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Gunderson’s Focuses on Brides, Social Media, and A Lot of Drive Time | June 25, 2014 (0 comments)
Sioux City, IA—Gunderson's, a regional jewelry chain in the Midwest, is a family owned and operated store at the top of their game. Founded in 1945, the company has its roots in watch repair. Today the store has grown to three locations, all located approximately 90 miles apart, in Sioux City, IA, Sioux Falls, SD, and Omaha, NE.
One reason for Gunderson's success can be traced to vice president Breanne Demers. The Centurion caught up with Demers in the Sioux City location.
"Bridal is a pretty strong category for us," says Demers. "We know that a lifetime client often starts with an engagement ring purchase. We stock the largest inventory of wedding bands, for both men and women, in all three markets." Thirty-five to 40% of Gunderson's sales come from the bridal category, although interestingly a bridal line is not their best selling line; rather it's a watch line.
Demers ensures that Gunderson's advertising and marketing targets bridal-aged customers. "We do a lot of radio," says Demers. "We advertise on stations that target the engagement ring purchaser. Plus, radio is more fun, not so stuffy." Demers cites The Knot's average bridal ages: 28 for men, 27 for women. In general, Gunderson's ads target the 22-35 year old market.
There's more to their bridal campaign than radio. "We do billboards, full page ads in bridal publications and other magazines read by the same age group," says Demers. "We do lots of social media, lots of Pinterest."
Breanne Demers, vice president of Gunderson's.
Gunderson's is indeed well represented on several social media platforms, namely Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. And Demers has interesting social media stories.
"On Facebook, we cross promote with selected bridal lines," says Demers. "We work with the vendors to post our inventory. And we've been boosting those posts. We've sold three rings off Facebook. When they told me about the first sale, I thought they were joking. And then the second one--crazy. Then there was another. I did not think it was possible to sell three rings off Facebook due to boosted posts."
Gunderson's has a solid following on Pinterest. Featuring board with non-standard titles like "How Women Wear Watches,' 'I Think I Need This,' 'Hut, Hut, Hike,' and 'Celebs Wear It, We Share It,' it's no wonder that they have a nice group of followers. And Demers is on top of that number. "I always wonder if we're doing Pinterest the right way. We do post all our engagement rings, and that encourages lots of Pins and re-pins. We also do plenty of boards not devoted to jewelry. I look at other Pinterest pages from similar businesses with organic growth to see their numbers, most have a max of about 700 followers." And Gunderson's number? A whopping 2,300.
Demers also reaches the bridal market through a website called 'gonnagetwed.com.' "It's similar in design to The Knot's site," says Demers. "It's a local site that caters to brides. We're the only jeweler. The owner, one of our customers, blogs about us and we have their link on our site. They get a great amount of traffic."
Of Gunderson's annual marketing cycle, about 60% of it is devoted to bridal advertising. As a communications arm, Gunderson's website is another source of information and product for bridal shoppers as well as jewelry lovers, but their website is continually evolving.
"I feel like the website we've had for the last three years was ahead of the curve. We want to stay ahead. We are making some changes to our website to increase the user experience," says Demers, who has been in meetings for the last six months about the upgrade. "The website will be mobile-friendly and feature a better shopping cart, among other things."
When Demers buys a bridal line, they often purchase 50 different ring styles times three (one for each location). If they sell one, they may not replace it with an exact duplicate. Instead they may order something similar in the same price point. With an e-commerce system online, it's been a challenge to make inventory work for all three stores plus their website, hence the upgrades.
Interior views of Gunderson's newest store, in Omaha, NE.
So how does Demers deal with three stores, each 90 miles apart? Lots of driving: she, owner Brian Gunderson, and Larry Bauer (of Nordic Premiums, a subsidiary of Gunderson's Jewelers that sells service awards and promotional gifts) shuffle inventory, repairs, and themselves between the three stores. While Bauer is not a jeweler, he has a presence in the same markets.
The distance between the three stores in time is between 1.5 and 2 hours for each, making driving a daily occurrence for the trio. Demers's new car helps her pass the time, working. "I do spend a lot of time in the car!" she says. "My car reads emails and texts to me, beeps like crazy if there's a car in my blind spot and slams on the brakes when needed. What I hear most is 'You have an incoming email from Brian Gunderson.' I don't even have to get my phone out. I voice activate a reply. When I first got it, I didn't know about the email feature and it just started reading them!" (Her talking car is a Toyota Avalon, by the way.)
All three of Gunderson's locations have generous sales floor square footage: Sioux Falls, 4,500; Sioux City, 6,200; and Omaha, the newest location, 6,500. Gunderson's employs just under 50 people for all three stores.
Another interior view in Omaha.
"We have a full-time jeweler in each store plus part time jewelers as well and a full-time master watchmaker in the Omaha location. All three stores are fully booked all the time with repairs," says Demers. "Our jewelers are all very experienced. It's a meticulous job to get. I'm a perfectionist and if they don't pass my test they do not get the job." Gunderson's showcases their jewelers behind windows so that the customers can see them working.
Demers's love of jewelry started when she was very young. A friend of her family owned a jewelry store and loved kids, Demers in particular. "He gave me bits of blue topaz and amethyst as a little girl. I grew up wanting to be a jeweler someday." And she did. Demers has a Graduate Gemologist diploma from GIA, and is an American Gem Society Certified Gemologist Appraiser. She worked in the industry for 15 years before spending the next 10 at Gunderson's. "I know how to keep people ticking along. It's about protecting the business. I can see the bottom line; you can't give things away."
Demers credits Brian Gunderson with her success at Gunderson's. "He took me under his wing and gave me more responsibility. Then he said, 'Now you do it.' He taught me everything I know about how this business works. Not all stores run like an independent family owned store. And I have great help. I have a full time manager and assistant manager in each location."
Gunderson's is a family owned business; Brian is the third-generation. He and his wife Kathy, who does accounting and office work for the company, are the only ones involved in the business today.
So how does Demers feel about Gundersons—the company and the family? "I adopted myself into the family," she says with a laugh. "The second generation, Gary, who is in his mid 70s, says, 'You're my only daughter.' He had three sons."
And as for future plans, Demers isn't going anywhere. "I'm gonna stick around until they kick me out."