Digital product resources are ubiquitous now; super convenient and often offering fun interactive features designers can play around with, these online tools certainly help architects and designers visualize their projects and offer online convenience. And once created, they’re easy to maintain and cost-effective.
But just as interior designers seek to create a targeted experience for their clients, so too should the companies those designers buy from, as much as possible.
Interior solutions companies must think strategically about each piece of the experience they’re creating for their customers.
Companies who provide interior solutions have the opportunity and ability to play a role in relationship building between all of the parties involved in interior design projects, but it doesn’t happen naturally. It’s up to those companies to shape a “space” that they can successfully engage with customers in.
Crafting a complete series of touch points – both digital and physical – helps designers and architects engage with your products and get to know your brand and “what you’re all about” in a meaningful way. It also gives you more control over the brand message you’re pushing out.
At officeinsight, when we come across these “working showrooms,” we’re reminded of the constant push and pull between competing digital and physical spaces that companies must balance.
One such space is La Matériauthèque, a new material surfaces library for Ober, a company of interior decorative material solution brands that fill the interiors of stores, offices, hotels, auditoriums and homes.
Located just outside Paris, in St. Quen, Matériauthèque offers a vast selection of wood, paper, metal and resin solutions – around 2,000 products from its four brands: Oberflex, Marotte, Pure Paper and Staron. In 2016 Ober registered 39.2 million euros in sales, currently employs a staff of over 400, and is growing its international presence. La Matériauthèque is a chance for Ober’s customers to experience its “full-scale materials in the service of imagination.”
“The idea is to strength the relationships between all the people who work on a project, and also between them and us,” said Cyril Combe, a communications rep for Ober, in an officeinsight interview. “La Matériauthèque is part of a bigger brand strategy Ober is beginning to implement.”
“This approach is an extension of the multi-brand strategy we introduced at the beginning of the year,” said Clément Lescanne, OBER’s CEO, in the project’s announcement. “Our desire to respond to the increasing emergence of one-stop shopping is also the reason we are encouraging key influencers to take advantage of the way our products complement each other across one project. For all the people involved in a project, this is a real convenience in terms of delivery of service, availability of a single point of contact, and decision making.”
La Matériauthèque will maintain the entire Ober Surfaces collection available on site, enabling clients to explore the products and textures in each collection in full size.
“Each product is showcased in real-life scenarios and can be touched and combined with one another in any project,” notes the project announcement.
Developing spaces like these also helps a company think more strategically about the options and policies they want to provide customers with, and think about the ways they can best engage with those customers.
“With a strong connection to design, this new space for information and guidance is a place of initiation to the OBER culture,” detailed the announcement. “It will also help spread the brand’s values – creativity, innovation, and environmental responsibility – on a larger scale.
“Ober Surfaces plans to hold several events and training sessions here. La Matériauthèque is also designed to be mobile and will take part in professional shows worldwide. A location in the heart of Paris is also planned further down the line.”
In La Matériauthèque, Ober has created a guided experience throughout all the phases of a designer’s project, “from creating unique color tones to inventory management in case a product is included in a supplier’s list.”
That experience will include technical recommendations related to briefs and logistics aimed at supporting interior design projects throughout all the phases of the projects’ life cycles to ensure quality and to control costs, as well as expedited processing of sample orders within 48 hours. To learning more about Ober, visit www.ober-surfaces.com.
Working showrooms like La Matériauthèque form an invisible undercurrent of inclusivity in the companies that build them. Interior products companies must curate a space for designers and architects to get to know them; and as digital tools become sleeker and more ubiquitous, the physical, face-to-face experience between companies and the A&D community becomes something that companies must think more pointedly about.