Hicksville, N.Y.—Two years ago, executives at Shaw Industries told its dealer customers it was committed to building their businesses through a dedicated branding effort and by streamlining its various business units into one cohesive company. With the first steps in this massive undertaking complete, Shaw has been rolling out its new look to dealers across the U.S. and Canada since last month. Things began with a week-long corporate-wide meeting, the first in the mill’s history, at the newly remodeled Chattanooga Convention Center in Chattanooga, Tenn., before the company kicked off its “2004 More In Store” road tour in more than 60 cities in North America.

Blane Haywood, director of retail marketing, said the corporate event and the regional markets are the first steps in Shaw’s move to have a strong, recognizable consumer brand within the retail environment. Before the company could begin its massive rollout of new products in carpet, rugs, laminate and wood; new display systems—from a standalone unit to a full store concept—and new and expanded services and programs, it spent over a year researching what the consumer wants and what the retailer needs to fill those desires. “It’s the voice of the customer,” said Randy Merritt, executive vice president of sales and marketing. “We spent more money and time doing all types of research and listening so we can give our customers and their customers the correct products and services they need and the effort is reflected in our offerings for 2004.”

Haywood said, “we conducted countless focus groups, coffee house chats, one-on-one interviews with consumers, dealers and distributors and from these were able to determine what we needed to do to be the best flooring supplier in the industry. “While we found out a number of things we already knew,” he added, “such as our brand awareness is not very strong with the consumer, the studies show ed there is a tremendous amount of opportunity for us to grow with both the dealer and consumer.” Merritt added, “We not only have tremendous opportunities in the hard surface area, but also in carpet. We’re really excited about the new areas in carpet we are entering thanks to our acquisition of some of Dixie’s operations, such as needlepunch ( FCNews, Sept. 15/22). We feel we can use these to create new types of products.” Besides simply finding out what consumers want, Shaw broke the research down so that it could compare commonalities within different regions of the U.S., allowing it to create products and programs specifically for these areas.

In addition, it studied various retail environments across the country. More than 160 stores were looked at and within each one, the mill focused on 12 elements, such as signs, brochures, stickers, etc., to see what works and what didn’t help the end user. “The messages were loud and clear,” Haywood said, “and we feel we simplified everything, from education, trading up, inspiring design ideas and just making both the consumer and salesperson more comfortable with the entire selection and selling process.” As a result of the research, Shaw is introducing a myriad of products, displays and back office support services, with a number of products designed for specific areas of the country in terms of their look and construction. Even so, everything has a unified look and feel.

This includes new labels on the backs of samples which highlight the Shaw name more while still giving the consumer all the necessary information she (and her husband) is looking for when purchasing new flooring. “We want to look like one company,” Merritt noted. “Before this, each division had its own look. This created a mishmosh of brands, labels and displays and not only caused confusion but lessened our awareness in the store. Our goal is to not just have our name more visible in the store to the customer and dealer, but to do it in a way that partners—co-brands—with the retailer.” “We understand there is tremendous value in the store brand,” Haywood added. “It’s the local name that consumers have come to know and trust and we do not want to impede that.

Instead, we want to work with the dealer in a co-branding effort so that when a consumer walks in, her level of comfort is not just with the store but our brand as well.” (Editor’s note: In future issues, we will review the fruits of Shaw’s intensive consumer and dealer research, from displays and products to programs and services. We’ll also take a look at dealer reaction to these offerings as well as how the mill’s regional shows fared.) As part of the initiative, Shaw revamped all its retail displays and signage so everything has the same branding elements. The result is three different retail display systems ranging from an a la carte offering to a full fledged, all-inclusive package of fixtures, floors, lighting and signage.

Beyond that, Shaw created a variety of new and unique displays for its hard surface products that still fit in with the new branding initiative. In addition, Shaw has made style specific style boards to show consumers cross merchandising opportunities and inspire them on how to use the products. The first set of displays falls under the Showroom Solutions program. This is for any and all Shaw dealers and allows them to create any type of configuration they want from the modular units. The nearly dozen components of the system can be purchased together or individually and are designed to fit in a variety of showroom sizes, including 550-, 750- and 1,250-sq.-ft. or even a store-within-a-store layout.

Haywood likened them to an erector set in that a display can be easily set up in a number of formats. “They are also simple to change around if desired,” Haywood said. “Nothing is forced upon the dealer,” he continued, “and we will even help any retailer out in creating a comfortable selling environment.” The second display set up is Storeworks and is only available to dealers in the Shaw Flooring Alliance (SFA), of which there are approximately 2,900 retailers currently in the program. While the SFA displays are similar to those in the first program, the headers and graphics are geared specifically to the this program, including the many exclusive products and services retailers get.

One of the biggest is the Kathy Ireland brand, which Kathy Young, Shaw’s marketing manager, called “a terrific brand. Dealers and consumers love it which is why we’ve expanded the program into hard surfaces.” The best example of this can be seen in the new 12-ft. laminate display. “Because we are a manufacture of laminates, “ Merritt noted, “we needed a a display that lets the world know we are a major player in the category.” When used by a non SFA member, the graphics in the unit portray various lifestyle pictures. While SFA members get similar photos, the display prominently features Kathy Ireland and her brand. David Wilkerson, vice president of marketing for Shaw’s Hard Surface Division, said like everything else being introduced, the graphics for this display were chosen based on consumer feedback.

“We had hundreds of photos and culled them down following a number of consumer focus groups to see which ones they liked the best. We kept narrowing them down until we got to the ones being shown. It was a difficult process but I’m confident it was worth it because these are the images end users related to the most so they whould work well at the retail level.” The unit doesn’t just feature new graphics, it houses Shaw’s entire laminate collection, including a new attached back product—the only one to be manufactured in the U.S.

With more than $125 million in laminate sales, Shaw has quickly risen to become one of the top sellers in the category. “And, we’re just scratching the surface,” Merritt explained. “When we got started in this business 18 months ago we were at the commodity level. But now, I would put up our line up over anyone’s. Our goal is to be the largest in the field and helps put us on that road.” The final display concept is the Shaw Design Center (SDC). This is an all inclusive program in which the mill will send out an architect for an on-site consultation. “It takes about two weeks to complete the entire makeover,” Haywood noted. And, even though this is a total redesign, we will work with the dealer to maintain key elements so that all his needs are met.

For instance, since we do not carry resilient, we’ll work with the retailer to ensure his offerings in that category are prominently displayed. Nothing is forced; we’ll even help the dealer finance it.” SDC will have a limited distribution in that Shaw is targeting certain retailers the top 150 markets. The goal is to have between 150 and 300 dealers in the program. Those that do take it on will automatically become an SFA member entitling them to all the exclusive benefits the network provides. As for the new products themselves, Kurt Paulson, Shaw’s director of product marketing, residential flooring, said, “The days of spray and pray are gone. That method of introducing products was way too costly for everyone involved and, frankly, it didn’t make sense.”