This article was first published in the Spring/Summer 2015 issue of Cruise & Ferry Interiors.
Putting together a cruise ship can resemble a giant jigsaw, as thousands of pieces need to fit together seamlessly to deliver that feeling of quality and luxury that passengers seek. Everything from flooring to fabrics needs to be decided upon, and suppliers are in constant competition to offer the highest-quality products available.
Naturally, certain products are going to be particularly appealing to customers in a maritime environment, and when a winning formula is found, it is vital companies capitalise in full. While liaising with existing or potential customers, suppliers must identify the key selling points from within their portfolio.
“Customers are looking for design, functionality and good quality manufacturing which needs little or no adjustment for marine use,” explains Chelsom Lighting’s head of marketing, PR and communications Lucy White. “Most of our products are designed to be used across all sectors of the hospitality marketplace, so hotels, marine and workplace environments. We need to demonstrate the fusion of the latest design trends and technological advancements in our products.”
According to Lynn Wade, marketing manager at furnishing fabric provider Skopos, cruise and ferry lines are looking first and foremost for beautiful fabrics with a great colour choice, but also products that are durable and hardwearing.
“Design and pattern is important, and fabrics that provide a feeling of luxury are popular within cruise ships,” says Wade. “Our bespoke offer also provides something unique – an opportunity to use fabrics which are unique to the customer’s brand.”
“Customers want consistency, and you have to offer a reliable product,” says Jimmy Ahlgren, sales and marketing director at Elmo Leather. “When it comes to leather, customers tend to focus on two things: a natural touch in the leather, and the choice of colours.”
One crucial element for suppliers to the marine industry is that their products meet International Marine Organization (IMO) regulations.
“Having to meet IMO standards is a prerequisite,” says Chloe Taylor, a marketing assistant at Forbo Flooring Systems. “Design, durability and ease of maintenance are next. Our flocked flooring product, Flotex FR, allows for virtually unlimited custom designs. And our Coral T32 Marine is a very effective solution for corridors and entrances, offering the luxury and comfort of a carpet and the maintenance savings of a quality entrance matting system.”
“Generally, customers look for a wide choice combining IMO design-led products for public spaces and crew areas,” says Karine Bouttier, product manager of Gerflor, a vinyl flooring manufacturer. “They expect to have a complete flooring offering from one reliable supplier that also has marine expertise.”
Once the supplier finalises a portfolio of products for use in the marine industry, which prove most popular with customers?
“Elmosoft – our chrome-free tanned leather – is considered the most environmentally friendly article on the market and is very popular,” says Ahlgren of Elmo Leather. “In many tanneries they use chrome as a tanning agent. But ours is chrome-free and is produced in a different way. It comes in 60 colours, which gives the customers a great choice.”
“Our most popular products are the decorative wall panels and Mariline furniture,” explains Christel van de Langenberg, a marketing coordinator at panel and furniture manufacturer Roemeg. “I think the main reason why they are so successful is because of the certificate, quality, fast and personal service and the reliability.”
For ceramics manufacturer Villeroy & Boch, the company’s Affinity collection is a top-seller.
“The multi-functional collection does not only score in terms of visual appearance and design, but supports the premium experience of maritime holidays,” says the director of the company’s hotel and restaurant division, Burkhard Schmidt. “Affinity is perfectly suited for cruise catering: more than 70 different items that are stackable, space saving and durable allow for an enormous multiplicity of combinations and applications.”
“For outdoor areas, our Agua Aura range is practical, has a useable colour palette, is fire retardant to IMO specification and has high stock levels,” says Robert Walton, commercial director at Agua Fabrics. “The products are impervious, stain resistant, UV resistant, anti-microbial and washable at the end of a busy season. For indoor areas, our Taurus faux leather is fire retardant to IMO specification, has an extensive colour palette, and is anti-microbial and durable with a Martindale abrasion of over 400,000 rubs.”
Factors such as durability, aesthetic and function are all critical when creating and launching products for the marine industry. But do these things tend to come together quite naturally, or does significant design and manufacturing time need to be devoted to creating a product of the highest quality?
“It depends on the product and associated environment,” says Chelsom Lighting’s White. “Most of the cabin and stateroom lighting solutions that we provide need just a little modification to ensure durability and function with simple all thread rod fixings or wall fixings to ensure optimum stability. However, the bigger custom-made fixtures for public areas such as restaurants pose a big challenge for our technical and manufacturing teams to ensure there is no movement. This is to make the structure rigid yet still look as the designer intended.”
Forbo has a development ethos based on ‘creating better environments’, but finding the right balance is by far its biggest challenge, according to Taylor. She says that the company believes its Flotex FR and Coral T32 Marine strike a sweet spot between design and functionality.
Similarly, Bouttier at Gerflor admits that the company always has to find the best compromises between all design and technical criteria, including slip resistance, maintenance, design and IMO requirements.
Van de Langenberg at Roemeg says that striking this balance can be difficult, but is a challenge the company relishes. “We often have to deal with novel designs, but nothing is impossible for us,” she says. “We see it as a challenge that we can take on with both hands.”
Wade at Skopos says: “Each collection we launch must meet certain technical requirements, but also the aesthetic needs of the customer. Each year we launch collections that are in-line with current trends and look to the future to ensure we are planning product development in-line with the latest innovations in the market. Surface design can impact on the quality of the fabric and can even break regulations, so we must constantly ensure that the design process does not compromise the technical integrity of the product we are developing.”
While many companies cherish their best-selling product, they also take measures to ensure it doesn’t overshadow other offerings in their portfolio.
“Best sellers are crucial but it can lead designers to rely on the one material when others could be applied,” says Walton of Agua Fabrics. “However, this can be overcome by incorporating ‘interesting’ and sometimes ‘novel’ collections into the portfolio to encourage designers to keep looking.”
Villeroy & Boch skirts around this potential issue by offering ‘Custom Made Solutions’, a programme that Schmidt says gives customers “the exact tableware solutions they desire, which will never go out of fashion.” This includes adding customer logos on tableware, cutlery or glassware, or a completely new and individual decorative solution, all with a lifelong replacement guarantee.
All in all, it seems evident that striking a balance between innovation and customer appeal is at the crux of the supplier business, and finding a middle ground or ‘sweet spot’ is key to a product’s long-term success in the maritime industry.
“It is always good to have a best seller!” concludes Wade. “A particular colour can sometimes stand out as a best seller within a collection, and this only helps to add gravity to our complete portfolio.”