Do You Have Velveeta Loyalists Among Your Super Consumers?

A kitchen and bath showroom truism is that you don’t lose sales from customers that you never had.  Yet, that statement falls on many a BKBG showroom’s deaf ears, because most showroom owners are type A super competitive personalities who believe that every customer who invests in a new kitchen or bath should purchase it from them.  That’s one of the reasons they are successful.   

Opportunities may be missed by not focusing on customers that you have already sold.  Learn a lesson from Velveeta.  Those Buzz readers of a certain age grew up with Velveeta cheese. It’s a processed “food” that, in fact, contains no real cheese, only cheese culture. From the eyes of today’s healthy, organic eating public, Velveeta may be viewed as a nonentity.  Until recently, Velveeta’s parent Kraft-Heinz, may have agreed, seeing little growth opportunities for this icon of the past.  Oh, how wrong they were.  Through market research, Kraft found that there were approximately 2.4 million customers who are passionate about Velveeta. These buyers represented 10% of Velveeta customers but were responsible for 30% of sales and more than 50% of profits.   

Kraft set out to harness Velveeta’s passionate fans and grow sales.  It introduced new Velveeta products that included slices, and refrigerated shredded packages.  Some grocers moved Velveeta to the refrigerated section that resulted in additional sales growth.  These efforts generated an additional $100 million in sales.  Key to Kraft’s strategy was to connect the Velveeta community.  Through focus groups and social media, Velveeta’s biggest fans started to communicate, exchange recipes and discuss results.  Kraft learned that spending to attract customers who never bought Velveeta or who stopped buying the brand offered little return on investment.  Instead, they focused on raving fans who drove growth. 

What does this have to do with kitchen and bath showrooms?  A lot.  Because there are raving fans of well designed, high-performing, state-of-the-art rooms for their homes.  Most BKBG Shareholders and Product and Affinity Partners are familiar with the Pareto principle that surmises 20% of customers are responsible for 80% of sales.  The mistake that Kraft made with its highest purchasing customers is believing that its 20% of Velvetta customers could not generate more than 80% of sales. Nothing could be further from the truth.   

Do you have super consumers?  Do you have super consumer strategies?  Should you? 

The answer is yes.  Consider how many of your customers have renovated more than one room in their home with your showroom.  Does that really mean they are not interested in doing additional projects, perhaps at other homes or for their children’s homes or redoing what may have been done 10 or more years ago?  Do you have among your former clientele renovation junkies – those who are always improving their homes or moving to new ones? One of the common misnomers that many showrooms make is that people renovate a kitchen or bath once in a lifetime.  Is that true?   

There’s a big difference between super consumers and heavy users.  Heavy users buy a lot.  Super consumers are passionate fans who are highly engaged with brands and improving their baths and homes.    

How to Capitalize on Super Consumers 

Review your repeat customer records to determine if you have super consumers.   

Develop a communication strategy to reach them with new product announcements, social media invitations, design ideas, focus group, product launches, showroom tours, showroom dinners, etc.   

Don’t assume that just because someone renovated their kitchen ten or more years ago, they may not be ready to do it again. 

It’s a lot easier to sell someone that you have sold before.  Your previous customers know who you are and what you can do.  They are less likely to go to competitors.