The World Floor Covering Association (WFCA), the floor covering industry’s largest advocacy organization representing floor covering retailers, contractors and allied service providers throughout North America, has designed the perfect formula to reach consumers in the market for new flooring. The combination of an award-winning consumer website, a highly successful national ad campaign, the launch of a new nationally distributed consumer magazine under the Better Homes & Gardens banner and an aggressive public relations program that includes media tours across the country, has consumers everywhere seeking out the WFCA and its retail members.

To capitalize on the consumer traffic driven by its website, the WFCA has created a retail member locator feature that helps consumers find local flooring retailers in their area. To complement the symmetry between the website and the member locator, the WFCA also created the Seal of Recognition Program that extends an extra level of credibility to members that participate. The WFCA Seal Of Approval identifies retail members that abide by the World Floor Covering Association’s strict Code of Conduct and subscribe to the highest standards of professionalism.  This seal gives retailers the competitive edge of assuring customers that they are dealing with a highly credible business that can be counted on for second-to-none customer service and the assurance of a positive and successful purchase experience. The seal emblem is displayed at store entrances and on storefront windows and is promoted through all WFCA consumer marketing and advertising materials.

As part of the WFCA’s multi-prong consumer awareness initiative to help drive even more consumer traffic to the website, the WFCA will soon begin work on the second issue of Beautiful Flooring in Q1 2009 with their publishing partner Meredith Corporation. The magazine, delivered in a “buyer’s guide” format will serve as an extension of the consumer website to help readers make the best flooring selections for their home. Active WFCA manufacturer members will play a key role providing art and sample products for features and write-ups in the book.

The WFCA will also kick off their next consumer ad campaign with Meredith early next year. Now in its third year, the campaign has been running in nearly a dozen of the publishers’ top books, including Renovation Style, Kitchen & Bath Ideas, Beautiful Kitchens, Kitchen Makeovers, Creative Home and Beautiful Homes, to name a few. Advertising reach is expected to be in excess of 22-mllion.

To tie the advertising and publishers endeavors together, the WFCA is also continuing aggressive efforts with its ongoing consumer-driven public relations campaign.  The campaign will complement the other initiatives by raising awareness and promoting consumer education about flooring and the purchase process.  As part of the program, the WFCA will work and meet regularly with key media influencers from some of the largest magazines, newspapers, websites and electronic media outlets across the country through national media tours and one-on-one meetings with press.

To participate in any of these programs or for more information on WFCA please visit WFCA-PRO.ORG. -- Leah Gross-Harmon