Magnolia Home Theater: The Special Ingredient
Best Buy’s Magnolia Home Theater division brings flavor to a broad mix.
August 2008 By Jeff O’Heir
If Best Buy is the CE buffet, offering customers an all-you-can-eat menu at affordable prices, its Magnolia Home Theater division is the fine dining service that satisfies a more discerning pallet and serves as the launching pad for more creative offerings from the larger kitchen.
“Magnolia is the premiere entity of Best Buy, where we show customers the premium brands they may not see elsewhere,” said Boris Martir, a Magnolia Home Theater professional at Best Buy’s New York City store on Sixth Avenue and 23rd Street. “We look to give customers the end-to-end solution that satisfies their lifestyle needs.”
That concept has proven especially useful over the last few years as Best Buy has borrowed several of Magnolia’s key sales and merchandising strategies to help drive the sale of full CE solutions, including more installation services and add-on products such as mounts, DirectTV, audio and HD technologies.
“Magnolia is the pinnacle of customer-centricity,” Mike Vitelli, Best Buy’s executive vice president told Dealerscope earlier this year when asked how the greater entity benefits from the more specialty and custom focus of Magnolia’s more than 300 in-store locations. Vitelli was charged with establishing the Magnolia divisions throughout Best Buy. He eventually implemented many of its best practices within other Best Buy departments. “What came out of that is now the norm,” he said.
Vitelli credited that strategy for helping to drive record flat-panel sales, contributing to the overall redesign and merchandising of Best Buy’s TV section and increasing add-on product and service sales.
Steve Baker, director of industry analysis for the NPD Group, a market research firm, underscored that, saying Magnolia provides differentiating factors that would be difficult for Best Buy to replicate without such a division.
“Given the high visibility of something like home theater, it was imperative for Best Buy to present home theater to customers who are willing to pay for the services and premium products of a Magnolia,” he said. “The way they treat customers and bring them up to a higher-end experience prevents those customers from going someplace else.”
Magnolia’s close ties with Best Buy’s Geek Squad also helps the company sell more products and services. Once an installer is in the home, it’s easier for him to see what else the customer needs to complete full solutions. The Magnolia division has also increased its business with contractors and designers, opening up more rooms in a customer’s home that may be ripe for additional products and services, explained Andre Man, one of the top Blue Shirts at Best Buy’s Lexington Avenue store in New York City, which does not have a Magnolia division.
“Magnolia is the premiere entity of Best Buy, where we show customers the premium brands they may not see elsewhere,” said Boris Martir, a Magnolia Home Theater professional at Best Buy’s New York City store on Sixth Avenue and 23rd Street. “We look to give customers the end-to-end solution that satisfies their lifestyle needs.”
That concept has proven especially useful over the last few years as Best Buy has borrowed several of Magnolia’s key sales and merchandising strategies to help drive the sale of full CE solutions, including more installation services and add-on products such as mounts, DirectTV, audio and HD technologies.
“Magnolia is the pinnacle of customer-centricity,” Mike Vitelli, Best Buy’s executive vice president told Dealerscope earlier this year when asked how the greater entity benefits from the more specialty and custom focus of Magnolia’s more than 300 in-store locations. Vitelli was charged with establishing the Magnolia divisions throughout Best Buy. He eventually implemented many of its best practices within other Best Buy departments. “What came out of that is now the norm,” he said.
Vitelli credited that strategy for helping to drive record flat-panel sales, contributing to the overall redesign and merchandising of Best Buy’s TV section and increasing add-on product and service sales.
Steve Baker, director of industry analysis for the NPD Group, a market research firm, underscored that, saying Magnolia provides differentiating factors that would be difficult for Best Buy to replicate without such a division.
“Given the high visibility of something like home theater, it was imperative for Best Buy to present home theater to customers who are willing to pay for the services and premium products of a Magnolia,” he said. “The way they treat customers and bring them up to a higher-end experience prevents those customers from going someplace else.”
Magnolia’s close ties with Best Buy’s Geek Squad also helps the company sell more products and services. Once an installer is in the home, it’s easier for him to see what else the customer needs to complete full solutions. The Magnolia division has also increased its business with contractors and designers, opening up more rooms in a customer’s home that may be ripe for additional products and services, explained Andre Man, one of the top Blue Shirts at Best Buy’s Lexington Avenue store in New York City, which does not have a Magnolia division.
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