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Samantha Morgan of Concept Interiors on 2010 Flooring Trends

The big chill will soon be over, making way for new beginnings and fresh ideas. Our living area flooring feature looks at all the options available for the residential market from tile to carpet as we suggest the trends and developments set to be big in 2010.

Spring is fast approaching and Samantha Morgan, head designer at Concept Interiors, has been looking at future home and interior trends. We asked her to give Retail Floors readers some advice on what materials, patterns and colour pallets will be featuring in homes over the coming year, with a particular emphasis on flooring.

Concept Interiors creates eye-catching and sophisticated living spaces for clients who want the very best in their homes.
Says Samantha, “People are starting to opt for quality products in preference to cheaper alternatives for their homes. The current focus is on the more durable and eco friendly choices.”

Samantha thinks 2010 will see high quality products and finishing touches such as black nickel curtain poles with lavish jewelled finials and oversized wool pieces such as knitted rugs or upholstered furniture featuring in our homes. She explains that the two key interior looks for 2010 will be “English Kitsch” and “Eastern Glam”. Both use floral and organic shapes in their style and natural fibres. Weaves also feature in both looks.

Black will remain a signature colour in our bathrooms - but with more style than we’ve seen throughout 2009. Introducing luxurious purples into the theme will simultaneously soften the room and add to the glam factor. “Choosing the right focal point or element for each individual room is important,” Sam continues. “However, you’ll also need the other elements of the space to work with that focal point to complete your room design.”

To help make this possible, dramatic flooring and statement lights will be hitting our homes to create a focal point for all of our rooms. Patterns such as stripes or a woven carpet, for example, will bring texture and an area of interest, while lighting can frame the room or highlight a specific element. Indeed, light fittings themselves can become features or the focal point - providing it helps to create an atmosphere.

In terms of wood flooring, Samantha is seeing a growing popularity of dark, chocolatey woods, especially wenge, a marked contrast to the walnut colours that dominated last year. Leather tiles are also making headway in living rooms and hallways, a material that only gets better with age and, like a favourite soft leather jacket, looks good even when worn and lived in.

In the tile department, porcelain is making a comeback all across the downstairs areas, replacing natural stone as a favourite because of its ease of maintenance and durability. Concept Interiors have recently completed an installation of a large format tiled border (600 x 600) with an inset carpet, allowing a seamless flow from a tiled hallway into the living room.

Whilst woods are getting darker in colour, carpets are remaining light and neutral, despite the explosion on colour and pattern at last year’s major flooring shows, it seems the consumer is not yet fully comfortable with bold, bright statement carpets in the home, a trend which may cotton on in a couple of years time.

Rugs are where the flurry of creativity remains in terms of pattern and texture, with homeowners more likely to choose a statement rug or a funky design no an item that can be moved or changed more readily than carpet or tile.

Read Samantha's Blog
Visit the Concept Interiors Website

Richard McKay of McKay Hardwood Flooring: On Social Media Marketing

One person who has seen first hand the advantage of a consistent, well-managed online presence is Richard McKay of McKay Flooring Limited, the UK’s largest independent wood flooring company. We spoke to him about his experience of using social media marketing as a powerful tool for improving his business and networking with clients and new contacts.

When did you first start using online social media to market your company and what was your initial strategy?

Richard: We first started using social media in early 2008. We were keen to improve both our offline and online marketing and continually noticed references to Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, LinkedIn and blogging. We then opened up accounts on these and other social networks to establish how they worked and how we could perhaps leverage them for business. We also set up our first blog and learned about RSS feeds and feed readers. It was quite confusing at first but we then started to piece how these tools could work for us. It was pretty much a case of just getting stuck in - initially there was no firm strategy on social media. More a case of suck it and see.

Many in the industry whom I have spoken to cite time as a major excuse not to develop a more intensive internet marketing presence. How do you find the time?

R: It was quite a labour intensive task at first. I was happy to work into the small hours building up our presence online as the social media space seemed quite natural. Eventually our web analytics reported increased hits to our website. The fact that you can measure the effectiveness of online campaigns is a
huge plus. We use Google Analytics (it’s free) to track our website statistics. Furthermore you can see progress on Twitter and Facebook in terms of the number of people following your company. Currently we don’t try and ‘fit it in’ to our work routine. We have prioritised social media and online advertising due to the healthy returns we’ve had in sales and increased brand awareness. We feel there’s a lot of potential in developing our brand and sales online over the next 3 to 5 years and therefore will be allocating resources to these areas.

Are there any particular challenges posed by the flooring industry when it comes to online marketing, web sales etc.?

R: Yes there are a few challenges.... If you sell branded wood flooring online you are instantly compared on price to your online competitors. Also customers like to touch and see the product before they buy which is why we offer a free sampling service. In a large twist to how things were (are) a website is no longer just a brochure site for your showroom or product. We are increasingly thinking of our showrooms as back up to our website. Having a network of showrooms throughout the UK supporting our online shop looks like a good idea....


McKay Flooring Showroom

Aside from purely selling, why is it so important to make maximum use of the internet to market yourself? How does social media etc... help with branding, brand awareness and customer loyalty?

R: Although social media involves time it is cheap compared to traditional media like newspapers, TV and radio. It is also measurable and is where the customers are. Customers who are researching a product or service will do so online. If they repeatedly come across positive mentions of your brand it will help build trust and they are more likley to make a purchase. When we first signed up to Twitter I thought it was another broadcasting medium for us to shout about our products and services. However we now see the true value of Twitter as a tool for listening into and contributing to the conversation. This helps us build relationships, trust and customer loyalty. Social media isn’t a quick fix approach - it’s gradual.

What apps and tools do you recommend for people who are considering improving their company websites and/or blogs?

R: Simply having a brochure website isn’t enough in this social media age. It should really have a blog and link to your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Blogging is important because it enables non techy people like me to update the site with company news, case studies etc. It is also important for attracting organic search via keywords and links. Other sites I’d recommend are LinkedIn, Scribd (an online repository for articles, product brochures, etc.) and Google Reader. The site that I absolutely couldn’t do without is Google Reader which is an RSS feed reader. For years I wondered what the small orange button on my internet browser was for. Rather than have to individually visit all the important websites you visit every day you can subscribe to them via Reader. Combined with Google Alerts you can use this to extract leads, get updates on your competitors and discover mentions of your own brand. Really very powerful in a format akin to email.

Has your business improved noticeably since you started employing a solid online marketing strategy and general online presence?

R: Yes - sales are up due to a targeted pay per click campaign supported by our website, blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts. Still work to be done but early signs very encouraging.

Why do you think so many flooring companies have yet to take advantage of the world of opportunities offered by the web?

R: I think that it seems daunting due to the initial investment in time and having to learn ‘the internet’. Fortunately since the social media boom these tasks can be outsourced to the many social media and marketing companies. Rather than embracing these new technologies and seeing what works and what doesn’t some companies shy away from this increasingly important space. No time like the present I say!

MCKAY FLOORING CAN BE FOUND...

On Twitter / @mckayflooring
On Facebook / McKay Flooring
On their blog / http://blog.mckayflooring.co.uk/
On their sister blogs:
http://bauclic.co.uk/
http://clydeflooring.co.uk/
http://floorcrunch.co.uk/
Company Site / www.mckayflooring.co.uk

Blinding Vinyl! A Visit to the Amtico Factory

On Friday 22, I went to visit the training centre and factory of luxury vinyl flooring manufacturer Amtico, to learn about their vast range of products, see how a vinyl tile is made, hear about their waste reduction and recylcing programs and understand the myriad of benefits from training and professional development courses at Amtico. Here are some snapshots I was allowed to take as we were guided around the factory - not featured: rather intense smells, squishy earplugs and super-funky factory health and safety shoes, which look rather like orthopaedic aids for club foot sufferers!

Amtico training centre - Note the "cool wall" at the back, where students proudly display work that they've done, ranging from "not so good" to "excellent" in order to compare and contrast, learn from their mistakes and show off the things they've learnt!



Here's where students get to discover and try out a range of grouts, adhesives, DPMs etc. from the four major brands: Ardex UK, Uzin, Mapei and F.Ball. Amtico are not biased and do not promote one over the other, rather they allow students to experiment and choose which they prefer and explore the properties and benefits of each one.


Trainer Neil Perriman talks me through the training process, explaining how students of different levels are given a vaariety of tasks as they progress through the course to ensure each student gets personalised training, feels challenged and is given plenty of opportunity to put into practice a range of skills.

AND ON TO THE FACTORY...


The funky entrance demonstrates the host of options that vinyl flooring offers. And that's not to mention the Amtico clients who've requested everything from a giant monopoly board created on the floor of their conservatory to the eccentric millionaire who had the basement of his gothic country house turned into a life sized Cluedo board!


First off, alchemy is performed... plasticizers are added to oil in giant vats and shuttled off to a scary looking machine called the Banbury Mixer, where it is mixed and heated until it becomes a squishy lump of plastic. This is then sent through a series of heated rollers to smooth it out into a continuous flat sheet.


WHOOSH! BLEEP! WHIRR!


Yes, those would be the big heated rollers... like an industrial-sized set of hair-straighteners. Except you wouldn't want to get your face stuck in them...


Here you can see clearly the different layers that make up the vinyl tile: the backing ply (black), the face ply (white) which sits on the backing ply, and the protective layers (Amtico tiles have 2 such layers!). The actual design of the tile, anything from wood to grass to stone to metallics, will depend on the printed film, which is made by a printers in Japan. This ultra-thin film is bonded onto the face ply, then coated with the protective layer and embossed with a grainy pattern to mimic real-life materials and textures.



Could it be magic? Nope... just lots of heat, heat, heat! Here the various layers are fed into another set of heated rollers, which bonds the layers together, changing the chemical properties within each to ensure strength and resilience and a solid bond. Note the brown roll coming up from the bottom is the very fine, thin film sheet which contains the design - in today's case an oak wood effect.


Finally the vinyl sheet is cut first into tiles, then the tiles arrive in this cutting room, which contains 30 cutting machines. here the tiles are cut to order to the client's specifications, stringent quality control checks are performed and tiles that pass the controls are boxed and dispatched! This is the end of the line for us journalists, but only the beginning of the life of a vinly floor tile!

Retail Therapy - Barefoot Floors Website Review

Barefoot Floors’ website greets you with zingy orange and a sense of carefree happiness, which is, of course, exactly what they’re offering their customers. Barefoot Floors are selling a concept, not just flooring and that concept is delivered to the browser through a variety of means, video, photo galleries, personal accounts from all members of staff successfully portraying the team, from CEO to Customer Care as a close-knit, highly enthusiastic group who are all 100% sold on the products and services they can offer.



The widespread use of video and story-telling is a great tool for creating brand awareness and drawing the customer into a world, instead of simply presenting products on a flat page. Consumers will feed off the energy and positive attitude of the team in their personal “barefoot stories” which will encourage them to stay longer on the website and browse a greater variety of products.
Potential buyers can browse flooring by product, by room or by sector. Each sub-category contains a list of links. For example, under “by room”, one finds bedroom, bathroom, garden and pathways etc. For each page, suggestions are made as to the collections best suited to those environments, with examples of layout, design and room themes. There is a video of a customer testimonial where they are also invited to tell their “barefoot story”, linking them with the company and further strengthening the impression that this is a company a customer can have complete trust in and form a solid retailer-client relationship. The video also allows for consumers to see exactly how a barefoot floor can fit in a home and what level of customer service the clients enjoyed.


The Products link takes you to the collections, with a designer or customer testimonial and an inside look at who and what inspired the various designs and colours. Brochures are available to download for every collection.
Barefoot Floors have a list of partners, all of whom reflect their concept of carefree, zen living and individuality. The partnership page for garden designer Bernie Quinn features a flip-book photojournal of a barefoot flooring installation as part of the garden designer’s award-winning garden at the Royal horticultural Show.
The overall aim of the website, therefore, is to sell customers an entire lifestyle, based around a flooring product. The stories, images, videos, flip-books and art installations that fill the pages are perfect for the ADD generation whose attention needs constant fulfilment and variety, but also give the impression that when buying barefoot you are buying so much more than a floor, but buying into happiness, a slice of the team’s perfect world. It may sound far-fetched and pretentious, but twenty minutes of browsing on the website and I still wasn’t bored, although a couple of the staff testimonial videos were a touch too sugary for me.



The product barefoot are selling is genuinely creative, stunning to look at and different enough from the norm to hook you in. No amount of fantastic online marketing can flog a duff product, but everything from the slick website design to the high-quality art work and sheer conviction of everyone connected to the company delivers a powerful retail punch.
The only let down? Some missing links and wrong telephone numbers - easy mistakes to make but shocking on a website of this calibre as well as fundamental information for a buyer.