Alternative Tile Materials Can Spruce Up a Showroom and Accent Your Bottom Line(Continued From)Eastern Floors - November/December, 1996Page 1 2 |
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(Continued From)Eliane Ceramic Tiles, exporter of ceramic tiles made in Brazil, maintains its U.S. headquarters in Dallas. The company manufactures tile for worldwide consumption, and is keen to produce and sell products that suit the North American market. "We want our customers to think about our products as being made specifically for users in this marketplace," says Eliane's general manager Marcia Muller. "So, we created a marketing communications program that utilized an all-American looking model dressed-up as a '50s car-hop. She's wearing roller skates, so some of the pictures we had taken were simply of the skates on our tiled floor." Ceramic tile manufacturers often invest considerable sums in photography for advertising, brochures and publicity purposes. Many manufacturers are glad to lend such photos to dealers for enhancement of their showrooms. "Our customers are welcome to have our photos in their showrooms, or for usage in their own local literature programs." adds Edson Gaidzinski Jr., Eliane's VP of sales and marketing. "In the case of our car-hop photo, we have recommended to customers that (they) actually have some roller skates positioned similarly to show how we photographed the product. It's a neat effect." Interceramic has developed a 12" x 12" decorative "floor listello," says Kevin Prather, the company's advertising director. "Our Opera Series was designed to function as a (ceramic) runner - it has corner pieces that actually take the installation around a corner." The decorative corner inserts, Prather adds, can also be installed to function like a ceramic version of an in-floor area rug. "Showrooms can benefit from this approach," he explains, "as now customers can be shown how an area rug can be positioned into an environment, such as a bathroom or kitchen, where that sort of design normally wouldn't function." There are other ways to use alternative tile methods to accent your showrooms. Chicago based Terrazzo and Marble Supply Cos. has done a number of custom in-showroom displays to draw attention to their wide line of terrazzo and stone tile products. |
"In one case, we took four major installation photos and combined them into a 48" x 48" Duratrans lightbox for our client's showroom," says company advertising director Terri Sparks. "We stock the entire showroom with our tile products, and (we) produced this backlit photo to help illustrate how products could be used on staircases, in bathrooms, as a fireplace surround and, of course, as a residential floor covering." Waterjet technology, a process that allows tile to be cut and reassembled into designs previously impossible to achieve, is being used more frequently for showroom display. Because it is a computerized technology, designs can be reproduced an infinite number of times. The identical installation could be reproduced (even in downsized format) and made ready for a floor or wall application. A good waterjet fabricator can create Logos, repeated floor patterns and virtually any other design. "The waterjet doesn't a discriminate - it cuts virtually any hard surface material," says Harri Aalto of Fairfield, IA based Creative Edge Corp. "Any number of dissimilar materials can be combined to make beautiful and precise designs." Tile has come of age in the United Slates. It is being used in different and creative ways. New and exciting varieties are constantly sprouting up. It is up to progressive dealers to educate their customers on how these materials can best be used in both creative and functional modes.
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Copyright © 2008 Harri Aalto/CEC. All rights reserved. Click on a flag below to translate the page. Be patient. It takes a few moments.
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About the Author. As part of our commitment to keeping readers up-to-date with what's going on in the retail floor covering industry, we are pleased to introduce this new ongoing column on ceramic tile and natural stone. Author Ron Treister is owner of Communicators International Ltd., a marketing communications firm with offices in Glenview, IL and Portland, ME. Ron has created advertising, sales promotion material, publicity campaigns, identity programs and more for all segments of the ceramic industry.