Every once in awhile you stumble onto something in this industry that makes you say, “Hmm, now that’s really different.” Sometimes it’s product; sometimes it’s not.

San Francisco-based hardwood flooring importer Struxtur, marketers of the Hewn hardwood line, offers a product portfolio that is not appreciably different than the hundreds of other wood flooring brands already on retailers’ shelves. And the company knows it. “Wood is wood. It’s a matter of how you package it,” said marketing manager Matthew Consola. And this company’s merchandising and promotion is unlike anything you’ve seen.

This is not to say Hewn is a me-too product. The engineered line offers colors that in the past could only be achieved through on- site staining of unfinished wood. But it truly is the packaging that sets Hewn apart from the masses.

The story begins with Jeanette Lam, who launched Struxtur a little over two years ago as a private-label supplier for distributors and retailers. Lam saw a certain degree of sameness to every wood flooring line and the marketing of such. At the same time, she saw a niche that no hardwood flooring supplier seemed to be attacking: a younger demographic.

Struxtur’s position is that the younger set seeks something uniquely their own. That’s why the Hewn merchandising is very GAP, very Banana Republic, showing the type of people to whom the company is actually branding. Think fresh, think exciting. “It’s marketing done with a purpose,” Consola said, equating Struxtur to the Apple of the industry and Hewn to the iPod.

The “hip” approach extends from the merchandising to marketing. Don’t expect to find Hewn ads in shelter magazines. No sir. Given that Struxtur is targeting the 30- to 45-year-old, urban, educated market as well as trying to educate the 20- to 30-year- ld market coming up behind them, the company for now has chosen “viral marketing.” No, you don’t have to take an antibiotic. Viral marketing is a term that encompasses elements of the Internet. Hewn right now has My Space and Facebook pages as if the brand were a person. It has friends to whom it is networking. It is telling people about this product without hard selling them. It blogs. The idea is that when this crowd is ready to buy their first hardwood floors, they will know who and what Hewn is.

Another point of differentiation is the mix-and-match design options. The company seeks to educate consumers on how to build a perfect room around its floors. And it does so on the back of the actual product sample. Every sample offers a color story for each of the 28 hues. It specifically tells the consumer if you choose this color, this is the feel it will bring to your room. It shows how floor, wall and accent colors all work together. Then you can take those colors and bring them into wallpaper, fabrics and accessories.

Struxtur may never be the biggest, but it also will never be boring.