Paint chain, home furnishings retailer to partner

Home Channel News, May 3, 1999

The paint stores division of Sherwin-Williams will soon be offering customers a "New Look" in a most unusual place.

The Cleveland-based division last month revealed an innovative marketing program, called "The New Look," that it will launch in May in partnership with specialty home furnishings retailer The Bombay Company.

The main element of "The New Look" will be the introduction of an exclusive line of interior paints inspired by Bombay's Mediterranean Spice collection of furniture and accessories. The new paint colors will be available only through Sherwin-Williams paint stores. Although the paint can labels will not have Bombay's name on them, the color cards will indicate that they were inspired by Bombay's furniture line.

Bombay, which is based in Fort Worth, Texas, and Sherwin-Williams will give customers discount coupons for purchases from the other company, which they will advertise through point-of-purchase literature in the stores and through flyers, catalogs and other media. Bombay's stores will have photographs of rooms decorated with Bombay furniture and painted with Sherwin-Williams coatings.

"We as a company need to look beyond just what goes on the wall," said Bob Wells, Sherwin-Williams' vp-marketing communications. "We're in the business of beautifying the home, and so is Bombay." Cathy Pringle, Bombay's vp -marketing, added that the relationship makes sense since it gives both companies "two different kinds of places to capture customers." Bombay's stores are located in malls and capture sales from passers-by enticed by what they see through the store's windows, whereas Sherwin-Williams' stores are destinations for consumers "with specific projects in mind," said Pringle.

Pringle said that the agreement would also allow Bombay and Sherwin-Williams to reach more consumers owing to complementary marketing strategies. "Sherwin-Williams' advertising centers around television radio and newspaper ads," said Pringle. "Bombay focuses on direct marketing vehicles like mail-order catalogs."

Wells said Sherwin-Williams currently has no plans for other joint marketing relationships, although the company is "discussing a lot of different variations of this." It will first monitor customer response to the initial venture before considering similar relationships with other retailers.

The Bombay Company operates 415 stores and had 1998 sales of $357 million. Sherwin-Williams' stable of more than 2,200 stores posted 1998 sales of $2.8 billion.