On this yr’s business outlook survey, near 70 % of NWFA members reported unfavorable impacts from wood-look merchandise reminiscent of LVT, WPC, and laminate. That quantity is up from the prior yr. It’s clear the wooden flooring business continues to face stiff competitors from artificial merchandise which have gained market share, whereas making an attempt to duplicate the feel and appear of pure wooden.
On a latest journey to Nashville, Tennessee, I had the chance to tour the Southern Residing Concept Home, which is situated about 30 miles exterior of town. The Concept Home is created with sustainability in thoughts and to showcase the newest improvements in house design. Due to this fact, it didn’t shock me in any respect once I noticed the within of the Concept Home was stuffed with hardwood flooring, paneling, cupboards, and mouldings. In actual fact, I used to be shocked by simply what number of wooden parts had been utilized in the identical room – in lots of locations, coordinating wall panels, flooring, mouldings, door and window frames, and furnishings had been introduced collectively to emphasise the house mixing in with nature.
You may see it for your self within the September difficulty of Southern Residing. The design was very targeted on sustainability, sourcing vintage and native furnishings, and prioritizing pure supplies. To suit into the rolling hills of Appalachia, nothing matches the panorama higher than forest merchandise. Of observe, particularly to flooring, the home options present tendencies like wider planks and pure hues combined with each pure and painted wooden surfaces on the partitions and different accents.
Examples like this, which display that designers and owners need wooden of their properties, preserve popping up. Someplace alongside the shopping for journey a steer towards “wooden look” as a substitute of actual wooden appears to occur. Whether or not it’s the finances, a shopper not figuring out the distinction, or preconceived notions of faux wooden merchandise being simpler to take care of, there’s a discord between these components and the accessible options which may be provided with actual wooden flooring merchandise.
We all know the confusion can occur on the level of sale. That’s the reason the NWFA lately launched a brand new gross sales course aimed toward serving to business professionals successfully promote actual wooden flooring in an more and more aggressive market. The progressive course challenges this pattern, asking a essential query: “If clients need wooden, why promote them an imitation?”
“Promoting Towards Wooden Ground Look-alikes” offers a number of efficient methods for positioning and promoting actual wooden flooring as a substitute of vinyl, laminate, and LVT flooring options. The interactive, video-based course equips individuals with the instruments and data wanted to champion the worth, magnificence, and authenticity of actual wooden flooring. Now accessible on the NWFA College (NWFAU) as a part of the gross sales program, the course contains a mobile-responsive design, permitting learners to entry course supplies anytime, wherever, from any machine.
The NWFA additionally continues to equip wooden flooring professionals with extra supplies to market actual wooden flooring to owners. The “Actual Wooden. Actual Life.” toolkit is obtainable for
free to NWFA members and comprises digital and print adverts, reality sheets, pattern social media posts, and the Home-owner’s Handbook to Actual Wooden Flooring. These assets could also be downloaded at nwfa.org/consumer-outreach.
Moreover, the NWFA’s participation within the Actual American Hardwood Coalition (RAHC) is ongoing. The RAHC has a mission to extend shopper consciousness, market stability, and business gross sales of all actual American hardwood merchandise via shopper outreach and advertising and marketing campaigns. RAHC lately launched its new Construct Your World™ promoting marketing campaign in partnership with Magnolia Community. Operating via January 29, 2024, the marketing campaign is a primary for the American hardwood business, and consists of tv, digital, and social media promoting parts. Go to realamericanhardwood.com to test it out and learn to take part.
These are only a few of the methods you may be concerned with spreading the phrase about the advantages of wooden flooring and pushing again in opposition to the competitors from pretend wooden flooring. Extra details about “Promoting Towards Wooden Ground Look-alikes” and different instructional alternatives provided via NWFAU is obtainable at nwfa.org/nwfa-university/.
