Page 4 - Green Builder Magazine March-April 2019 Issue

EDITOR’S NOTE By Matt Power

The Inside Scoop Editor-in-Chief
Caption. Text

Brand Excellence vs.

Brand Arrogance

Trusted companies that listen closely to their customers improve products rapidly.

HAT MAKES a great brand, products and systems, they represent a living
when it comes to earning body of work, if you will. This•year’s Hot 50
and keeping the mental selections are not “static” products or brands.
space of sustainability? Let Look deeper, as our Readers’ Choice brand
W me give you two examples: survey does, and you’ll see that the brands
Owens Corning and TOTO. in the top tier are in constant motion. Their
Over the years, OC has made repeated innovators know there’s no sitting still in
improvements to its insulation products, the ever-shifting mental landscape of brand
changing fibers to make them easier and leadership.
safer for installers and do-it-yourself users. Building an enduring, respected brand
They constantly introduce new products takes determination, smart people and—
while also elevating the sustainability of their often—humility. The customer is (still)
plants and their end products. almost always right. The best of the best
Bill Strang, president of operations for never stop listening. Cheers to this year’s
TOTO, told me at a recent building show award-winning products and companies.
how his company stays on top of brand Keep up the good work. GB
perception. Every time somebody comments
or reviews a TOTO product online, somebody at the company gets
an instant noti‚cation. “If there’s a problem, we respond directly to
the person,” he explains. “We’ll have someone working on it almost Which company offers the greenest
immediately and making sure it’s ‚xed.”
Compare that level of response to my recent experience with a HOT WATER SYSTEM?
certain brand of “smart” outlet. I ordered a couple of these switches
to supplement some I use on a home network, only to discover a Bosch 34.3%
major limitation: You can’t use them with the same app at more Rheem 30.9%
than one location—you’d need a separate smartphone with its
own app. Rinnai 10.3%
My beef with this brand is not this product’s weakness, however. A.O. Smith 59 5.9%
It’s the fact that the company hasn’t ‚xed it. On its own forum site
there are numerous complaints about this issue. These complaints Bradford White 49 4.9%
start in 2017, and the issue still hasn’t been addressed. That’s the Stiebel Eltron 49 4.9%
opposite of brand excellence. It’s brand arrogance.
Great products and enduring brands require constant vigilance. Takagi 34 3.4%
Behind each product are smart, engaged people who anticipate and Noritz 34 3.4%
react to end users. Any marketer knows that one negative review
can undo a dozen positive ones. Bosch clout. In the building product arena, Bosch’s leadership on sustainability
Congrats to this year’s brand leaders in the arena of sustainability puts it head and shoulders above many of its competitors. Its cross-platform
and high performance. More than just a collection of well-designed attention to responsible products offers good role modeling for U.S. firms.

2 GREEN BUILDER March/April 2019 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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