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 BlueBolt Studio allows designers to send sample boards via e-mail. Can it become the industry standard? July 2001
"I originally approached the design departments," says Eichel, founder and executive vice president of the Durham, North Carolina--based BlueBolt Networks. "I thought a comprehensive archive of patterns on CD would be useful in generating ideas for new products and would save designers a lot of time. But two things happened. Web technology evolved, making it possible for the product to be hosted on the Net. And in the course of my sales presentations, I met with sales and marketing people. But what they were really excited about was using the archive as a sales tool, getting their products in front of more designers and increasing sales."
The creation and distribution of samples is the single highest marketing expense in the interiors industry. One top-three carpet manufacturer spends $10 million each year on samples--more than half its annual marketing budget. "Samples are your lifeblood in the carpet business," says Al Kabus, who joined the BlueBolt team as president and CEO in July 2000 after two decades in the commercial carpet industry. "Unfortunately samples are limited because of cost. Limited samples mean a limited range of potential customers." Kabus acknowledges that other technology companies have come up with solutions for the interiors industry, but adds: "Those strategies tend to displace existing infrastructure. What sets us apart is that it allows a company to leverage its existing assets." Carmen Pastore, vice president of marketing at Johnsonite, a specialty flooring manufacturer in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, says BlueBolt Studio will increase the volume and breadth of his company's sales. "We spend a great deal of time trying to reach the design community," says Pastore, whose company was one of the first to list its product line with BlueBolt. "But we've been around since 1895, and many people have a preconception of who we are. With this tool's search capacity, a lot of designers will be exposed to products they might not have looked for from us. This also lets designers reach us day or night." In April 2000 BlueBolt concluded its first round of financing, a combination of venture capital and investment angels that produced $2.5 million in start-up capital. Two months later BlueBolt Studio was launched in a soft version at NeoCon 2000, the commercial furnishings industry's largest trade show in the U.S. There the company's management team met with 100 design and interiors industry professionals to gather reactions, criticism, and suggestions. "Most of the people we met with said they'd been waiting for something like this," says Michelle Moore, BlueBolt's director of marketing. "They told us they wanted smart objects, pricing and availability information, drag-and-drop features, and sample ordering facility." One thing the BlueBolt team learned of at NeoCon was the need for consistent, high-quality stan-dards in product imagery. If the Internet-delivered images were to supplement--or replace--physical samples, they had to be painstakingly accurate in color, pattern, and texture. "Originally we thought we would be able to use the manufacturer's images," Moore recalls. "But we discovered tremendous variations in lighting, scale, and quality. In addition, different products and finishes required different types of photography in order to be depicted properly. Leather needs to be photographed differently than synthetic fiber. As do metallic or sheen finishes. We decided to produce our own images." Yet flashy photographs, the team realized, could still lose their sparkle on a user's computer screen. "If you take fifteen monitors made by the same manufacturer and purchased on the same day, and plug them into the wall, the same image on them will look different," says Jeffery Sears, who joined BlueBolt last August as chief operating officer. Sears, a veteran carpet manufacturing executive, knew that the new company would struggle if the images their customers saw weren't true, so he worked with Imation--a 3M Corporation spin-off--to integrate a licensed technology called Verifi Accurate Web Color into the BlueBolt Studio software. This application resides on the same server that hosts BlueBolt Studio. Each user fills out a two-minute online color comparison survey to furnish details about his or her monitor, computer, operating system, and browser. These details are then stored as a "cookie" on the user's browser. When the user requests an image from the BlueBolt server, it adjusts color values on the images as they are transmitted from the server. The application is noninvasive; all modification occurs at the source, and not in the user's monitor or system. "You can't have the user disappointed about the relationship between the physical sample and the image he saw on the monitor," Sears says. "The image and the object have to be in synch. You can't have a person order an apple and receive a banana. You can almost view a computer monitor as having a personality. This technology compensates for differences in personality." After NeoCon 2000 BlueBolt Studio was distributed in beta form to ten design studios, including four of the top ten U.S. firms. The reaction has been overwhelmingly favorable. "Having a search engine is only useful if the database is exhaustive," says Joe Connell, principal at Chicago's Environments Group. With 150 employees, the company is the largest single corporate office--design firm in the country. "If you call directory assistance, and that directory assistance only covers 40 percent of the users, the service is worthless no matter how good the interface may be. Through BlueBolt's efforts, they've achieved a critical mass in the industry." Although Connell appreciates the application's sample-ordering feature, he notes that it's of secondary importance to firms, like his own, that are located near major manufacturers' showrooms in large cities. BlueBolt's most significant effect at the Environments Group has been in jump-starting the creative process. "The hardest part about choosing colors and materials for interiors is starting," he says. "This tool allows designers to start. Some start with color, some with materials, and some with what is going on the floor. Whatever the initial parameter, the tool allows for an immediate, personal search." BlueBolt's second round of financing--which put $5 million in the company's coffers--was completed in May. All of the original investors participated in the second round. At present the company employs 35. Kabus expects that number to reach 44 by year's end. Along with revenues from designer subscriptions and manufacturer product-line listings, BlueBolt's business plan anticipates future revenues from digital and print image sales, and supplier licensing. For the moment Eichel and her colleagues plan to concentrate on the company's core competency in commercial interior design, and then perhaps move into furniture and apparel. "The momentum that BlueBolt has is very impressive," Connell says. "The only question is whether this will become the industry standard, or whether it will inform the industry standard. That's a question that this industry will have to answer on its own." |
