Crate & Barrel is Missing the Boat - Content Can Be King!

Sounds harsh huh? I don't think harsh enough actually. Look, I like the ole' C&B (especially the all new CB2) but I think they could be doing a better job. How?

I got the new Crate & Barrel catalog in the mail the other day. Cool! I like dreaming about outdoor living (cuz it is NOT happening here in chilly San Francisco!). They've got some really great pictures of a picnic scene with sandwiches and wine, then a great dining set with dishes on the table, then a nice weber grill with some skewers on a tray, and even a nice shot of some peppers frying on a grill pan. I even clicked on Summer Quenchers because I was sure that  headline would surely bring some quenching recipes. Nope.

What really got me going this fine morning was that there is a complete absence of any recipes that might go well with grilling, with any of their pots and pans, an absence of how really delicious summer food looks set up on a table and really the lack people in any shot.

C&B, Williams Sonoma is cleaning your clock. I hopped over to the WS site and they've got a whole section on Recipes. In the Recipe tab I search on "Roaster" because I wanted to know what I could Roast and I was presented with 74 recipes! Then I clicked around and even found Video Recipes on how to use a Weber and make Coffee Rubbed Prime Rib. I'm sold. I might even need that Weber Grill and some utensils too!

My point? In this situation content can sell the product. C&B has all the essentials to be able to do this but they don't pull it across the finish line.

Other situations that might lend themselves to content driven emails, websites and communications? What is your story around your product?

Wineries - Wines offer another great case for pairing varietals with food recipes, but you also might think about featuring the story of the winery or the passion of your winemaker.

Jewelry - Offer the story of the stones you use in your pieces or a story about how you began making jewelry.

Cars - Mini Cooper does a nice job offering up the History of the Mini as well as a community for the Mini owners and games like Word of the Day, fun Motoring Citations where you can write up your friends.

Retail - Due Maternity has celebrity fashion pages, blogs, a great marketing tool "Look Who's Prego" and nifty tools like Create Your Own Calendar, Countdown Clock and Wish List, all designed to sell more product.

Home Depot does a great job with content around selling their products, especially for the "Do-it-Yourself-ers".

Fitness Centers/Equipment - Write about an exercise of the month with a piece of gym equipment that you sell or your center offers.

Bars/Restaurants - Offer up your "secret" recipe for a popular drink or dish. Don't worry, no one can do it better than you, but they'll sure have fun trying!

Non Profit Organizations - You all have stories to tell about your cause. VR customers Street Schools and Children Today do a great job at this.

You can use content either very simply (a recipe) or more difficult (a game) but any way you do it it can help you sell more. Hey, I'd keep the C&B catalog around more if it had some good content in it and who knows maybe even buy a Roaster!

Are you using content to drive more sales? Tell us how!

Comments

[A C Hellman]

The key question is whether or not they are trying to sell product or lifestyle that sells product. Their price points are low enough to call into question the quality of what they produce in the minds of the most attractive elements of the market place - ie the conscientious consumer. Having a random green product here or there is not sufficient. There is an element of thoughtfulness that's missing when you have as many products as many of these companies carry. If you are selling lifestyle, the idea should absolutely be to establish the relevance of your brand among your customers - to give them an aspirational sense of your message. In this case, then content definitely sells. If, on the other hand you are simply selling product, then the pricing better be the lead because it's really the only thing that you are offering. I think that C&B and W-S are fundamentally different. However, I do agree that both would benefit from attempts to elevate the perception of their brand. But given their large expense base, can they afford to do it without alienating their core customers? What would it need to mean for their pricing? In my mind, it's a credibility issue and I think they're stuck right where they are.

[Suzette]

There is something that this blogger is tragically overlooking: WILLIAMS-SONOMA IS MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE THAT C & B! I don't know about you, but I would prefer NOT to pay the higher prices, buy from C & B, then look in cookbooks or online for recipes---sometimes Williams-Sonoma's site for those fabulous recipes. So to save money, you can do the same. By C & B not investing as much money in their catalogs than W-S is, they are actually passing the savings onto the consumer. I can live with that! If you want to pay higher prices for that pretty catalog to tell you a bed-time story about food, then hey, keep complaining--- but just be careful what you wish for...

[Shelby]

I was just in Crate & Barrel's website and they too offer food products. There are rubs, sauces, seasonings, right down to Chipotle Ketchup. (I think Heinz tried this same flavor a few years back and it flopped.) They have an entire line of gourmet food. They also have at least 4 cookbooks I found just in the "if you like this, you'll like this" area when clicking elsewhere. So perhaps they aren't giving away the recipes because they prefer to sell them. I don't know that I would be more likely to buy the GRILL because of the recipes, but I might buy the rub quicker if there was a few yummy looking recipes on the page to make my mouth water.

[Janine Popick]

For Gift Baskets: Good points. However I do disagree, WS will have recipes just to sell the tools and not the food or spices they offer.

To name a few of MANY:

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/recipedetail.cfm?objectid=7C0EC85E%2D69D3%2D4B64%2D912626A4799A7DF8
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/recipedetail.cfm?objectid=87AA50B7%2D3BD7%2D49E2%2D9E65A61422615068
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/recipedetail.cfm?objectid=5200C3CD%2DC5DD%2DADFA%2D317A50CEC508E063
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/recipedetail.cfm?objectid=420012B4%2D5DD0%2D4A91%2DA0B98F746EA4A57F

What I'm also saying is that they might be missing out on a bigger potential "if" their kitchen business is so small. Also, why would they then lead with kitchenware on the cover if they didn't want to really sell those products?

I respectfully disagree, I think that content could only help them sell their products.

[A C Hellman]

I couldn't agree with you more. In fact, I have started a company aimed at building out much of the rich content connected to the idea of gathering around the table - and selling the products that support the experience. Our new company - Teroforma - tells the story behind each object in a new approach to online shopping that allows visitors to set their own table and explore the products' designers and artisans. Recipes, customer content and much more are all currently in the works. Our website is www.teroforma.com and I would LOVE to hear your feedback.

[Gift Baskets]

Janine, within this blog post, has made the assumption that having recipe content will generate sales. In fact, it is more likely that irrelevant content will serve as a deterent to sales, not an aide.

One piece of the puzzle that Janine missed was product category coverage, which is the answer to why Williams-Sonoma does it and Crate and Barrel does not. Williams-Sonoma happens to sell actual food while Crate and Barrel just sells products that cook that food. This is not to mention that Crate & Barrel is a Home Decor Living retailer and the kitchen is just one line of their business, albeit a small portion of their sales.

In summary, it would make no sense for Crate & Barrel to offer recipe content. Their schtick is upscale living and any content they write needs to be about the upscale lifestyle...which encompasses more rooms than just the kitchen.