The Tendo View

I’m obsessed with FLOR. Everything about the company—from the cool, slightly Scandinavian-sounding name, to the environmental friendliness of its products, to its inspiring catalogs—makes me want to cover every surface in my house with carpet tiles.

And now FLOR has given me yet another reason to love it. Last month the company emailed me about its first-ever design contest. Readers were invited to submit area rug designs using FLOR tiles. Winners would receive their FLOR design (complementary); have their winning design featured on FLOR.com; and have the chance of seeing their rug design sold through FLOR in the future.

In my mind, I can see the marketing meeting that engendered it:

Head Marketing Dude: What’s the biggest reason folks don’t buy our products?
Team Member: Most people can’t visualize things that aren’t in front of them. So, they don’t understand that they can use FLOR tiles to create an almost infinite variety of patterns—not just the ones we give them.
Head Marketing Dude: How can we fix this?
Team Member: Let’s invite folks to design new rugs for us. That way people will see the possibilities created by folks just like them. How about running a design contest?
Head Marketing Dude: Genius.

It is genius. It’s also a perfect example of audience engagement. Ask your audience to think in new ways about your product and build buzz around it. I know it’s not a new idea—food companies like Pillsbury have been using this tactic for years; I just appreciate FLOR’s take on it.

I thought about creating a new rug and submitting it, but I got sidetracked and didn’t do it. I did, however, vote for a winner by going to the FLOR site and checking out the finalists. Last week, FLOR sent me a follow-up email inviting me to check out the winners. And one of the ones I voted for won.

So, it looks like I’ll be getting a new area rug for Christmas. Thanks, FLOR!