Lighting vendors focus on styling to stay competitive

As the lamp and lighting industry expands its overseas manufacturing, vendors are keenly aware that to attract retailers and consumers, you've got to have the look.

“The great challenge is to design relevant product that meets and exceeds design expectations of today's consumer. It always comes back to design,” said Andrea Greene, vice president of creative development for New York-based Murray Feiss.

To stay on the leading edge, manufacturers' strategies include investing in top designers, building their own factories abroad, and turning attention to other accent industries for ideas.

At Murray Feiss, designers such as Bob Mackie and Martha Stewart are hot draws. “With the introduction of our newest licensee program with Martha Stewart,” Greene said, “we are experiencing strong numbers and a surge in our portable categories, which include table and floor models.

“We are enthusiastic about the infusion of energy that the Martha Stewart Lighting products bring to our line,” Greene said, adding that Stewart's hardwire designs will debut in January in Dallas. The company's customer base — lighting retailers and, increasingly, furniture showrooms — “is expected to grow substantially with the addition of the Martha Stewart line, which has tremendous breadth and depth for retailers and enormous brand recognition.”

Steve Crowder, president and CEO of Decorize in Springfield, Mo., said the addition this year of a line of lamps by Christi Proctor of HGTV's “Trading Spaces” helped boost High Point Market sales significantly over last year. He attributes his company's successful looks to a “consumer driven design process” that includes reviews by retailers, consumers and sales reps. “This 'editing' process allows us to introduce product that we know the consumer actually will buy,” he said.

Decorize decided two years ago to create its own overseas infrastructure, including a factory in Indonesia. This investment has helped them cut down on product introduction time — and create finishes not easily duplicated, he said. “So much overseas product has begun to look the same and having our own facility has kept our design on the cutting edge,” he said.

Daniel Edelist, president of Nova Lighting in Los Angeles, said his company works only with fine artists, architects and industrial designers to create the company's contemporary designs, which they bring to the factory in China.

Insisting upon original designs overseas can be tough, he said, because generally Chinese companies prefer to produce their own patterns. But Edelist doesn't believe that's what the consumer is looking for. “People are looking for newness,” he said. “The same old stuff on the shelf is not selling.”

You also have to create products that consumers can use, said Rhett Sypher, founder of Cypress Point Lighting in suburban Atlanta. He said his company, which makes traditional to contemporary designs, studies shelter magazines and industries such as textiles and tabletop to see what colors and patterns are selling.

“I think what a lot of us have missed in the industry is understanding what the consumer is looking for,” Sypher said. “They've been getting Chinese brown for so many years. … The retailer, as well as the consumer, is looking for other things — but things that go with furniture, not just a piece of art that happens to hold a light bulb.”

Consumer tastes are on the conservative side, with an emphasis on mix and match. Jan Shaffer, director of portables and tiffany for Kichler Lamps and Accessories in Cleveland (which adopted a new name in June after acquiring Westwood Collections), said metallics are strong sellers because they pair well with pared-down furniture styles, as well as warm-hued porcelains. She said Kichler has added mirrors and accessories to pair with lamps to create “a complete statement for a room.”

Edelist said he sees several sub-markets, depending on region: clean contemporary in Las Vegas; soft contemporary-transitional in High Point; and traditional in Atlanta. He said the focus at Nova, which recently acquired Jon Gilmore and American Lamp Company, is on branding and integrating products to offer a more lifestyle-store-oriented selection of lamps, wall decor and clocks.

Murray Feiss, known for its traditional designs, is moving toward a cleaner, less embellished look, with some merging of modern and traditional, Greene said. “Today's consumer wants a mix, not a match,” she said. “New plated finishes and an increase in scale and proportion awareness define the consumer of 2008.”

Sypher said a hot seller for his company right now is the Heritage Collection, which is traditional and Old World in its appeal. “It's comfort food for the home,” he said.

Proctor, who plans with Decorize to introduce about 80 lamps next year, said she sees interest in homey looks and interesting shade fabrics. Proctor incorporates elements of personal finds and favorites in her designs. For instance, a Chinese dragonfish lamp is inspired by a screen found in a salvage yard while working on “Trading Spaces,” and a rooster lamp recalls one Proctor received years ago from her godmother. “The home should speak to who you are, where your heart is and who your family is — not what magazine you love best,” she said.

Greene added that researching new markets during these slower economic times is imperative. Right now, two hot categories at Murray Feiss are kitchen and bath lighting, which are leading the company's line expansions. “Where new construction is sluggish, kitchen and bathroom renovations will dominate and offset the housing slump,” Greene said. “While we thrive in new construction booms, we cannot underestimate the renovating and remodeling that takes place when people remain in older homes and need to update and upgrade their lighting.”