In most election years, we try our best to compare presidential candidates on the issues. But as many have said, this has not been a normal election year. It has been a war of words, of strategic storytelling and a battle of perceptions.
In social psychology, the term “person perception” refers to the different processes that we use to form impressions of other people. It includes how we form these impressions and the different conclusions we make about other people based upon our impressions. Our social locations help to inform our world view, and our world view impacts how we view, respond, and react to every experience.
For the past few years, BNP Media’s Market Research Division, in conjunction with Floor Trends, has conducted a comprehensive Flooring Industry Study in order to provide detailed information on the current state of the flooring industry and future trends of various flooring products.
We surveyed active and qualified subscribers of print and digital editions of Floor Trends, Floor Covering Installer, Stone World, Contemporary Stone & Tile Design, TILE Magazine and TalkFloor eNewsletter, who are flooring dealers, contractors or installers and either own their company or are involved in at least one of the installation, sales or purchasing functions. More than 50% of our respondents were company owners, CEOs or presidents, and a majority had more than 20 years of experience.
There are several key objectives for this study: to obtain the past year’s overall flooring sales and sales of different flooring products, to understand flooring sales trends, and to understand retailer perception about various aspects associated with flooring products. You will find the results of the study in this issue. Some of the findings surprised us, but some did not.
What did not surprise us is that competition from big box stores is likely to be a relatively bigger concern than online sales to most people who responded to the survey. More than a quarter of respondents reported that big box stores had a high impact on their business operations.
One of the most surprising parts of the study were the answers to perception questions. Survey participants were asked about how they perceived the benefits and drawbacks for each type of flooring. They were asked to rate the flooring types on cost to the consumer, product durability, eco-friendliness, ease of installation, product styling and popularity among consumers. The results sparked a number of questions for our editorial team about what has informed those perceptions, which we will be pursuing for stories in 2017.
To order a full copy of the 2016 Floor Trends Flooring Industry Study, contact Ulka Bhide, senior market research analyst, at bhideu@bnpmedia.com or (248) 786-1678.
