We live in a world where cars have been engineered to parallel park themselves, robot vacuum cleaners can sweep our floors unattended, and smart phones have lived up to their name by servings as GPS units, appointment calendars, clocks, pedometers, camcorders, as well as instantly ready cameras with programmable special effects and filters. Nothing seems to be truly “basic” anymore – not even ceiling fans.
It wasn’t that long ago when a homeowner’s choice in ceiling fans amounted to choosing one in either a black or a white finish and perhaps a choice of four or five blades. They were, in a word, basic. Go into a lighting showroom or fan store today and the variety available is astounding.
Where once ceiling fans were considered to be a relatively invisible element that, more often or not, “came with the house” they are now finally getting their due. The market has never had so many decorative looks in the category and when you add in the increased interest in energy savings and the variety of light kits, the homeowner’s decision becomes a little more complicated. There are fans that operate on DC motors instead of the more common AC for greater cost savings, there are now fan blades manufactured with aerodynamic properties for moving air more efficiently, and it’s safe to say that today’s new fans have ditched the pull chains and are equipped with remote controls. After attending the June Dallas Market, I realized that even the remote controls aren’t “basic” anymore. In fact, there are even remote controls that can handle existing fans in the home that have pull chains!
Since ceiling fans have become more complicated – in a good way – it stands to reason that consumers need to learn more about each model’s benefits when they are fan shopping. Showrooms that are selling these higher-tech fans (that are anything but basic) have the advantage over home centers whose consumers must figure out on their own which attributes are the most suitable for their needs.
As with LED technology, today’s ceiling fans have unique properties that the average homeowner does not know even exists. Your customers are disinterested in “basic” (that’s where they started out) and are now accustomed to owning appliances and products that have multiple features and functions. Inform them of all the cool new things that ceiling fans can do and upselling should be (pardon the pun) a breeze. Catch up on the latest developments in ceiling fans with this special issue.
