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Located in Boulder, Colo., Fruehauf’s Patio & Garden Center offers high-quality products in a one-of-a-kind setting.
By SHARON SANDERS
On a sunny Saturday morning, a family of four jumps into the car and hits the road for a two-hour drive. Their destination is not an amusement park or a hike in the woods; their final stop is Fruehauf’s Patio & Garden Center, the largest outdoor-living retailer in Colorado. David Daum, vice president of Fruehauf’s, says, “Fruehauf’s is a destination, not just a place to buy patio furniture.”
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| Over the past 30 years, Fruehauf’s Patio & Garden Center has evolved from a nursery to the premier outdoor-living store in Colorado. It carries everything outdoor enthusiasts need to create their ultimate outdoor retreats. |
He says that it is not uncommon for customers to drive several hours from surrounding cities, and even neighboring states, to spend an afternoon shopping and relaxing in Fruehauf’s lush, two-acre outdoor showroom. Daum and President Mary Fruehauf (daughter of the founders, Vic and Gretchen Fruehauf) have turned Fruehauf’s into an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise by taking the most basic marketing principle, set yourself apart from the competition, to a whole new level.
Offer It and They Will Come
In 1977, Vic and Gretchen Fruehauf started an upscale nursery that specialized in plants, flowers and gifts to serve residents of Boulder and nearby communities. Business was steady and plentiful for many years. In the early 1980s, Vic decided to display a simple aluminum dining set with four chairs to see if customers would be interested. Interested, however, was an understatement. “After we sold that first set, we knew we were on to something,” Mary Fruehauf remembers. “The more furniture we bought, the more we sold.” They started bringing in wrought iron, teak and wicker furniture from the best manufacturers. “It slowly became our focus,” Fruehauf says. She and Daum eventually took over the business and continued to transform Fruehauf’s into the most tranquil, inviting outdoor-furniture showroom one could imagine.
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| Shoppers of all ages can relax and sip a soda or enjoy a refreshing ice cream at Fruehauf’s cozy café. |
When you walk through Fruehauf’s today, you are taken aback by its natural beauty. Over 400 sets of patio furniture (from 25 manufacturers) are meticulously merchandised as inviting outdoor-room vignettes, complete with bubbling fountains, mini waterfalls, charming fireplaces, potted accent plants and hundreds of high-end accessories. “Customers don’t have to visualize our furniture in their backyards because it’s displayed in settings just as realistic and beautiful,” Daum says. People are often so inspired by what they see that they purchase entire furniture vignettes, plants and all.
Fruehauf and Daum have also transformed three on-site buildings (including two glass greenhouses) into themed showrooms. “People walk through the rooms and the scenes change at every turn. It’s like a ride at Disneyland,” Daum explains. “They stroll through a tropical paradise, then pass by a rustic mountain-cabin setting and end up in a breezy New England coastal scene.” To give customers different ideas about how to use the furniture, the store has also created lifestyle vignettes, so people can picture themselves having their morning coffee at a bistro table or enjoying a formal dinner under an awing with friends.
After an afternoon of shopping, the family can relax at Fruehauf’s quaint café (while sitting on furniture that is available for purchase) or pick up some vintage candy for the children at the sweet shop. There is even a resident cat, Puffle Puff, who loves to mingle with shoppers.
During the winter months, Fruehauf’s is transformed into a festive holiday wonderland filled with themed Christmas trees, including a Disney tree, a Snoopy tree and a baby’s first Christmas tree. “It’s a family affair for people to buy their Christmas trees or ornaments from us every year,” Daum says. “It’s been a great way to get people to come in when the temperature drops.”
Patio-furniture sales represent 70 percent of Fruehauf’s business, while garden supplies and accessories account for 30 percent, but everything works together to set the scene. If people want to be inspired to create an outdoor room, Daum says, “They don’t need to look any further than Fruehaufs.”
Getting the Word Out
Daum estimates that 80 percent of the store’s business comes from outside the local area because no other retailer for miles around can match its selection, prices and ambience. Fruehauf’s serves the entire Rocky Mountain area, encompassing a radius of several hundred miles. Because this is such a wide area of concentration, Daum has carefully mapped out an advertising strategy.
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| Left to right: Mary Fruehauf (president), David Daum (vice president) and Mariah Maydew (general manager) work as a team to keep Fruehauf’s thriving business fresh and enticing for customers. |
The core of the plan is based on radio, newspaper and television advertising. Daum says that the combination of the three has given him the reach and repetition he needs to attract customers, no matter where they live. “By far, our biggest success has been radio, because it’s heard by so many people,” Daum says. For the past four years, he has partnered with the top morning-radio talk-show personality in the Rocky Mountain area. She talks about Fruehauf’s every day during her live morning program. Daum is amazed at the influence that she has over her listeners. “I’ve had people walk into our store just because she told them to stop by,” he says. In addition to radio, he regularly runs 30-second television spots on the weekend news, as well as weekend newspaper ads in local and regional papers. “We hit people from all angles on the weekends, so when they’re making their plans for the day, they think about Fruehauf’s,” he says.
Fruehauf’s staff faithfully tracks the effectiveness of the advertising by asking customers at the point of sale how they heard about the store. The staff fills in the responses in a little box on the store’s copy of the sales receipt. “By tracking over the years, we’ve discovered what works and what doesn’t,” Daum explains. “We’ve actually done advertising in the past that didn’t produce a single return. If we didn’t ask, we might still be doing it today.”
Fruehauf’s celebrated 30 years in business this year, and it is still going strong. “It’s about giving customers something special they can’t get anywhere else,” Daum says. “Fruehauf’s is the Disneyland of outdoor-living stores: we’re the happiest place on
PHPR July/August 2007
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