Dwell looks to in-store marketing for growth

The move by the furniture retailer follows a trial of a number of design themed talks held in its stores aimed at building a deeper relationship with existing customers and attracting new ones.
At each of the five trial events Dwell invited lapsed customers from its database that had not bought anything with the chain for three years to hear talks on design by independent interior designers.

The retail chain claims that places for each event were booked up within half an hour of the invite being emailed and that these people then went on to spend money with the chain.
Aamir Ahmad, founder and managing director of Dwell, says that while its marketing efforts to date have focused on data driven and traditional direct marketing channels, investing more money in these channels would not have a significant impact on return. What it has to do now, he says, is deepen engagement.

He adds: “We have to find the right trigger to get people in store and drive up the level of commitment to the brand. Those people that have bothered to come to the store buy stuff – and they buy lots.

“People are more reluctant to come on board with a new brand – less likely to just see an ad and make a purchase so it takes longer to reach customers so you’ve got to tap into something that your customers are interested in and for us its about engaging people in design.”

Dwell is also turning to emerging social channels such as Pinterest to drive greater engagement with consumers around design. It uses the visual pin board site to talk about design themes beyond its own product ranges.