French Doors From concept to creation
Fri 3rd Sep 2010
Mark Simm, Sales Director of Rockdoor, gives Windows Active a unique insight into how they have successfully introduced their first ever set of French Doors.
A video-diary providing an in-depth and informative "behind the scenes" look at the making of French Doors has introduced Rockdoor's innovative new product to the market.
Rockdoor has created a multimedia promotion with a difference; foregoing the usual marketing campaign format and instead creating a French Door journey on film, allowing customers to see for themselves the life of a French Door from concept to creation. This unique approach has engaged and inspired their clients, creating quite a buzz!
The Idea
"It is well known across the industry that standard upvc French Doors are inherently vulnerable to break-ins. "They may look aesthetically pleasing but they aren't as secure as they ought to be in this day and age," explained Mark Simm. "Customers find them great to sell but they are also a common reason for expensive call backs due to them dropping, especially if they are over 1800mm."
Rockdoor rose to the challenge to design a upvc French Door that offered both security and functionality, whilst retaining a traditional appearance. "The Rockdoor team went right back to the drawing board; they strived to create a door based on attaining a standard rather than a price, explained Mark. "They also wanted to ensure that the new doors would achieve the Secured by Design accreditation, as minimum."
The Prototype
"Once the design was completed as a CAD drawing, it was time to start the process of building the prototype", explained Mark. Using PVC-U skins provided Rockdoor with several advantages. Firstly in terms of developing tooling relatively quickly - which enables them to react to changing markets, styles and tastes -and, secondly, by providing uniqueness in product design which their competitors can't duplicate.
"Developing the prototype involved creating a new aluminium tool which is acid-etched to provide a woodgrain embossed effect. Once tooling was complete an outerleaf was created to make a set of doors", explained Mark.
Extensive development work went into the door components including centre seals, locking mechanisms and handles. Most of these components had to be designed exclusively for Rockdoor and manufactured to their exacting specifications, to ensure the product was strong but also achieved a U-Value in accordance with Document L.
The Photography
"Once we had developed the prototype we needed to photograph it. As with our composite door brochure, it was important we had a balance between studio shots and location shots. It's important to enable the customer to envisage how the doors will look on their own house, but studio shots give us the opportunity to really demonstrate where the differences lie with Rockdoor", continued Mark.
To ensure the quality of these images, Rockdoor used photographic equipment that shoots up to 30 million pixels (most normal cameras only achieve 8-10 million pixels) which allowed them to use the shots for large format POS.
The Tests
Perhaps the most important aspect for Rockdoor was to launch their French Doors with a Secured by Design as standard. "We didn't just want to scrape past their benchmarks, we wanted to obliterate them", stressed Mark, "and we achieved our goal by exceeding certain criteria by over 50%!"
To pass SBD they used an ACAS testing centre where the secure French Doors were put through their paces. This was filmed throughout and used as an internet/email campaign which has already been viewed by thousands.
Installation Guidelines
"French doors are only as good as the fitter who installs them. Our new French Doors are so secure that they require fitting in a certain way to ensure they perform as intended. We felt it was important to provide a simple ‘step by step' video of how to install Rockdoor French Doors correctly to ensure our customers get the most from the product. We wanted to highlight all of the little differences that make Rockdoor French Doors stand out from the crowd; and created a professional quality DVD installation video featuring an expert fitter and an informative, professional voiceover."
Marketing
Mark concluded, "Perhaps the most important function of our promotional campaign was to gather momentum prior to the launch; and to generate exposure within the market. This allowed us to hit the ground running come launch day. Each stage of our journey was filmed to provide a unique ‘behind the scenes' look at to what goes into launching a new product in our industry. The video has proved extremely successful; it has already been watched by thousands of trade customers and homeowners. SEO, e-mails, and press releases have also proved successful in driving unprecedented traffic to our website."
This article can be seen in Windows Active, Sept 2010