Flooring Excellence by Co-Creation – The Synergy of Architects, Designers and Manufacturers: All business entities have one common goal – respectable, profitable, sustainable, and scalable growth! And they achieve it by successful marketing of their offering to the World, especially to their customers and people who can influence the potential customers.

Introducing new products (services included) is one of the most essential methods to remain relevant and continue growth.

The Synergy of Architects, Designers and Manufacturers

In the conventional set-up, the new product -development largely remains an internal affair of a company, and customers’ participation in the process is mostly passive or minimal; yes, they may have contributed in terms of sharing their challenges or pain or gaps if the company had employed their eyes and ears in the market.

Prelude to Co-creation

In a press conference, Vijay Aggarwal, the Managing Director of Prism Johnson Ltd, once shared a story that closely relates to this. He said – “It was in an exhibition that an elderly couple came into our Johnson Tile stall looking for floor tiles. The gentleman walked over a mock-up of Industrial floor tiles. I approached him and started a conversation with the couple with the intent to guide them. It turned out that they were looking for bathroom floor tiles. I told them that the mock-up they are looking at is of industrial flooring and they can see our big and beautiful range of bathroom tiles. Then they told me that those were not what they wanted as they were not anti-slip. They were ready to compromise in aesthetics but not safety. And this is how Anti-Skid flooring for bathrooms was born in India in the year 2000. Our R&D team developed tiles with high slip-resistance yet aesthetically appealing. Few more such stories guided us for innovative new product development”!

Paradigm Shift: Customization to Co-creation of Flooring

Co-creation has evolved recently as a great marketing initiative, especially as an important part of the New Product Development (NPD) model. The essence of co-creation lies in the participation of target customer groups in the whole process of NPD, from ideation to supply chain and then closing the loop with customer feedback. There are plenty of successful stories of cocreation-led NPD, particularly in consumer goods and open-source software development.

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While customization of aesthetics in flooring (e.g. ceramic tiles) for large projects is not new, actual co-creation is still waiting to be adopted by flooring and wall panel manufacturers in India.

“When it comes to building materials, especially flooring and wall panels, brands are not leveraging the power of cocreation,” says Dinesh Vyas, co-founder of the ON-THE-FLOOR (OTF) platform.

Scope of Co-creation

Without going into technicalities and typology of co-creation led NPD, surface coverings like flooring and wall panels are very special building materials for built spaces. They not only need to be durable but also, aesthetically appealing. And aesthetics of surface coverings needs to complement and support the overall ambiance plan by the designers. I cannot be planned in isolation by the manufacturer. There are multiple styles, and every project of designers aims to carry a theme which, in many cases, carries a signature or statement by the designer.

“For an architect and designer, the uniqueness of a project is reflected by the materiality as well as aesthetic plan. Using an off-the-shelf product could be a good workaround but a soulful product needs specific considerations” adds, Dinesh Vyas.

Values that Co-creation Brings with it

It is a known fact that majority of product selection in flooring and wall panels are based on aesthetics that the designer has in mind for a particular project. There are enough examples of product failures as the chosen product could not perform in other parameters and gave in much earlier than desired.

Customization and Co-creation for Flooring

Failure of flooring in functional requirements can be arrested by combining the technical expertise of product makers and creative specifications by the architects and designers in the process of co-
creation. You can still call it customization, but it is much beyond that. The designer and product development team of the manufacturer are involved in the entire process.

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They are equal parts in the two main phases: co-designing and selection of final product(s). Customization generally remains limited to tinkering with the manufacturer-led product development. Say, change in shade or some design element.

Innovation, Quality, Sustainability and Co-creation

Once co-creation starts, the association moves beyond tinkering and designers can identify emerging, futuristic trends and user needs that can result in innovative products that are much superior to the existing offerings.

Another big gain of co-creation is that the architects and designers can validate the new products in real world scenarios and actual usage environments. Quality, you can say.

The co-creation system automatically brings a better understanding of each other’s expertise. While the manufacturer R&D and production teams work on aspects like durability, slip-resistance, scratch resistance, impact resistance, etc., designers bring the aesthetic and style part to the product.

We all are concerned with sustainability. Co-creation means teamwork of architects, designers, and the manufacturer. All are aware of the situation. This teamwork keeps the focus on the life cycle of the product, eco-friendliness, and sustainability right from the ideation to the usage of the product in real setups.

Challenges

The co-creation process has some challenges. The first one is the coordination with architects, designers, and production teams which could be challenging. 

The biggest challenge is the continuity of co-creation as an important function like marketing, finance, and HR, not just as need-based exercises for some specific projects which merely focus on product tinkering and modifications related to colours, textures, shapes, etc. for flooring products. It is a cultural shift. It is a mindset.

The manufacturer has to take accountability for the entire process and outcome. Priorities of architects will remain on aesthetics and styling while the production team has to see the viability and technology constraints.

Another challenge is to manage economic viability along with the manufacturer’s need to stick to
Industry norms. There will be situations calling for additional investment also.

Last but not least, there could be some additional hurdles including compliance and certification of
some new products.

Manufacturers who bring co-creation to the core of their product offerings, also need to have a convincing, well-thought-off marketing strategy. Revenues and profitability hold the key for the sustainability of such efforts, says Dinesh Vyas.

Way Forward

The way forward involves successfully overcoming the challenges. Creating a team of diverse expertise needs to be brought into the culture of the organization. The change has to start from the top here as this is not like ATL or BTL marketing efforts.

The organization may need to allocate a budget for R&D and additional investment which could be in production as well as digital empowerment of the processes for speed and accuracy.

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An effort could be made to seek incentives from government policies as the outcome of the collaborative process is set to create more sustainable products. The same needs to be done with certification agencies to ensure the benefit of this value addition.

“The challenges are not too big. A sincere, well-planned initiative of co-creation could be rewarding for the first mover companies, despite some complexities involved,” concludes Dinesh Vyas.