Going for Gold
The World Floor Covering Association celebrated 50 years of innovation in 2009. In the flooring industry, many of the roles of an association have been taken up by buying group or franchise affiliation. While the WFCA still had many unique offerings, they felt it was time to make sure they increased their relevance to their constituency and reminded them why the WFCA is a vital partner in their success. Torus Marketing worked with the WFCA to create a multi-faceted strategy that dovetails with the consumer efforts. One part of this plan is the Gold Standard Award. This award was custom designed by Torus, along with custom seals of recognition for the store owners. The award is given each year at SURFACES at the WFCA booth. Torus Marketing also created the press releases, trade advertising, consulted on the event and provided the custom photography associated with all of the efforts.
Today, for the retailer, it is all about creating a satisfying consumer experience. The global goal of the B2B branding efforts for WFCA is to provide a solutions set to its retailer that does that very thing. This cements the relevance of the WFCA to the retailer and helps the retailer become more successful. The role of the Gold Standard Award is two fold: to increase membership and renewal and to model retail behavior.
The Gold Standard Award was designed to appeal to the individual store owner to help increase membership and renewal. A five thousand dollar check and the trade ad play, coupled with the pride of winning are appealing to anybody. The winners get good P.R. in the trades, a space on the pro site and even some consumer recognition. They become de facto models for best practices.
Understanding that the end goal is to dovetail with the brand promise of the consumer branding efforts, it is essential that the retailers learn to be the best at providing the consumer experience. The Gold Standard winner is chosen for their ability to provide on the brand promise, creating a model for best practices and giving a clear example and path to providing an excellent consumer experience. This is a small, but essential part of the larger SOLUTIONS NOW B2B branding effort.
