Carpets, Catalogs, and Cutting Edge Tactics with James Pope of FLOR

Catalogs and carpeting are two things that most people think went out of style in the 1990s. But those people are wrong, and FLOR is here to prove it. 

James Pope is the General Manager at FLOR, and on this episode of Up Next in Commerce, he took me through all the ways that the company is making carpet cool again through their unique, easy-to-install, and beautiful carpet tiles. But, the first question? How to find new customers when your parent company has focused on B2B customers in the past such as office spaces or hotels. Well, as they say, what’s old is new again, and FLOR’s top-performing marketing programs and main entry point for customers is… a catalog. That catalog represents 70% of their consumer demand. Wild. James really dug into the details around how they think about designing their catalogs from front to back, to tracking offline to online attributions, why holdout testing is key, and why the 80/20 rule holds true for almost everything. Plus, stay tuned to hear about FLOR’s second-most successful marketing campaign which might just surprise you... Enjoy!

Main Takeaways:

• Don’t Overcomplicate: Even if you have a unique product or methodology, more often than not, consumers tend to make decisions based on what they know and already like. Try not to get too cute or complicated with how you present your product and instead, just make it easy for consumers to see the value in your product regardless of the way they buy or use it.
• An Old-School Starting Line: Despite the fact that many companies are digital-first, oftentimes a customer’s starting point with a brand comes from a paper catalog they get in the mail. Brands are missing an opportunity when they ignore the more traditional means of marketing, especially now with over-saturated email inboxes and more consumers working directly from home. Digital marketing is easy to ignore, but everyone checks their mail every day, so you have a much better chance of having an impact there.
• What’s In A Name?: Turns out a lot. In the search field, customers at FLOR tend to search for the branded product name rather than using generic terms. This means that not only should the website be optimized to accommodate those searches, but that it’s important to pay attention to the names you give products.

For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.

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For a full transcript of this interview, click here.