Marketing Home Products

As the much-anticipated annual Builders’ Show opens its doors in just a couple short days, we’ve got our schedule filled with people to see, new products to admire and tweet-ups in which to partake.

A few brands to watch out for:

• Feeney: Proving that cable rails provide great design in addition to structure, Feeney will showcase its wide offering of custom cables, rails and hardware for commercial and residential applications.
• Masonite: Want to experience “Art in Doors”? Stop by Masonite’s booth at IBS to check out how doors are so much more than mere portals. The company’s new West End collection appeals to those with great design taste who seek modernity.
• Amerec: Anyone looking to add some luxury to their bathroom should check out Amerec’s booth at IBS, where the brand’s new T100 Touch Control panel will surely be the center of attention. The touch screen panel provides easy access to and control of steam and time settings.
• Gerber Plumbing Fixtures: Celebrating its 80^th year, Gerber will feature the Viper 1.28 high efficiency toilet, which provides exceptional performance paired with smart water savings, among the full line of vitreous china and brass offerings.
• Nuheat: Though the Orlando weather may not call for it, surely heated floors are irresistible. Nuheat develops custom and luxurious electric floor heating systems that provide comfort through virtually any flooring material.
• Danver: Ever expanding its product offering for the outdoor living trend, Danver will have on display EcoSmart outdoor fireplaces in addition to the stainless steel cabinetry they’re known for.
• Viance: Introducing its 2012 “Fish-More” promotion, Viance helps contractors gain more business by recommending the brand Ecolife for deck building.
• The Fortress Company: Fortress fence and railing products not only create safe surroundings, but contribute to the beautification of any property.

The K&A team will attend IBS this week in Orlando and would love to see you. If you’re attending and would like to participate in a short meet-up, (we could even feature your brand on our YouTube channel)… let us know here!

The concept of “home for life” has become an increasingly prevalent trend for the home building industry. Homeowners have redefined their idea of a “dream home” and have made it clear they’re staying put… literally. In fact, 84% of the respondents in a Hanley Wood survey said they would like to remain in their current homes through retirement. Instead of moving to a larger home, homeowners are taking matters into their own hands by redefining the quality of an existing space. This presents a unique and profitable opportunity for remodeling companies to take advantage of; the key is to recognize exactly where.

Jeff Shea, owner of The Siding Doctor, has been involved with the home building industry for the past 30 years and has noticed the upgrades in which homeowners place value.

“Homeowners today are working their way through the house with small high-end upgrades like windows and doors, and installing other items to reduce energy use,” says Shea. “They are trying to avoid debt. The available resources for homeowners to upgrade are much more limited than they were ten years ago.”

This presents a challenge for remodelers looking to give business a boost. It is important for businesses to think of their consumer’s needs and where the home is most likely to expand. In the past decade alone, the U.S. census has reported an increase of multigenerational family homes by 30 percent. As a result, families are remodeling not only to upgrade, but to increase the overall comfort level within a home. Homeowners, therefore, redefine the value of their space in places like the basement and the outdoors.

To begin with, the most commonly thought-of area for remodeling would be the basement. Most homeowners in the past saw this area as a “work-in-progress” type of space. Now basements are being turned into budget-conscious “apartment style” living spaces as a way to adapt to their new multigenerational family demands.  With the economy still in recovery, homeowners are looking for efficient remodeling that doesn’t require undertaking a major project.

“There is a growing market of do-it-yourselfers in search of practical improvements that add real value,” said Jonathan Zublena, product manager at Sauder Woodworking. “Sauder anticipates that many home improvements will include upgrading existing ceiling systems as a means to improve the overall value perception of a room or a home.”

Another option for changing the perception of a home is to transform an outdoor space into an outdoor living room. Homeowners have discovered that their backyard is more than just an area for kids; it is an area for entertaining as well. As a result, remodelers are receiving more requests from homeowners for direction on creating outdoor kitchens, entertainment areas and fire pits. Admittedly, in terms of time and resources, outdoor kitchen construction is the most demanding aspect of the outside space; however, an outdoor kitchen traditionally garners the largest return on investment. Companies like Danver offer a one-stop shop of appliances and products equipped to handle the outdoor conditions from stainless steel cabinetry to pizza ovens, outdoor heaters, insect systems, cocktail stations and more.

Most – if not all – home renovations today occur to achieve one goal: to increase the quality of living in a house as homeowners readjust for long-term occupancy. Home and building product manufacturers and remodelers alike understand this critical pivot in home trends and have thus far adapted quite effortlessly.

We’ve been talking a lot lately about the future of smart homes that give consumers the ability to control all of their home’s systems from their mobile devices. Networking all your systems together into a central control system makes a house more energy efficient because the systems communicate with one another to avoid using energy when it is unnecessary. But now there is a study out that shows these systems also makes homeowners more inclined to actually use their energy saving features.

Programmable thermostats have been around for some time, but surveys have shown that only about 10 percent of consumers use the programming features to automatically adjust temperatures during certain parts of the day. However, consumers who have a Wi-Fi enabled thermostat – allowing control of the thermostat from any PC or mobile device – used the programming features of the thermostat 85 percent of the time. EnergyHub, the maker of the Wi-Fi thermostat used in the study, attributes the high usage rates to the interface of the thermostat’s Wi-Fi access.

“We’re not changing the way the thermostat works. We’re getting it to do what it was designed to do 30 years ago,” EnergyHub CEO Seth Frader-Thompson said. “An easier interface is a huge part of it.”

By taking the same technology used today, integrating it with the devices consumers use most often, and giving it an easier-to-use interface, consumers are more inclined to take advantage of energy-saving features. Perhaps this is really what homes and people need today. They don’t need new technology… they need something to make the existing technology easier to use. If the technology were easier to use, perhaps it would be used more often, making us all more efficient.