Cabo San Lucas, Los Cabos, Mexico—Thirteen years after Daltile launched the Statements Elite Dealer Program, the 200-plus retailers who have taken on the platform are reaping the benefits. The proof is in the pudding—or the numbers. According to Patrick Warren, vice president of residential sales, dealer and showrooms, Daltile’s residential remodel business was up almost double digits in 2022, but Daltile Statements dealers outpaced that growth.
“As we came out of COVID-19, we went through two amazing years,” Warren told Floor Covering News. “But in the second half of 2022, we were getting a bit of headwind—inflation, unemployment, we had the economy pushing at us. But two things happened: Daltile was still growing over the last year, and Statements is growing the most.”
In fact, in the last two years alone, Daltile has added 25-plus new locations and converted over 100 existing partners to the new merchandising program.
Why? He said it boils down to the program’s five core pillars: leads, consumer financing, co-op advertising, promotions and merchandising. “When you wrap all those together with the right dealer in the right market, that’s the secret sauce.”
Daltile continues to enhance and refine those pillars:
- Leads. “Leads are like panning for gold,” said Paij Thorn-Brooks, vice president of marketing. “When you put that pan down in the water and scoop it up, are you staring at a pan full of gold? No; it’s dirt and rocks. You have to sift through that to get to the gold.”
Daltile is constantly increasing the value and quality of those leads. Among some of the newer initiatives: making it easy for consumers to go into one of Daltile’s 100-plus showrooms to see product and get design advice. “They can go online, click on that location and book an appointment,” said Bobbie Alonzo, senior director of digital marketing. “They get an email confirmation and a link to the visualizer. They’re going to see a similar experience when they walk into one of our showrooms. So, we are bringing them into our locations, helping them with their designs and then sending them over to a Statements dealer to purchase.”
According to Alonzo, Daltile continues to expand all of its lead touchpoints. “Today we have lead generation through our design centers, paid advertising campaigns, social media tools and a chatbot on our website.”
Again, the results of these efforts are seen in the numbers. Year over year, from January to May, Daltile had a 60% increase in the number of leads. “How did we do that?” Thorn-Brooks asked. “We’ve looked at our creative to see what works best. We’ve also updated the way we find customers by creating new look-alike audiences. And if you look at just the spring campaign, last year we had about 4,000 leads within that timeframe. This year we had 13,000 because of the changes we made.”
Daltile is constantly pushing the leads it gets to Statements dealers. “Finding the right search words are key—because they’ll in turn go to our website, fill out a $500 coupon, and that lead is delivered to the Statements dealer,” Thorn-Brooks said. “We send subsequent emails to that consumer that says, ‘Hey, there is an expiration date on that coupon; reach out to your Statements dealer. Here’s their name, address, email, contact.’ Then we send another email that says, ‘Don’t forget, you can get a free design consultation at this Statements showroom. Here’s where they are.’ All our follow-up communications help drive the customer into the dealer showroom.
Josh Elder, president of Gainesville CarpetsPlus Colortile, Florida, said Daltile’s lead-generation results in a close rate of between 40% and 50%, which is greater than his rate prior to becoming a Statements dealer. “They’re definitely more qualified leads,” he said.
Chris Cosentino, president of Hadinger Flooring in Naples, Fla., was singing a similar tune. “Other companies give us leads, but we get more from Daltile than anybody else. I’m guessing we close somewhere between half and 60% of those leads.”
- Consumer finance. “When you give that consumer an easy path to pay for their purchase, they will spend more and it helps close the sale,” Warren said. “We know for a fact that people who finance buy four times more product and they buy better goods.”
To that end, Daltile has partnered with two companies: Service Finance, which offers a longer-term finance option where consumers can pay for their purchase over five or 10 years, and Synchrony, which focuses on the short-term, deferred-interest type loans for 6 or 12 months.
- Co-op advertising. This 50/50 matching co-op program is one of the critical elements of the Statements program. These are resources designed to help fund ads or promotional activity that promotes the Daltile brand as well as a retailer’s local brand in store.
- Promotions. Daltile offers two, 60-day promotions a year for Statements dealers: one in the spring and another in the fall. The advisory council plays a big part in what the promo should look like and what the discount should be. The most recent promotion in the spring was up to 40% off. “That gets people’s attention,” Warren noted. “We’re going to continue to drive that type of messaging to get people in the door.”
- Merchandising. Statements 2.0, the platform launched two years ago, is all about continuity. “We have taken this idea of continuity from our websites to our Daltile showrooms to our Statements showrooms,” Thorn-Brooks explained. “Everything looks alike. It is a continuous feeling that you’re in the Daltile environment through that entire process.”
At the same time, Daltile has built the merchandising so the retail sales associate can close that sale. Gainesville CarpetsPlus/Colortile’s Elder cited the merchandising as a home run. “[The displays] definitely elevated the tile area in my showroom,” he said. “The look in my showroom is very clean, very crisp, very well-organized.”
Richard Akel, Akel’s Carpet One, Little Rock, Ark., has been a Statements dealer for a little more than eight months and has “absolutely” seen an increase in his ceramic tile sales; he has also seen an increase in the average ticket. “The best thing about Statements is it sets your showroom apart,” he noted. “The process for the customer to find a tile for whatever her needs are is the easiest out there.”
The average ticket has increased, he said, because consumers will spend more money on a bathroom shower or a backsplash. “Their floor tile is going to be their floor tile,” he explained. “But the money is in the mosaics, the backsplashes, the showers.”
Product curation is a big component of the Statements 2.0 showroom. “We need to lead that customer to their buying decision,” said Amber Leigh Martinson, senior director of marketing. “We need to be presenting them with options. We’re giving your salespeople the tools to do that with our Statements 2.0 because it is full of curation.”
Program enhancements
The Statements program is being enhanced this year with a curated 25-product offering from Daltile’s higher-end Marazzi brand. Warren said these upgraded products have an Italian flair, edgy, trendier colors and more design. “We see this as an opportunity to go after that 24 x 48 tile, which is really a premium size,” Warren said. “Sell that trend, sell that inspiration. Marazzi is the bolt-on program that can get you that.”
The program comes with its own lead-generation program and co-op. There will also be focused digital promotions via geo-targeting.
“I like Marazzi,” said Steve Dalene, president of Dalene Flooring Carpet One, South Windsor, Conn., an advisory council member and Statements dealer since day one. “It gives you an added brand. And you’re buying it all through Daltile, so it’s simple.”
Daltile is also targeting RSAs with both training and a rewards program. Daltile University is the training component through learning modules. As the RSAs complete these learning modules, they will reach certain status levels, similar to the airline programs that reward consumers for their loyalty. Then they earn Daltile Rewards on medium to better products. “Learn about it, sell it and be rewarded for it,” Warren said.
Daltile Statements advisory council members tout the improvements. “Daltile has gotten 100 times better than it used to be,” said Phil Koufidakis, president of Baker Brothers in Phoenix. “I don’t sit on a lot of these dealer [councils] because I get super frustrated. But I’ll tell you one thing about Daltile—you give them a good idea, you come back to the next meeting and they have implemented what was discussed. They’re definitely next level on this stuff. They’re doing it better than anybody else.”
Dalene may have summed it up best: “I feel like Daltile is the only one on the ceramic side that is committed to the dealers.”
Digital initiatives
The company revealed a plethora of digital enhancements for Daltile Statements dealers, all designed to simplify the shopping process for consumers or increase exposure for dealers. They include:
- Postable is a new program to facilitate social media. It allows Statements dealers to repurpose and use Daltile’s social content. “When we post something, it can automatically post to your Instagram, Facebook or even Google business pages, appearing as if it’s coming directly from you,” Alonzo explained. This includes the use of influencers—from micro to celebrity—educational articles and trend reports.
- Product detail pages have become more digestible and user friendly. Consumers can also easily order a sample or gain technical information without having to navigate to another page on the site.
- Simplifying the search process. Consumers can now narrow their product choices and easily view them in their actual room via the visualizer. From this view, they’ll be able to order a sample. CarpetsPlus/Colortile’s Elder said he likes the fact the visualizer links to the dealers’ websites. “I think people want to see it in their space before they write the checks. And if customers can see it in their space, they are willing to spend a little more because they know what they’re getting vs. going in blind.”
- Curated content. Knowing that people shop in very different ways, curated content makes it easy for people to shop by seeing different products come together. And if they click on a curated board, it can feed right into the visualizer. “That is exclusive to Daltile,” Martinson said. “That gives us a way to bring you something that’s different, and helps the customers through their shopping journey.”
- A compare feature has been added to the visualizer. The consumer can change out everything—even the grout color. “What’s more, when that consumer exits the compare feature, it’s actually going to show you what products were selected in each space,” Thorn-Brooks said. “The consumer can then send those products to herself via email or text, and if they like what they see, they’ll be able to easily get those samples sent to her home.”
- Promotional touchpoints. Not only are there multiple points along the way where the consumer can order samples, but the samples arrive in a box with all the promotional information that is appropriate for that customer. “If we’re running a big Statements promotion, that card is in that box, so they can link right to the coupon,” Martinson said. “On the back of the sample is a QR code to take them to the visualizer.” The QR code also takes them right to the product page for any more information that they might need.Hadinger’s Cosentino said this is important. “The customer will be looking at a product and say, ‘I’d really like that on my backsplash. I want to get a sample of that.’ That triggers a lead, and we already know the customer is looking at this product, they like it, they’ve requested a sample of it. So we’re ahead in the whole lead-generation process.”
- E-mail lead integration. Leads have been integrated with the dealer’s software system. A pilot program is under way with RFMS with other systems following soon.
