Anaheim, Calif.—The World Floor Covering Association ( WFCA) has partnered with the Bridgeway Media Group (formerly Design Center Solutions) to launch a new business venture designed to offer floor covering retailers products and services allowing them to better market to consumers. The new company, Creating Your Space, will marry WFCA’s 2,000-plus retailer membership base with Bridgeway Media’s extensive library of Web-based content that includes sales floor training and product information videos, as well as proprietary software and Internet tools.

Bridgeway Media and the WFCA will develop a marketing program available to floor covering retailers that offers services such as local marketing support, in-store merchandising, Internet outreach and training. “We’ve begun discussions with Bridgeway to determine the extent and scope of our investment, and to delineate the responsi bilities and obligations of each partner as we launch this exciting new company,” said Aaron Pirner, WFCA’s chairman.

“We anticipate announcing a final deal prior to Surfaces 2006.” “Our partnership with Bridgeway has the potential to help the WFCA fulfill its long-term vision of becoming the honest broker of information to the industry,” said Chris Davis, WFCA’s president and CEO. “By providing retailers with new tools to assist and service consumers through the Internet, we hope to build our membership as well as retain current members by positioning the floor covering category on par with other discretionary purchase items such as electronics, furniture and travel.”

“Our goal is to empower floor covering retailers through their membership in the WFCA with the resources to create a new shopping experience for their consumers,” said Michael Vogel, Bridgeway’s president and CEO. “By leveraging WFCA’s unique position as the industry’s source of unbiased information with our five years of experience assisting the builder design center market, we believe the marketplace response will be very favorable.”

“When you sign up with the program you become a member of the WFCA, if you’re not one already,” said Davis. “We will be aggressively promoting it outside the membership as well, and members from the various buying groups can also participate. “We are literally putting together a super site that will be completely unbiased,” he added.

“Our goal is to make it the number one flooring site on the Internet. The compelling thing about this site is that it will provide unbiased information on all types of floor covering. It will discuss such things as appropriate uses and applications. It’s really designed to help the consumer have a better understanding and to select the right floor for her particular use.

“What we are also telling them is,” continued Davis, “‘OK, if you want to buy from someone who subscribes to a high code of ethics in dealing with the customer, and will sell to you the appropriate product based on this Web site, go into the locator, which you’ll be able to go into by zip code, geographic region or state, and up will pop all our members in that area.’

“What is different about that is,” he explained, “not only will the dealers get leads, but we’ve got a super sophisticated workbook which people will be able to assemble, comprised of the various types of floors they want, or various types of rooms. You’ll be literally able to go through a product catalog on screen and pick out the colors, types and styles.

“You can then forward the workbook directly to the dealer and they’ll have that in their store and they can pull it down and pull out all the appropriate products that fit the criteria that you have come up with,” Davis said. “It’s very much like buying a car and picking out the colors on a Web site. You can pretty much specify what you want.

“We are really excited about it, particularly the aspects of the technology already in place. We were under the impression when we first started this initiative, that we were going to literally have to create all the technology. We were thinking this is going to cost us millions to do it right. We were shocked to find out that it pretty much has already been done and that Bridgeway actually had a system up that was basically done from the Design Center, with some adaptation.

“There is a lot of work involved, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not like we are starting from scratch,” he concluded. “We are gunning for Surfaces 2006. We are confident we will be able to do it. Just wait until people see what we are going to show there, they will be blown away.”

For more information on WFCA and its programs, call 800/624-6880. —Louis Iannaco