options? No. I mean,
Tara Kinsley: I
Adrienne Woods: feel confident. Losers. Losers want options. Mark Kinser? Yeah. Okay,
Tara Kinsley: fine. I mean, winners just like make a decision and move.
Adrienne Woods: So for those of you, those of you that are following us, if you’re familiar with the Enneagram, I am a two, but I stress to an eight. Tara is an eight like all the time.
So she’s like, I don’t waste time. I just make a decision to move on.
Tara Kinsley: Yep. Love. And if it’s the wrong answer, we can work it in massage. Yes. And be like,
Adrienne Woods: but it’s what it is. I, I’m the ready, fire, aim, spouse, people think that through. Ready, fire, aim. And I tell that to my husband. I’m like, you know what? If it’s the wrong decision, like we just, we make it and we move on.
But I can’t sit here and belabor your decision any longer. Like, let’s just move on. Yeah,
Tara Kinsley: no, I agree with that. So, okay. So the, the month that people buy the most
Adrienne Woods: furniture, Yeah, that will be the question I’ll give you. So you don’t want options. We’ll talk about it at the end of the show. This, yeah, you have options
Tara Kinsley: cuz somebody may want
Adrienne Woods: an option.
Okay. Okay. So I just picked a month from each quarter, right? Okay. So you’ve got February, we’ve got April, we’ve got August, and we’ve got um, October. Okay,
Tara Kinsley: so can
Adrienne Woods: I say my answer now or not? No, no, you have to wait. That’s how this, that’s how this flows. I sent sent you episodes to like, prepare yourself for this.
Tara Kinsley: I, I, the trivia is my favorite thing sometimes, honestly. Well, I’m not even gonna say it. Continue .
Adrienne Woods: Suddenly I just turn it off after the trivia or I fast forward through. It’s okay. Well, no, I
Tara Kinsley: be completely honest, but every once in a while I may skip a couple of seconds and be like, no,
Adrienne Woods: what is it? I, I get that.
I get that. Okay. So Tara, let’s talk about. What women actually want when it comes to shopping, whether it’s for furniture, for mattresses, I know that like you’re not in, technically in the mattress industry, mark is. So let’s start there. Like, prior, prior to your husband coming into this industry, how, how often did you go shopping for mattresses?
Let’s start there and then when you did, what did you actually look for when you went on your excursion?
Tara Kinsley: So, Um, it’s, it’s, we’ve been in the mattress industry for so long, like, I gotta, like dig and mm-hmm. , go back into the memory. You know, when we bought our first house in 2007, you know, that’s when we were, was the first time together that we were looking for mattresses.
Mm-hmm. . And the funny thing is, is obviously just like everybody, when they’re young, They have no money and they, you know, whatever, they just bought a house and they’re overwhelmed. Mm-hmm. . So we had a hand me down mattress in the guest bedroom. Cool. Which now knowing all the things I know about mattresses, and I’m not like, if you have a hand me down mattress.
Awesome, but not really because it’s kind of gross. And now anytime like I think back and I’m like, oh, people were sleeping on like years of skin cells and sweat and like just, I feel terrible. So if anybody. That stayed in my house from 2007 to like 2009. Um, slept in that bed. I’m
Adrienne Woods: sorry. Oh, oh, that. Well, wouldn’t you put it that way?
That’s gross.
Tara Kinsley: I apologize. Yeah, I mean, there could even
Adrienne Woods: be like, I don’t wanna know. I, I don’t wanna know. Let’s like not talk about that. I mean, okay, so, but here’s the funny story. It’s total side tangent and then we’ll get back on topic. For my wedding. My parents are like, we’re gonna buy you a big gift.
Let’s also understand they paid for my whole wedding, right? So they spent thousands and thousands of dollars, but then they still got me a gift. They’re like, we are giving you. Uh, mattress, like they went out and bought me a mattress and I was like, that is the stupidest gift that anyone could ever like who wants a mattress?
I was so mad when they told me that. I was like, I mean, and I should have been grateful. Now, in hindsight, my parents bought us a nice mattress, okay, so we got married. in 2009 and I think they spent a thousand dollars on the mattress in addition to their multi thousands of dollars. So, I mean, they got us a really, really nice mattress.
I remember exactly where they bought it. We’re from Northwest Arkansas. Give a little shout out to Cloud nine Mattress. That’s where they went. Um, and we to this day are just like, you remember that mattress? It’s now upstairs in our guest bedroom. But it’s such a nice mattress and every time people come, they’re like, this is such a great mattress.
And we’re like, . It’s, it’s awesome. It was a great answer. That’s awesome. So anyway, I love it. But like when you go shopping for a mattress, do you still go in the store or do you only do it online?
Tara Kinsley: Well, we go into a lot of mattress stores, like it’s hilarious. So fun. Cause we, like on date night, yeah, we’ll be on vacation and Mark’s like, let’s just stop in this mattress store.
And I’m like, oh. It’s exactly what I wanna do when I’m there On vacation. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. In someplace. It’s fabulous. I wanna spend time in a mattress store. So we were in Chicago a couple years ago and they have a Heston’s, which Heston’s is like a super high end, you know, like $185,000 mattress, right? It’s got horse hair in it.
Super cool. And I will say going into the Heston’s store was very fun. Um, they made it kind of fancy and, and they weren’t like pressuring you and. Will say, and I don’t know if this is gonna be popular, but I like going into mattress only stores. Oh, okay. Better than just like an in general like furniture store.
Because if I’m looking for a mattress, I’m looking for a mattress and I don’t wanna have to like sort through the guy who is trying to talk about the recliners or blah, blah, blah, blah. And I feel like the salespeople at mattress only stores. Are a little bit more knowledgeable about the mattresses. It’s like, you know, in and out.
They only sell burgers and fries. They don’t have chicken sandwiches and you know, all the other things to muddy up the waters.
Adrienne Woods: So that’s fair. Do if you’re gonna do one thing, do one thing. Well, don’t do like 10 things. I, yeah, fine. But no, do one thing well. Right. Interestingly, I don’t know. That’s an interesting perspective that you have.
Cause I don’t know that I have that perspective. So I’m one of these people who would never, I cannot conceive of buying a mattress without going and like testing out the mattress, like laying down on it. Now I So you don’t do online either? I don’t do on, not for mattresses, for pretty much everything else.
Like I just bought a bunch of clothes last night online. I’m like, oh, that looks cute. I get into these like spurts. I’m like, oh, that’s cute. And I’ll just take it all back if I don’t want it. But a mattress, like you’re sleeping on that. Like you, you don’t realize how good of a mattress you have or how much you like your own bed till you go to like a hotel or somewhere that you’re like, oh, that mattress stinks.
Yes. So I feel like you have to test it out. But I also don’t mind if like a bedroom set is set up around the mattress because then I’m like, oh, this is what this looks like in this type of a setting. Right? I think that the comforters and things that they put on them are cheesy. I don’t like them. I think somebody from Dillard’s or like a Williamson Sonoma needs to come in and like help them out just a little bit.
I just don’t think that mattress stores utilize actual interior designers. Maybe they. Mommy mean, I’m sorry if you are one for a store, but they always look so cheesy and I’m like, yeah, this is not real. I don’t like this. Yeah. At all. But no, I need to be able to lay down on a mattress to test it out. Yeah.
And see if I like it. Yeah. And
Tara Kinsley: that’s why I kind of like, I don’t, yeah. Because I don’t want, like the furniture or the accoutrements that they’ve mm-hmm. placed on the bed to deter me from like my mission, which is. Buy mattress. I’m getting a mattress. Let’s do this.
Adrienne Woods: So then if you buy a piece of furniture, do you not want mattresses involved?
Like if you’re looking for a bedroom set, you don’t want a mattress? Okay.
Tara Kinsley: Oddly enough, I will buy furniture online, but I will not buy a mattress
Adrienne Woods: online. Agreed. I’ll do the same. I don’t know what
Tara Kinsley: it is. Because furniture, like a desk or a chair, like I have the cutest desk in my office that I bought like less than a year ago, and it’s like, awesome.
It’s like this green and it has like leather on top and I’m like, oh, that looks awesome in the pictures. Guess what? I mean? I’m writing on top of it. I’m not like wallowing in it. I’m not like doing things in it. It’s just, and it’s perfect. It’s fine. It’s piece of like, you know, wood with stuff on top. I just, that’s fair.
I don’t know. And Mark. Mark is very picky about any furniture that he has to sit on. Shocking. Like in our marriage, we’ve probably had, yeah, we’ve probably had like 10 couches. Cause not, I’m not even kidding you. Like, we’ll find something and he’ll be like, we’ll find a store. That it has, so I can go sit on it and I’m like, oh my God.
One time we got a sectional, he sold it within like two weeks. He was like, I cannot sit on this. Like, we ordered it online and he, he wouldn’t do it. And I’m like,
Adrienne Woods: oh, but I can’t. So did you order it from somewhere you couldn’t return it?
Tara Kinsley: I honestly, that was like a long time ago. Okay. I don’t know if we could have returned it or we couldn’t.
It was like in 2009 or something like that. Oh, okay. A while back. It could have been before like all of, you know, the end, everything of, of returns. Um, but he ended up just putting it like on Facebook marketplace or something like that, or, I can’t remember where he put it, but somebody just came and took, hauled it.
So,
Adrienne Woods: okay. It’s funny you talked about the ease of returns. I still don’t think returning furniture is that easy because a lot of times, and I’ll put this out there, they don’t, they put the onus on you to be like, oh, if you don’t like the couch, you bring it back. Yeah. Well, I’m sorry. Not everybody has a truck.
that’s not, that’s not something that a woman wants. They wanna be like, Hey, you delivered it. I paid for delivery. Yeah. You know, you said I had a 30 day window, because a lot of times let, let’s just be realistic. This is what’s gonna happen. They’re like, yeah, if you don’t like it, we’ll come pick it up, or they’re gonna come pick it up on their schedule.
So then you have, and they’re like, we’ll be here this week. And you’re like, okay. So you make arrangements to kind of be home that week. And they’re like, we’ll be home. We’ll be there between 10 and. Yeah, . Yeah. Yeah. Well that’s not convenient and Right. And I know that they intend to do well, but they really make it difficult for you to return something.
And it’s like, I don’t live the kind of lifestyle where I just like lay around my house all day. Like I have stuff to like do. So, yeah. You know, if you’re, if you’re thinking of ways to modify, like maybe get some buy-in from some of the women that are sitting around. All day doing nothing else. Waiting on you to show up to come get the thing that they don’t want.
Tara Kinsley: No, I feel all of those things I do from a retailer’s perspective. However, though, I mean, you know, it’s gotta be a huge pain and I get it to get, come back and get it. Um, so, you
Adrienne Woods: know, here’s a way, here’s a way you can say to fix it. You have 30 days to return this. We pick up all returns on Thursday afternoons between, yeah, 12 and.
Yeah. So if you are going to return it, we are going to schedule you for a Thursday between 12 and four. At least like you pull it down and like know that at the outset, if I don’t like this the following Thursday from 12 to four, they’re going to come pick it up. Yeah, no, I like that. Yeah. Why is that hard?
I don’t, maybe it’s no . You just solved all the problems. I don’t know why people didn’t ask me more about how to do this. . Okay. I love it. So, but, so, but wrapping this back up, if you had one piece of advice to give to a retailer, , what would it be?
Tara Kinsley: Oh man, that’s so, that’s good. Like, for buying mattresses, either
Adrienne Woods: one, buying mattress as a consumer,
Tara Kinsley: um, I, I really don’t like the hard sell, so I guess my advice would be like, Hey, greet me when I come in and give me some space.
Cause I will have questions. Yes. If I’m gonna purchase something, you know. A thousand, 2000, $3,000, whatever. I am gonna ask some questions about it. So just like, gimme some space. Let me circle if your store smells good, a bonus.
Adrienne Woods: There is a thing for SC marketing. There really is. Yeah. I love a good smelling store.
I agree with that completely. I, we’ve, we’ve talked about it in one of our earliest episodes, it was called the Don’t Bother Me button, but it’s the same, like I wanna walk in and I don’t want somebody to bother. If I have questions, no, I will come find you. Don’t worry about that. But don’t come up to me.
And I also
Tara Kinsley: don’t like hiding in a hole like I’ve walked into. I’m not gonna say the name of the, the store, but it’s a very popular chain and it’s a furniture chain. And I mean, it’s giant and I’m like, I can’t find anybody, like, where are you? And they’re like at the very back of the store, at the desk doing stuff.
I’m like, I hear you. You got other things to do. But like if I have to walk half a mile to find you and like ,
Adrienne Woods: walk back to what I wanna show you or talk to you about, then I’m done.
Tara Kinsley: Right. I’m kind of over it. So I think there’s definitely a balance between, you know, not hovering and like following me around, and also just kind of being available to ask questions.
I
Adrienne Woods: feel like you can definitely sense like which associates are commission based and which are just already getting paid because the commission based ones unfortunately act a little Vults, vulture, vulture esque, I don’t know, but they just, they watch you like a hawk and it’s like, I know you wanna make the sale, but I’ve also, I’ve dealt with one.
I bought, was it my couch? I think it was my couch. And he was so great up until the time that like I went to pick up my couch and then it’s like he was like, here’s my cell phone, anything you need. He was super, super helpful. But it’s like once the sale was completed, like he just didn’t remember me vanished into thin air.
I would see him in the store. Cause I’m like, I thought we had like a really great like camaraderie. It’s like he didn’t remember that you
Tara Kinsley: were going back to like try to not have lunch with him. No, I, he
Adrienne Woods: was just, well, there was, for some reason I feel like I ordered a couple different pieces, so I had to go back several different times to pick them up.
Gotcha. Which was fine. I chose to pick up. , but it’s like he never remembered me after like we closed the sale. Yeah. And I was like, okay, cool. So I think
Tara Kinsley: that kind of stuff goes back to like a culture that you create as the owner of the store, right? Like, because I’ve worked in commission before and you know, as long as the person who’s in charge is creating a culture of like, hey, You know, like this is how we deal with commissioned sales, blah, blah, blah.
Like those kinds of things. But anyway, that’s a different topic, but, um, that’s good. So that would be important too. So,
Adrienne Woods: okay. So what’s the most popular month in 2023 to buy
Tara Kinsley: furniture? Well, I mean, since you say 2023 and it’s March. I’d have to guess February, but , you know, just deduction. Yes.
Adrienne Woods: No. Well, so I didn’t realize it is February.
You’re correct. But like I went out to the site because they have a strategic reason why, and the thing, the, lemme go over here to the. I
Tara Kinsley: would’ve missed February anyway, because President’s Day still is huge. Oh, that’s funny. You’re kind of like, Christmas is over. You do like, you know, January where you’re like not drinking, you’re not spending money.
Mm-hmm. , you’re recovering from the holidays and then you know, the Super Bowl hits and you’re like, give me all the chicken wings and fried food and the furniture and everything, the vacations and you know, it’s like we can only be, we can only hold it down for 30 days. It’s just so do you know what the
Adrienne Woods: second most popular one.
Tara Kinsley: Is it of the choices? Yes, because I wouldn’t guess
Adrienne Woods: of the Yes. Oh yes.
October. No, it’s actually August. So according to US, news and World Report, new furniture generally enters a showroom floor at the end of winter. So in February. Manufacturers and retail stores start finding new. They need new space to fit it all. So in order to clear out the older pieces, they’re likely to offer deeper discounts on the current stock to make more room.
You also have the advantage of holiday deals around Valentine’s Day and President’s Day. Better falling in this. And then it says another good time and popular time in 2023 will probably be August because it’s considered primetime since showrooms get new stock at the end of the summer and are offering back to school deals.
Hmm. Okay. I like it. So, so now, you know, so maybe if you don’t wanna be a part of that, you don’t go shopping in in August, surprise somebody, surprise
Tara Kinsley: and delight. Yeah, I’m a big fan of not shopping when it’s crowded, so, um, same.
Adrienne Woods: The older I get, the more I will pay for convenience. Right. So I get it anyway.
Awesome. Well, if you have a marketing idea that’s worked for you, text us or over@bam.news and be sure to subscribe, um, and never miss an idea that could make you a genius with women. I’m gonna, I’m gonna fill that out and join us each week. Woo. As we bring you more bam. Marketing magic.
