Naper Settlement’s new exhibit, “Selling Kroehler,” is a blast to the past, showcasing the history of the Kroehler Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest producer of upholstered furniture during the 20th century.
The company, owned by Peter Edward Kroehler, was originally called the Naperville Lounge Company in the early 1890s and was headquartered in the city for almost a hundred years.
“This is a nationwide furniture company. They’re using the railroad to ship out, but they’re also growing factories, and that’s bringing Naperville kind of to national attention through furniture. So, we really wanted to focus on that advertising, which is what you’ll see at Naper Settlement,” said Andrea Field, curator of history at Naper Settlement.
The exhibit shows how Kroehler used innovative designs and advertising strategies to transform the once small company into a booming business, at one point, making it one of Naperville’s biggest employers.
Kroehler implements marketing targeting the female consumer
“Selling Kroehler” highlights some of the furniture sold by the company at the time, as well as some of the fabrics used to make it.
It largely focuses on the various marketing techniques used to appeal to the company’s target audience: women.
“When they talk about their customer, they are talking about she, she, she…At that time period, they were considered sort of the head consumer for the household. So, it’s not just that they’re shopping for themselves; they’re shopping for their husbands, they’re shopping for their children,” said Field.
A great deal of the companies’ advertisements featured women, and they also had women working behind the scenes to create them.
“We talk about Alice Alexander, who was their PR director for a long period of time. We talk about Fredi Leaf, who did a lot of really cool artwork that you’ll see throughout the show. So not only are they selling to women, but they’re using women to help make that possible,” said Field.
One standout marketing tool was the color harmonizer, which allowed potential buyers to mix and match different colors of Kroehler furniture based on their homes or general preferences.
A more advanced digital version of the late 1930s tool is part of the Naper Settlement exhibit, allowing visitors to do the same.
“The customer would be able to come in, select the wall color of their house, select the rug color, and then see the way that different colors of Kroehler’s couches would look in that space. And so one of the things they did was they advertised how many choices the color harmonizer gave people,” she said.
‘Selling Kroehler’ showcases miniature rooms, part of collaborative campaign
The exhibit also features miniature rooms that have tiny replicas of what Kroehler furniture would have looked like.
The rooms were created in partnership with DuPont in the ‘60s, which had recently pioneered some synthetic fabrics and looked to market them to the public.
“From DuPont’s perspective, what they want is to showcase these fabrics in rooms so people will start to think of them as appropriate upholstery fabric. From Kroehler’s perspective, they want to create an event at local [furniture] dealerships to bring in traffic, so they worked together,” said Field.
“We have five of the six original miniatures in our collection. And so that was one of the things that we wanted to show off, because this isn’t necessarily how you would think about selling furniture at their miniature showrooms, but this is a campaign that Kroehler undertook.”
Eugene Kupjack, a famous miniaturist in the Chicagoland area, created the six rooms, half of which were historic and the others contemporary.
All over the exhibit walls, visitors can find extensive information about the company and learn more about the culture of the 20th century.
According to Field, the exhibit offers a glimpse into one of the important parts of Naperville history.
“This is a way to sort of connect with that. It’s also a great way to kind of look at how the world we live in today was built,” she said.
“Selling Kroehler” is on display until the end of the year.
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