Welcome Wagon to Help Furniture Stores Turn New Homeowners into Customers –Getting To Know You and Welcome Wagon Merge.

Furniture World Magazine

Furniture stores will be among the first businesses to benefit from the integration of two advertising companies. Welcome Wagon and Getting to Know You have joined together to create the new Welcome Wagon, the nation's largest direct advertiser to new homeowners. According to a recent survey', 60 percent of new homeowners will make a furniture purchase during the first year in their new home. "It is extremely important that furniture stores reach out to new homeowners in their community for two reasons," said Joel Zychick, president of Welcome Wagon. "First, 60 percent of new home owners will seek out their services in the first year. Secondly, when families move to a new community, they tend to pick furniture stores and stick with them for as long as they live there. There's a small window of opportunity to turn new neighbors into long-term customers. Welcome Wagon helps make that happen." Welcome Wagon currently works with more than 875 furniture stores and more than 65,000 merchants nationwide. With this integration, Welcome Wagon will be helping these businesses reach more new homeowners precisely at the moment those families develop new buying habits. Furniture stores that have advertised with Getting to Know You or Welcome Wagon in the past can expect a number of positive changes in the program. Welcome Wagon will be sending a welcoming package to more new homeowners than before, approximately 1.4 million this year. In the package, furniture stores can be a part of the Welcome Wagon Local Address Book, which is filled with the names of local or national businesses of interest to new homeowners. To ensure its use, the address book has room left over for the addresses of friends and family. Another option is to insert a direct advertising piece in the package in the form of a valuable gift certificate that prompts a first visit. In addition to its welcoming package, Welcome Wagon creates custom programs for advertisers by mining its database of new homeowners - the largest and most up-to-date ever created, with hundreds of thousands of new names added each month. Welcome Wagon has also launched a Pre-Mover program that puts local and national advertisers in front of consumers before they move. "According to the National Association of Home Builders, 17 percent of households move each year," said Zychick. "That is a highly lucrative market to tap into. In fact, new homeowners spend more during the first six months in their new home than an established homeowner spends in five years. That's why we are seeing so many local businesses, franchises and national companies jumping on board the Welcome Wagon." "On behalf of our advertisers, we can target customers before, during or after they move - something no other company can boast," said Zychick. "We have little doubt that the new Welcome Wagon is one of the leading advertising tools for furniture stores nationwide, and we are looking forward to proving that every day." More information on Welcome Wagon is available by contacting the company at (800) 77-WELCOME or http://www.welcomewagon.com. Welcome Wagon is the oldest and largest direct advertiser to new homeowners in the nation.