6 Handy Tips For Mixing Appliances and Electronics

There are plenty of questions that integrators should ask themselves before taking on appliances, like, "Where should I put them?"

Percy's, Cohens and H&H offer the following factors that integrators should consider before even thinking about carrying appliances:

Location, Location, Location

Being able to dedicate the proper amount of real estate might be the biggest obstacle for integrators looking to display appliances, Dave Lavine of Percy's suggests.

About a quarter of Percy's 10,000-square-foot showroom space is dedicated to kitchen vignettes. There are countless "live kitchens" in which sales associates can demonstrate custom cooking buttons on ovens, for instance.

There are plenty of bar-style stools set up so customers can sit and watch a demonstration -- or eat. Frequently, Percy's uses the kitchen vignettes to host professional cooking demonstrations on weekends, for general customers or specific groups, such as local Realtors.

"Everything in here is live cooking," explains Lavine, walking from vignette to vignette. "All the wall ovens are live. The water is live. Gas is live. We can show how the clocks work, etc.

"We can have people in here and cooking and putting food out for people. They're hooked up on 110 [volts] for demo use, and we have the ability to flip a switch to 220 for cooking use."

This area of the appliance section of the store is home to the higher-end brands -- Viking, Bosch, Thermador, etc. It's in sharp contrast to an adjacent area where middle-market products are lined up economically.

"It's a different presentation," Lavine says, explaining that its vignette treatment differentiates Percy's from its big-box competition. "You can line up all these stoves and get a lot of them in there, but you're not separating yourself. You need real estate."

Most integrators "physically can't dedicate the space" necessary to effectively display higher-end appliance brands, according to Lavine.

Cater to the Ladies

The vignette approach works well with female customers, usually the key decision-makers when it comes to appliance purchases, according to Trey Brunson, vice president of H&H Lifestyles.

The fact that women usually make purchase decisions isn't earth-shattering news, he points out. "We discovered several years ago that women drive the audio/video decision-making process, just like the appliance business," Brunson says.

That revelation shapes the way H&H merchandizes high-end kitchen appliances. "It is very simple," Brunson says. "You cater to women and what women want."

For H&H, that means showing most of its appliances in vignette style format, although there are some aisles of appliances in the store.

Another key to merchandizing products in a manner that appeals to women, according to Brunson, is hiring an interior designer. H&H, which used Kalker's firm, says the design assistance helped create a logical environment for shifting the sales presentation from product category to category.

"They can tell you how to sell appliances and -- while you're at it -- integrate audio/video, lighting and IP technology into those spaces to synergize audio/video and appliances," Brunson says.

Sharp-looking products and layouts are a big priority with female customers, but quality is, too, according to Michael E. Cohen, owner of Montgomery, Ala.-based Cohens Electronics & Appliances.

"The women are usually more concerned with aesthetics and less concerned with price," he says. "They typically want the better equipment and installation."