Werner Braun: Don’t bash me to sell yours

Published 8:23 pm Thursday, May 13, 2010

One of the things that most amazes me about the carpet industry is the civility by which business is conducted. Oh, I’m not naive enough to know that there aren’t sales people out there scratching and clawing for every square yard of carpet they can sell, but I also know most of our folks are doing it the right way. We prefer to sell carpet on its benefits, and for the most part, avoid any disparaging words about other flooring products.

After all, we all live in this town together. We pass each other on the sidewalks, we go to church together, and for the most part, we all subscribe to the philosophy that a rising tide raises all boats. 

Unfortunately, not everybody else lives in that world. Recently, we ran across a huge full-page ad by a hardwood retailer that really hit a nerve in our industry. The ad had a big quote from an alleged customer who says in bold print: “We are excited to be rid of the carpet and (hopefully) the allergy symptoms it caused…”

My first reaction was disappointment. I’ve been in and around the floor covering industry long enough to know how destructive and demoralizing the business climate becomes once competitors start taking pot shots at each other.

I don’t know how many magazines ran the ad, or even whether it’s still being placed in different publications, but it’s safe to say that a large audience of consumers has been exposed to its message. Without question, CRI and its members (many of whom manufacture hardwood as well as carpet) feel that this kind of product-bashing advertising is detrimental to the entire flooring industry and runs counter to the business ethics that promote a sense of balanced, but healthy, competition that presents consumers with the benefits of different floor coverings.

But worst of all, the ad’s message that carpet causes allergies is simply incorrect.

I’ve said it before. Research conducted independently and on behalf of the CRI clearly demonstrates that there is no scientific link to the use of carpet and increased asthma and allergy symptoms. In fact, when CRI asked a noted toxicologist to find the evidentiary support establishing such a link, the toxicologist, after reviewing over twenty different U.S and international studies, found that none existed.

The full text of Dr. Mitchell Sauerhoff’s article, “Carpet, Asthma and Allergies — Myth or Reality,” is posted online as part of the International Journal of Flooring Sciences. (http:/www.flooringsciences.org)

Choice is good, in flooring and everything else. CRI’s position is that keeping the air inside a house healthy for allergy sufferers and everyone else isn’t so much about what flooring product you use as how you keep it clean. Carpet and hardwood both require frequent cleaning — a homeowner must work just as hard sweeping and mopping hardwood floors as they do vacuuming and occasionally deep-cleaning their carpets. Maybe even harder.

I like to think that most flooring professionals share my view that flooring beautifies the home and negative or inaccurate messages affect the entire flooring industry.

Unfortunately, we spend way too much of our time having to deal with negative issues such as this rather than being able to talk about the positives of the product. I know I have inundated you with some of these issues we deal with and how we deal with them the last few weeks.

Over the next few weeks, though, I’m going to simply talk about the many good benefits of carpet and share some of the wonderful research and data we have collected here at CRI. After all, we would much rather you buy our product based on its own strengths, and not on made-up weaknesses from the competition.