Showtime at Tunica

I love the South Central Manufactured Housing Show – the weather can be as unpredictable as the economy is right now but you always have a great time. I hadn’t attended for a few years, but I believe in always being on top of trends and the market for my clients so I thought I’d attend and see what was new.

There has been lots of talk over the last few years about if we even need to have shows anymore – I truly believe we do. I do think though many times we miss a great opportunity of showing consumers what we do (and do well!) by not having a public day. Tunica is a great example – there is amazing traffic going by the homes every day (and these homes get set earlier than most shows so they even get more exposure) and I’m sure many of these are potential buyers. What I noticed this year is that Clayton and Southern Energy did some homes with beautiful exteriors, but they were in the middle of the show grounds with a sea of blah beige homes surrounding them – you couldn’t see they were there until you walked through the show. I would think that if the manufacturers worked together to help promote what we do to consumers and the press everyone would win. Another possibility would be having information from the different manufacturers available at the front, or even a website where they could get more information. On that note, this is one of the reasons I’m so excited about the Virtual Housing Show – it will give people a place to go and get information for more than the three or so days of a show.

Wednesday was an absolutely beautiful day – not too cold, not too hot, no rain and lots of beautiful homes to look at! One of the biggest trends I noticed is that manufacturers seem to be reverting back to neutral, simple exteriors, but the interiors had lots of that legendary “Alabama Flash”. Southern Energy was definitely the exception to that – their brick faced home was the one that everyone was talking about. It was a great example of how we can compete with site built homes. I personally loved the ranch house – it was a beautiful exterior and the bold colors and textures were really refreshing.

As far as interior colors, Franklin Homes were my favorites. A lot of the other homes started looking the same after awhile using the same colors and fabrics, but Franklin offered interiors that were simple,tasteful and used beautiful color palettes.

One thing I noticed, and I’d almost consider this a good thing is some of the homes had so much furniture in them it was hard for people to navigate through them. It was great to see so much traffic going through the homes – that had to make the manufacturers that were participating in the show happy! Space planning is so important and one reason why you do a model home. You should want to sell homes, not furniture and traffic flow in a show house needs to be a major consideration. On the other side of the coin if you under-merchandise it looks like you ran out of money. Hiring a professional that understands how to make a model home sell can mean the difference between the model becoming your top seller or one that sits on the shelves.

With Tunica being outdoors and so spread out many times I don’t get to see people that I know are there, but this time I was thrilled to see people that I knew doing their research. Craig Calkins from Cavco Texas was there as well as one of my favorite new Showtime at Tunica clients – Howard McGirt of Champion of Texas. Erv Bontrager of Commodore Homes was also there and we crossed paths in a couple of the homes. You can tell who the current and future leaders are of our industry are – they never sleep and are always out there learning.

I also spent quite a bit of time in the vendor spaces looking for new products, and there were some interesting ones there. My favorite was Syntec and the BeauFlor resilient flooring. The offerings were spectacular and this product just continues to provide a look and ease of maintenance that I personally would use in my home over ceramic tile or wood – it looks the same but has easy or no maintenance. Definitely a green,lifestyle product – perfect for busy families or people with pets. Syntec was very smart to bring Michael Huffman and Dean Sippel on to their team to introduce Syntec to the manufactured housing community.

Another group that it was great to run into was Russell Yancey and Chris Murray with Blazon International Group (BIG). They shared with me some of the new introductions they will be making and if you haven’t seen their products yet you need to.

My coverage of the show wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the amazing marketing campaign that Clayton did. As basketball was at the top of any sports fans topic list, what Clayton did with their “Tunica Madness” was the perfect example of a timely idea that was right on target for their buyers. They had trading style cards instead of business cards out in the homes that had the various sales people’s “stats” – what region they sold in, how many years with the company, and how many homes they sold in 2009. They had lots of games, fun prizes (branded with the Clayton logos) and huge inflated basketballs at each end of their area signed by “Commissioner” Kevin Clayton. Well done, and I would argue that this campaign would win over any I’ve ever seen a site builder do.

If you didn’t attend the Tunica show you should have – it had a lot to offer. But MHMSM and Lifestylist® Suzanne Felber would like to share what we experienced at Tunica, and have over 500 images from the show we would like to share with you. Just visit the Tunica Show Photos page and we’ll email you the URL and password to where you can view what we saw and loved.

Next stop – Vegas! We will be attending the 20th MHI Congress in Las Vegas April 13 – 15th, then on to the Great Southwest Home Show in Tulsa, OK April 29-30. A Lifestylist’s work is never done :). If you are at Congress please say hello – I’ll be with the photographer capturing images and ideas to share here. In Tulsa I will be presenting a Lifestylist Designed Home for Champion Homes of Texas. Hope to see and meet you soon!

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Suzanne S. Felber, Lifestylist® Suzanne has been involved in the home building industry for over 25 years. She is a member and instructor of the Institute of Residential Marketing, was previously on the board of trustees for the National Sales and Marketing Council and is a popular speaker at various events including the International Builders Convention, The Manufactured Housing Industry Congress and Home Interiors and Gifts national conventions.
Her work has been seen throughout the country in various publications, showhouses and model homes. She has been featured on the HGTV program “Dream Builders” and her work has appeared in Home Magazine, This Old House Magazine and Home Depot’s StyleIdeas Magazines. Felber considers herself a Lifestylist® because home design truly has more to do with how a person lives within their home instead of current trends and fads. Felber is the only licensed Lifestylist® in the United States, and has merchandised successful site built and manufactured model homes from coast to coast. The Home Idea Factory is available for all of your design and decor needs including furniture and decor packages, product selections, and show homes. We can be reached at: 214-941-8341 or emailed at: answers@lifestylist.com – All photography by LAS Photo