The Grundfos “Pumps on Tour” — a fully equipped, mobile educational center for professionals in the residential, commercial and industrial pumping industry — visited Chicago recently, setting up on the city’s South Side at U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Major League Baseball’s Chicago White Sox.
Held on June 22, the event welcomed representatives from approximately 75 local mechanical contracting and industrial companies as well as a dozen Chicago-area wholesale-distribution firms. The Chicago event was one of 48 that the “Pumps on Tour” vehicle will host in 27 different states during 2010. Through June 22, more than 2,400 people at 29 different stops had visited the 1,200-square-foot vehicle for hands-on training by Grundfos staff and the chance to experience first-hand an array of new pump products.
Click here to view the full announcement and download hi-res images.
Offset drains and deep bowls are among the must-have features in three new cast iron kitchen sinks and a cast iron island/bar sink from American Standard.
Among the new kitchen sinks from American Standard are double bowls cast iron sinks with a unique trapezoid bowl design that creates large, deep bowls for cleaning oversized pots and pans and a 16 inch by 20 inch enameled cast iron island sink with a 10 inch deep bowl makes a perfect island or prep sink, as well as glossy bar sink.
All sinks are available in the most popular colors: white heat, bisque and black.
Go here to view the complete press release and download high resolution images.
Included amongst the “winners” was American Standard’s 1993 “It’s Seen You Naked” ad, which “subtly anthropomorphized” bath fixtures like faucets and tub drains and featured the copy “It’s seen you naked. It’s heard you sing.”
The campaign was the brainchild of advertising executives Tom Gabriel and Mark Razidlo, now at Gabriel, deGrood, Bendt, who worked closely with the then-Marketing Communications Manager at American Standard, Nora DePalma to develop the ad.
Gabriel’s goal with the campaign was to change the way people thought about American Standard and even about their relationships they had with their bathrooms. “Their competitor owned the luxury position, the ‘house on the hill,’” he explained. “We felt there was another way into the minds and hearts of upscale consumers: to demonstrate that American Standard understands the way we really live…specifically the relationship we all have with this one special room in the house. These days, creating shared connections between brands and their consumers takes different forms, but it’s still all about finding that common ground and evoking empathy and understanding.”
At the time, not everyone was entirely on board with the bold campaign. DePalma remembered that “literally everyone from office peers to my parents hated the ad. But I felt confident in the risk, because I’d seen the research. I knew what our competitors had to spend on marketing and I knew we couldn’t overcome it; we had to go someplace different as a brand to be accepted in consumers’ minds.”
While DePalma and Gabriel were both right in their feelings about the ad, even they weren’t able to predict just how big of a splash the campaign would make. A few years ago, Gabriel saw Bob Garfield at an ad function and was surprised when the critic told him he thought “It’s Seen You Naked” was the best print ad ever done. “At the time, I thought he was pulling my leg,” Gabriel recalled. It turns out that Garfield was definitely being genuine in this compliment.
In equally good news, our Uponor client now works with GdB Advertising, where Gabriel and Razidlo now work. All of us at O’Reilly/DePalma are thrilled to have the opportunity to once again collaborate with with our old friends and look forward to doing more great work together.
American Standard Brands, manufacturer of a wide range of kitchen and bath products, has partnered with The Home Depot Foundation and Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio (HFHSA) for the 2010 Community Building Invitational on May 18 – 20, 2010.
“American Standard is proud to work with The Home Depot Foundation to address the critical needs facing our communities today,” says Don Devine, president and CEO of American Standard Brands.
American Standard is donating plumbing fixtures for 15 Habitat for Humanity homes in San Antonio, TX. The products, which are all WaterSense®-certified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), include the Cadet® 3 Right Height® 1.28 gallons per flush (gpf) toilet, the Cadet Single Control 1.5 gallons per minute (gpm) faucet and the Colony® FloWise® 1.5 gpm showerhead.
“This partnership with The Home Depot Foundation and Habitat for Humanity provides us with yet another opportunity to make a positive impact on the community and the environment, and for that we are most grateful,” adds Devine.
Click here for more information, including the press release.
In early April, Uponor launched www.uponorpro.com, a Web site created especially for professionals in the radiant heating and cooling, PEX plumbing and fire sprinkler installation industries. The site features valuable information on training, industry news, marketing tools and videos, and even includes an online forum where visitors can correspond with Uponor technical experts and other industry professionals.
Go here to download the press release in Word, Text or PDF formats, download a hi-res image of the Web site, and gain access to other, related materials and information from Uponor.
The newly remodeled, 11,000-square-foot Uponor Factory Training Center opened Feb. 16, 2010 to a host of visitors. Boasting 50% more space, the revamped training center features various new improvements such as stadium seating, a second classroom, a trainee buisness center, sophisticated audio/visual technology, a hands-on applications lab and enhanced controls learning station. In addition, the training program also offers an expanded class curriculum.
Click here for more details on this newly expanded facility, access to the press release and accompanying hi-res photography.
While 2009 may go down as a year many home builders would like to forget, a renewed focus on home remodeling and energy efficiency has fueled record growth for the nationally syndicated home improvement radio show The Money Pit.
Hosts Tom Kraeutler and Leslie Segrete added 60 new radio stations to the show’s 228 station line up in the last 11 months, marking the biggest growth year in the show’s 10 year history.
“In an economy where few could afford to move, The Money Pit has been an invaluable resource for listeners looking to make their homes more comfortable, energy efficient and affordable. The show is an important part of our line-up, and is popular with both listeners and the local sponsors looking to reach them,” said Paul Giammarco, Program Director for Money Pit affiliate WPRO in Providence, RI.
We’ll call this chapter: “Eliminating the Middleman. All of Them”
Pleasantly surprised one morning to open my email and find a completely unsolicited testimonial about a client’s product:
Hi Nora,
Please comsider this endorsement for the American Standard “speed connect” drain. If you find it helpful in any way please feel free to modify and use in the promotion of the product.
“American Standard has introduced the “speed connect” drain to many of their faucet lines this year. The company claims that there are fewer moving parts to install, the drains will seal and hold water upon installation and the drains will not need adjustment. These claims are all true.
What American Standard has not stated is that this new cable action pop-up drain assembly is what the plumbing industry has needed for decades. This drain really does what AS claims and more.
Ask any plumber what the most difficult or frustrating part of installing a lavatory faucet is and they will say the drain linkage and adjustment. Well, not after they install this drain. American Standard has removed the linkage and replaced it with a cable not unlike some of the bath drains that are out there.
This new lavatory drain is a problem solver and it is a pleasure to install.”
Obviously, not just any testimonial. John Murphy is a master plumber in New England, active on Linked In and other social networks and President of the new National Association of Plumbing Showroom Professionals. We had met through Linked In and enjoyed an ongoing dialogue.
But I hadn’t sent him anything about Speed Connect. Who did?
Among the flurry of emails shooting back and forth across American Standard’s servers that day, we tried to solve the mystery. It was much later in the day when the truth was revealed:
To All
This came about from a discussion that I began with John on Linkedin, another example of the power of social media.
Don
Donald C. Devine
CEO, American Standard Brands
There is much talk about what CEOs should or should not be doing online. Don Devine does pretty much the same thing he does offline: talks to customers and prospects. When the door opened with John Murphy, Don asked him to try one of our products. Talk about eliminating the middlemen … and middlewomen.
Social media isn’t a magical new fad. It’s simply a new way to communicate, cost-effectively opening up dialogue that didn’t exist in the old marketing communications model.
In the old days (1990s), building professionals such as kitchen & bath designers might give helpful feedback to their rep and it might work its way up the corporate food chain, and something might happen.
Or not.
In October, kitchen & designer Paul Anater published a blog post, Sears’ Blue Crew Needs Some Work, detailing his frustrations with the Sears Kenmore built-in appliances his new kitchen remodeling clients had purchased on their own.
The St. Petersburg, Florida designer could not get the necessary dimensions from the Sears Kenmore website, nor from their hapless customer service reps, kept well-protected from pesky customers by a phone tree from heck.
“If I can’t tell the cabinet maker these dimensions, he can’t build me the cabinet I need. They have to be exact because we’re talking about a several thousand dollar cabinet here and there’s no such thing as a return for custom work, Paul blogged.
Paul took note that the Sears website spends more digital real estate “touting the virtues of the Blue Crew than it does dispensing information. It’s difficult to navigate and the information I needed was buried. There was no pro section and no dimension guide. Ridiculous.”
He continued: “Why not take some of the serious cash you’re spending on the Blue Crew TV and print spots and spend it instead on updated spec books and some training for your trained professionals? This doesn’t bode well and you can rest assured that you have a kitchen designer in Florida who’s actively pointing his clients as far from your doors as he can.”
A dedicated and prolific communicator, Paul promoted his blog post via his Twitter account, @saintpetepaul. Talk about hitting a nerve. “That post set off a firestorm of commiseration in my comments section and on Twitter that lasted throughout the weekend,” Paul says. “When I first wrote that post I thought that I was the only one who had these frustrations. To say I’m not alone in this is an understatement.”
Paul’s blog post was published on a Saturday. On Monday morning, Paul had a voice mail message from a Sears executive. “He was very clear in his e-mail that he wasn’t out to make a Kenmore convert out of me,” Paul noted. “Rather, what he wanted to gain from a conversation with me was a better understanding of the sort of information design professionals need from them.”
The Sears exec asked if Paul would be willing to talk to him and a couple members of his team. Paul upped the ante. He volunteered to solicit feedback from his nationwide network of kitchen & bath designer friends, and got 12 of them to join the call, which almost certainly became the lowest-cost focus group ever.
Results:
Paul: “Let me start out by saying that I am beyond impressed with Sears Appliances. I see them in a whole new light. I mean, how many members of the appliance industry would open themselves up to a panel discussion with a group of designers and architects who’d been hand picked by blogger who’d been done wrong? ….You guys showed me a side to your company I never knew existed. Bravo.”
Sears: Within three weeks of that call, Sears was back in touch with Paul to continue the dialogue, asking if he would be interested in an an ongoing series of conversations.
Blog-based websites like ours make it easy for anyone to publish content on the web.
The hard part is learning how to be a publisher. As more brands get into more content on their website, they quickly learn that there is an art to creating and presenting content that will attract the best audience for your product. Here is one view of that process:
The newly remodeled, 11,000-square-foot Uponor Factory Training Center opened Feb. 16, 2010 to a host of visitors. Boasting 50% more space, the revamped training center features various new improvements such as stadium seating, a second classroom, a trainee buisness center, sophisticated audio/visual technology, a hands-on applications lab and enhanced controls learning station. In addition, the training program also offers an expanded class curriculum.
While 2009 may go down as a year many home builders would like to forget, a renewed focus on home remodeling and energy efficiency has fueled record growth for the nationally syndicated home improvement radio show 
