Marketing Home Products

Las Vegas, NV

This year’s Kitchen & Bath show proved spirits are rising and purse strings are loosening a bit. A better turnout than last year, the show exuded enthusiasm and excitement for new design and innovation. We saw design take form in shapes, textures, color and restoration. Functionality and organization also proved to be must-haves in any kitchen or bathroom.

Organization Through Design
Since the kitchen and bath are two of the most used rooms of the home, you can understand how organization and design are vital. A trend in organization I noticed was utilizing space to the absolute maximum. Three brands in particular showcased vertical lifting cabinet doors for both safety and the consideration of space. Each with their own technologies and preference for design, Hafele, Blum and Jay Rambo highlighted their individually unique systems for under counter and drawer space with dividers, shelving and out-swinging storage. Hafele even had a desk that can be converted to a bed… all without disturbing the items on the desk!

Repurposed Beauty
Truly, one of the most unique products at the show was The Allstone Group’s fossilized wood sinks. These are made from petrified wood, which is transformed into stone with a hardness equivalent to quartz. You need to see these to get the full effect, but the sinks look like a slice of wood cut from a tree on the outside, and has a beautiful, smooth stone bowl, yet keeps the unique aesthetic characteristics of wood.

Any wine-lover would swoon over Native Trails’ new Vintners Collection, which takes old wine barrels and repurposes them for sinks and mirrors. Each is unique in its own right, as each barrel still boasts an original wine maker’s stamp and beautiful stains.

Color & Texture
Introducing a new line of Viatera quartz surfaces, LG Hausys showcased the many color options and applications available. These surfaces have more than 90% natural quartz and are a non-porous material, making it more hygienic and stain resistant. Moreover, LG Hausys is the only company to manufacture both acrylic surfaces and quartz surfaces exclusively in the United States.

Also debuting a new line at KBIS was Rocky Mountain Hardware, which showed off its Textures designer collection of door handles, knobs and push/pull sets. With seven different textures to choose from, this line allows users to mix and match knobs, levers and keyholes for a door set perfectly fitting a desired style.

To spice up a kitchen or bar area, Element Designs displayed its new eluma DecoPanel product, which is textured or decorative glass that is illuminated over a backsplash of seven different colors that can either cycle through or remain one color for complete customization.

Affordable Home Luxury
While most appliance manufactures have opted for the Consumer Electronics Show in lieu of KBIS, Dacor recognized the opportunity to show and made a splash with its new Distinctive line, a collection of affordable cooktops, ovens and dishwashers.

With outdoor living spaces becoming more popular, DANVER offers everything needed for entertaining and relaxing. DANVER displayed its stainless steel outdoor cabinetry and kitchens, and with warmer weather upon us, it’s a great opportunity to maximize a backyard or patio area with an outdoor kitchen, fire pit or stove. Additionally, DANVER recently began offering an insect control system, keeping outdoor living areas free of mosquitoes and other pesky bugs.

Moving indoors, Amerec steam showers offer an escape… either to start the day off right or end it on a high note. Rejuvenating, relaxing and therapeutic, Amerec showers can now be enhanced with high-end sound systems – whether they have steam capabilities or not! A new waterproof iPod docking station and remote control put music at users’ fingertips, all while keeping MP3 equipment safe.

2011 Kitchen & Bath Industry Show Preview

One of the industry’s biggest shows of the year is a short two weeks away. This year’s K/BIS will be held in Las Vegas and will host the world’s leading manufacturers of vitreous china, faucets, hardware, shower enclosures, countertops, bathroom accessories and more. Here are a few of the brands I’m most looking forward to checking out:

• Dacor: The well-known kitchen appliance manufacturer is showcasing its new line of designer appliances at K/BIS. Joining the company’s luxury product lines is Dacor’s Distinctive series, which will feature cooktops, ranges and double wall ovens.
• Blum: A leader in hardware and drawer solutions for kitchen cabinets, Blum will undoubtedly impress with its Age Explorer® demonstrations, revealing how ergonomics, aging and motion affects daily activity in the kitchen.
• Century Hardware: With more than 60 collections of decorative hardware for the kitchen or bath, Century Hardware has drawer pulls, handles and knobs to outfit all cabinets and drawers in any style.
• Hafele: Revealing its LOOX LED lighting system at the show, Hafele will demonstrate how LED lighting can not only save on energy, but strategically light certain areas of the home, such as under shelves or cabinets, behind panels or in drawers.
• Amerec: No bathroom is complete without steam. Amerec’s rejuvenating line of steam generators brings simple luxury and relaxation to the home or commercial bath setting.
• LG Hausys: Joining the 15 new sophisticated colors to its popular collection of quartz surfaces, LG Hausys will unveil its newest Viatera color straight from Korea at the show. Viatera combines natural quartz with advanced polymers to create a non-porous countertop material that is stain-resistant and hygienic. Currently completing work on a plant in Adairsville, Ga., LG Hausys will soon be the only manufacturer to produce both quartz and acrylic surfaces in the U.S.
• Kichler Lighting: Awarded with a Top 10 new Green Product at last year’s event, Kichler Lighting is sure to showcase more from its line of decorative & energy efficient lighting products, from chandeliers to bathroom and outdoor lighting.
• DANVER: Just in time for patio season, DANVER will have new patio heaters from EvenGLO on display at K/BIS in addition to its complete line of stainless steel cabinetry, grills and kitchens for outdoor living.
• Houzer: The stainless steel sink manufacturer recently announced a co-branded initiative with Schock that will allow Houzer to be the exclusive distributor of Schock’s granite sinks. With a soft launch at K/BIS, the two companies will unveil their product offering under the sub-brand Schock Houzer.
• RonBow: With a complete offering of bathroom products, RonBow can fit any home’s style. The company will display its wide range of sinks, lavatories, cabinets and countertops at K/BIS.

As detailed in our 2009 Marketing to Hispanic Americans White Paper, Hispanic Americans make up 15.1 percent of the U.S. population and are the largest minority group in the nation.

With that stated, marketing to this group is extremely important, especially through social media.

Why? Hispanic Americans are heavy social media users! For instance, many check Facebook every time they get online. More importantly, many click on Facebook ads that are relevant to their interests.

How can you market to Hispanic Americans with social media? According to a recent MediaPost’s Engage: Hispanics article written by Jose Villa, marketers can reach this group on social media by using personas.

“Personas are user archetypes that help guide decisions about product features, navigation, interactions and visual design,” Villa wrote. “I think personas provide an effective tool that can be evolved to include psychographic data to help brands effectively navigate the Hispanic social media waters.”

Through research for his “Hispanic Persona Project,” he and his team clustered the diverse group into five personas.

In Villa’s article, he shared three of these personas.

1. Super Users

2. Social Techies

3. Moderates

The “Super Users” do everything online and are early adapters and teachers of social media. They are always connected, and social media is their main source of entertainment. The “Social Techies” delve into social media because everyone else is doing it. Though, they are the first to respond to social posts and use social media to track people and friends. The “Moderates” are tech-savvy, but do not heavily use social media. They only use it to stay connected on an as-needed basis. This persona typically doesn’t use Twitter – only Facebook – and occasionally shops online.

Knowing and applying these personas, as you create social media campaign plans, should help you market to Hispanic Americans better. Furthermore, understanding these personas may even give you a unique opportunity to interact on another level.