June 5/12, 2017: Volume 31, Issue 26
By Lindsay Baillie
Loxcreen Flooring Group and M-D Building Products recently consolidated its Professional Distribution Channel operations under the new name, M-D PRO. Encompassing all of its professional accessory product lines except PROVA, M-D PRO has developed a new logo to replace Loxcreen Flooring Group for all future product labels, social media and marketing materials.
Since the start of its rebranding, M-D PRO has received positive feedback from customers and end users. “They are glad that we simplified things for them,” said Julia Vozza, marketing manager professional distribution. “We had several customers who were buying under multiple brand names, which caused confusion in the marketplace as to who we were as a supplier and where the products were coming from.”
The company hopes the rebranding helps customers see M-D PRO as one supplier that can provide an array of flooring and building accessory products. “We want our customers and end users to know that they are in possession of an M-D product no matter what the product category,” Vozza explained.
As part of the merger and rebranding, M-D PRO has strengthened its marketing efforts. It’s now promoting M-D PRO as a whole instead of individual product lines to specific customers or channels. “This has not only simplified our marketing messages and collateral but has also brought synergies to everything we produce and communicate,” Vozza said.
The company is also working with distributors, such as Durox Flooring Accessories, to ensure cohesive branding and eliminate potential marketplace confusion. Michael VanVugt, Ontario sales manager, explained marketplace confusion was initially a concern; however, “Loxcreen did a good job of incorporating the M-D logo on all of [its] materials from the beginning so our customers got used to seeing it there. Since the re-brand announcement, we at Durox/Prosol are working closely with M-D PRO to ensure our catalogs and the samples we distribute are consistent with their branding.”
Al Ross, product manager for commercial products, Carpet Cushions and Supplies, also sees the M-D PRO’s rebranding as a positive move. “We continue to have brand differentiation between what we are selling to the professional installer and what is being sold via the big box stores, but at the same time [we’re] raising brand awareness to the homeowner and end user when they see the product on their job site.”
Establishing brand awareness was one of the factors involved in the decision to keep PROVA—the company’s water proofing system—on its own. Others factors include PROVA’s established brand equity, its potential for growth in the marketplace and its proven success for M-D. While PROVA is maintaining its name, M-D will be used as a sub-brand on all packaging and marketing collateral, “so that synergies are maintained that PROVA is still indeed an M-D brand,” Vozza said. “It is ‘PROVA by M-D.’”
In addition to a new logo and marketing strategy, M-D PRO is in the process of developing new, dedicated websites for PROVA and M-D PRO. According to Vozza, the company hopes to launch the PROVA site in fall of this year and have the second site (M-D PRO) follow shortly after. “We are working diligently to ensure we provide our users with a great experience in functionality, tools and search [capability] for products and where to buy them.”