Greg Smith: Bremworth CEO on their marketing campaign for NZ wool carpet

Many new builds are opting for hardwood or synthetic carpets, ignoring the homegrown options. 

Bremworth launched a $2 million marketing campaign this week, aiming to remind Kiwis of the high-quality woollen options we have in this country. 

CEO Greg Smith told Mike Hosking that they’ve seen in their research that both hardwood and wool considerations are at a four year high, which may indicate that people are moving towards more natural options. 

He said that they need to make sure people are aware of the natural performance benefits of New Zealand wool. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So let's celebrate Wall. As we told you yesterday, Brimworth
have launched this two million dollar marketing campaign to remind
us that Wall is wonderful. The chief executive Greg Smithers
with us. Greg, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Very good morning to you too, Mike, thanks for having us.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Not at all.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
How big is the battle?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Well it's it's it's pretty big, but it's not as
big as it's been. I mean, Will prices are on
the app there at a six year high, which is
which is great for New Zealand farmers and that's that's
really good news for them, and that's good news for
us because we're Wall only, so we want we want
people to see the value of this amazing product.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Exactly how much when it comes to Wall is on
price and how much of it's not front of mind?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, actually it's absolutely front of mind. So consideration for
wool is that a four year high according to our research,
and as far as price goes, it is the number
one consideration for consumers. However, but when you're comparing synthetics
to wool, you're not comparing apples with apples.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
No, indeed you're not. But do people understand that more importantly,
when you're looking, say in a house, do you look
at wall versus synthetic or do you look at wall
versus a wood floor, versus a chevron floor, versus a
tile versus whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, Well, what we've seen in our research is that
hard floors and when we talk about hard floors, we
talk about timber, laminade, final timber floors are their consideration
is at a four year high as well, which may
have something to do with people moving more towards natural
and carpets at a high as well. And that's wall carpet,

(01:35):
but it's not converting in store, and so we need
to make sure that people are aware of the natural
performance benefits of wool.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Okay, do you work in all dovetail and I'm thinking
about the new builds and all that talk about consents
and building new homes in the country in the last
couple of years. Does that become part of the equation
in the conversation when you talk about what guttering you're
going to use, what roof, what door, what door handle,
right floors? What are we doing? Is that all part
of that?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, I'll tell you the part of conversation we want
to be in and that's the conversation with people are
talking about surfaces. And you know when you think about
people spending an ordinary amount of time considering their bench
top or their bathroom or the door handles that they've got,
and we think the most premium surface in the home
is your flooring and Will carpet is absolutely the best

(02:27):
choice there. So that's what the conversation we want to
be part of them. That's what the campaign's about.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Is patriotism part of the equation. You know the fact
that it's locally made, growing all of them.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
I'd like to say yes, but most of the synthetic
products are all important. Yeah, so you know New Zealand
made is important to Kiwis, but what's more important actually
globally is New Zealand Will. It's incredibly well regarded all
over the world as being the best surface.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
And is that the same for strong and Fine or not?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yep, absolutely so. I mean the Australian marino grows will
say that Australian marinos as good as New Zealand. We
know that's not quite true. But New Zealand strong Will
is absolutely regarded for its caloredy sorry, it's color, it's
quality and the low carbon footprint, it's the best in
the world.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Good stuff. Well, I wish you were with the campaign.
I'm a big fan of the old wool and the
better we do, the better the country goes. Greg appreciated,
Greg Smith, Brimworth, Chief Executive.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
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Speaker 1 (03:29):
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