Tropitone launches new website

Casual Living Staff -- Casual Living, 3/18/2013 9:05:34 AM

IRVINE, Calif. - Tropitone Furniture Company, Inc., has revamped its website at www.tropitone.com. The new website was developed from the bottom up by a collaborative team that includes Schraff of Trabuco Canyon, Calif.; Ethos Solutions of Phoenix, Ariz.; and Tropitone.

Schraff has worked with Tropitone for 10 years on its digital marketing and sales platform. Ethos Solutions is new to the Tropitone team and emerged from a comprehensive search for complementary digital marketing and sales skills.

"Our old website served us well for many years," said Walter Cornelison, Tropitone's director of technology services and human resources. "Tropitone was at the forefront of website platform technology when we created the old website and it has been meticulously improved and maintained over time. But we reached the point that we needed to utilize current state-of-the-art framework technology to create the features and benefits demanded by today's users. The Drupal 7 Content Management System platform will also streamline continuous improvement of the new website."

The Drupal 7 Content Management System platform provided Tropitone with the pathway to accomplish two of its primary user objectives with the new website - separate portals for commercial and residential users and intuitive reductive navigation.

"From a pure marketing communications perspective, we brought the look and feel of the website into complete alignment with the current market positions of the Tropitone, Basta Sole and Tropitone MODA brands," said Demetrius Linebarger, senior manager for digital marketing for Tropitone. "But our overriding objective was to provide a website that users could navigate as easily, quickly and intuitively as possible. The first step was to create separate portals for commercial and residential users. Intuitive reductive navigation specifically designed for each user group takes over from there."

According to a company press release, commercial sales representatives, designers, dealers and end users are more frequent visitors to the Tropitone website who require a more straightforward navigation path. Consumers who may come into the casual furnishings category every five years or so are more infrequent users with different needs, the release states. For frequent residential users such as sales representatives, designers and dealers are more like commercial users, the site features a more straightforward residential navigation path built specifically for them.

"We strongly believe that the casual furnishings industry is perfect for a combination of traditional and digital marketing and sales approaches," said Tanya Stevens, VP of marketing and operations services for Tropitone. "Traditional high-relationship brick and mortar showrooms create real value for end user customers. But they also utilize digital methods to make their purchase decisions. Our new website represents a critical improvement to the digital component of Tropitone's omnipresence marketing and sales strategy. Our objective is to have a positive and persuasive presence whether customers use traditional or digital methods to make their decisions."