Energizer Stores
Owners: Larry and Marianne Chapman
5 stores in the Seattle metro area
What keeps you going day in and day out? How about a good workout and the mantra that there is always room for improvement.
“My attitude is that what we do isn’t good enough; everything we do we need to find a better way to do it,” says Jon Chapman, marketing manager at Rich’s for the Home. “We need to find a better way to market ourselves on the Internet, we need to be on the cutting edge of having new products or displays and always be improving the look of our showroom, or the operations of our warehouse. I’m just not satisfied. I guess I always see room for improvement and I always will, that’s the kind of person I am.”
Chapman, who says that exercise helps him keep his head clear, thinks it is this belief system and a steadfast approach to advertising that has helped Rich’s For the Home remain in business since 1979.
“We are heavy, heavy into marketing. Our business is built on marketing [and] advertising. We advertise more than any of our competitors year-in [and] year-out and I think we advertise more than probably most dealers around the country,” Chapman says. And while they did cut their budget this year, he says their amount of advertising has slowly crept back up to the same percentage as previous years.
“The price of advertising has definitely gone down this year, we’re getting more advertising for the same dollar amount this year as we did last year. We may be spending a little bit less this year, but we’re getting more advertising for our dollar.”
He says they are careful not to over-advertise during tough times, but that keeping their name in front of consumers is important. “When people are ready to buy, they’ll remember us.”