As part of Quick-Step’s overall marketing program, the brand hosted a “Room Refresh Contest” via Facebook, engaging over 18,000 consumers nationwide on Quick-Step’s Facebook page. As a result of the competition, Quick-Step received a total of 5,000 new Facebook fans, increasing the brand’s nationwide exposure. A majority of the Facebookers engaged during the contest also fit Quick-Step’s target demographic, helping drive the right kind of traffic into retail partners’ stores. No purchase was necessary to enter the contest. The grand prize winner was awarded a room refresh makeover as well as $3,000 in room accessories and a new Quick-Step floor. The makeover was personally conducted by Erinn Valencich, Los Angeles-based interior design, style expert, and Quick-Step designer partner.
“Our successful Quick-Step brand strategy takes a winning product line and wraps it in a comprehensive merchandising program,” said Paij Thorn-Brooks, senior director of marketing, Unilin. “In today’s marketplace, social media is a critical part of effective brand marketing. Promoting Quick-Step through social media is not only effective, but in most cases is also an economical marketing tool.”
“Facebook is today’s most popular and fastest growing social media forum,” said Thorn-Brooks. “By hosting our Room Refresh Contest on Facebook, we not only increase the ‘buzz’ around our brand name, but also help drive traffic into stores — further equipping our retail partners for success with Quick-Step product.”
Dawn White of Greenville, Texas was the grand prize winner of the total room makeover. Valencich began the room refresh of White’s living room by replacing worn-out carpet with Quick-Step Burnished Walnut planks from the Veresque Collection. Products in the Veresque Collection have a lower gloss finish that is reminiscent of traditional furniture finish hardwood, lending a high-end refined look to the room. Veresque planks also feature GenuEdge technology for the most realistic plank edge in the industry. Adding GenuEdge to the already authentic surface designs of Veresque makes it difficult to tell the difference between a Quick-Step’s Burnished Walnut floor and real hardwood planks.
“Because this family spends most of their time in the living room, I picked a floor that would give the room warmth and depth,” said Valencich. “I then painted the walls in earthy tones and used brown and green accessories, such as pillows and slip covers, to help brighten the room and make it seem more spacious.”
Although Valencich personally selected the winner of the grand prize makeover, Quick-Step encouraged the online community to take a “personal” interest in the contest by letting popular votes choose the remaining ten semi-finalists. Thousands of votes were cast on Quick-Step’s Facebook page. The ten semi-finalists, who received the greatest number of votes from the online community, each received $150 American Express gift cards.
“Contests that allow the online community to select the competitions’ winners through online voting are wonderful ways to engage with consumers as well as foster peer-to-peer validation,” said Thorn-Brooks. “Each consumer’s personal Facebook contacts generally include many of the family members and close friends whose opinions matter most to that consumer. Research has definitely shown that in our society a large number of people feel the need to get input or validation from these trusted individuals before making a substantial purchase.”
Another key purpose of the Room Refresh Contest was to encourage Quick-Step’s followers to embark on their own personal room refresh. Before and after photographs of White’s room were posted on the Quick-Step’s Facebook page as well as exciting professional video of the actual room transformation to inspire, entertain, and educate Quick-Step’s Facebook followers.
Through these professional videos, Quick-Step’s fans were taught the tangible design steps that professional interior designer Valencich goes through to successfully refresh a room within a budget. Valencich’s design guidance on Facebook showed consumers nationwide that the addition of affordable, easy-to-install Quick-Step flooring is an important part of the room refresh technique to achieve “big style through small changes”.
