Farnham, Quebec—Despite the fact that it operates 10 manufacturing plants in North America, employing approximately 2,300 people, and its parent company is the second largest hard surface flooring producer in the world, Domco Tarkett has an identity and branding crisis. As a way to solve this problem the company has brought in one of the industry’s most recognizable experts on branding, Lars von Kantzow, the man responsible for making Pergo a household name. The former president and CEO of the laminate manufacturer who resigned last year to form his own consulting company, TriCrown Consulting in Cary, N.C., has been hired by Domco Tarkett and charged with “developing branding and marketing strategies that will allow the company to successfully market and merchandise its products to each customer segment,” said Ulf Mattsson, president and CEO of Domco Tarkett.

He explained, even though Domco Tarkett played a major role in the industry-wide con solidation of the mid to late ’90s, the end result of all these mergers and acquisitions are brands that are a reflection of the vari ous corporate heritages. “It is now time for us to re-evaluate our company as a whole,” Mattsson noted, “by examining the position that each of our brands holds in the marketplace and developing a blueprint which will allow us to realize our full potential in the industry.” He told FCNews during an exclusive interview, “We want to create a distinct corporate identity. Right now we are a very fragmented company with many divisions and many brands and people don’t realize our actual size and strength in terms of the muscle and resources we have at our disposal. The perception of who and what we are does not match reality and we want to change that.”

Domco Tarkett is undertaking this venture now because “the time is right,” Mattsson said. “It’s been one year since we formed our current management structure; one year in which the management team has been stable.” He said it was a stroke of luck that von Kantzow happened to become available. “He is the ideal partner for this program. His track record at Pergo is a case study in corporate positioning and branding. Add to that his knowledge of the industry and the North American market will be invaluable to us as we proceed.”

As far as the project itself and what the industry can expect, Mattsson said in recent weeks he, von Kantzow, division presidents and other key personnel have defined what they would like done. “Our ambition is to go through with what has been defined over a 12-month period and implement things as we go along. Bare this in mind, while we will try to put things we learned into play as quickly as possible, some things may take years to take effect because they need time and continuity to be effective.” To understand where the company is, where it is perceived and where it needs to go, von Kantzow has been given the distinction of “being a member of our team,” Mattsson said. “He will have full access to the company and not just work with me, but with all our division presidents and key players. This is not a structural or heiarchy thing. The only way for him to get a true picture of where we are and need to be is to be allowed full access.”

For his part, von Kantzow called this “a challenging, yet exciting project, one that is a great transition for me from the corporate life.” His knowledge of the company is two-fold. First, von Kantzow is fully aware of the company’s history as he worked for Swedish Match in the 1980s when it owned Tarkett. “So, I’ve followed it over the years through all the mergers and acquisitions.” Secondly, he knows of the company’s North American operations through his time at Pergo. “It was not a direct competitor of Pergo so I only had a vague idea of the overall structure and makeup of the company. My perception of it was probably that of many people within the industry in that I was not sure how big a company it is and how many brands it actually has.” All that has changed, however. “I’ve learned a great deal about Domco Tarkett in the few weeks we’ve spent getting to know each other and mapping out the details of this project.”

The project itself has actually begun, as von Kant-zow has already started talking with people inside the company. Employees from all levels and all divisions will be interviewed. The reason he is conduct ing interviews with employees is, “you have to know who you are as well as what you are before you can begin developing an identity.” He will then venture forth and begin conducting interviews, focus groups and other means of information gathering with representatives from all customer segments including individual retailers, buying groups, distributors, contractors, architects, specifiers, etc. “This will be done via all types of communication,” von Kantzow said. “I will want to meet face-to-face with certain key customers, while others may be done over the phone, through e-mail, whatever. All combinations will be used, including going to Surfaces 2003 to at least get a pulse. I plan to keep going until we have a total representation of the company and the things that make it unique. Then we can know what we want to bring out and when it would be appropriate.”

“He is the perfect person for this task,” Mattsson said, “because he has no preconceived notions about Domco Tarkett and is not influenced in any way. He is seeing us from an outsider’s point of view. And, combined with his knowledge of the whole industry it allows him to make a fair and honest assessment in terms of where we are in the eyes of the industry and how we can get to be where we want.”