A recent article in the WSJ shows how consumers are shifting their spending away from improving their homes to purchasing high tech toys.  Retailers like Depot and Lowes can embrace this shift by featuring the growing number of technology products that they carry.  There’s no reason for consumers only to think of Best Buy for technology.  Perhaps a “Technology Days” promotion or even their own Geek Squad would gain these sales.  They also should more actively reach out to early adopters of technology like the readers or Dwell and Wired magazines.

Lowering the noise level in homes has been a trend in both residential and commercial buildings for a number of years.  Sometimes it’s to enable people to comfortably live close to noisy environments such as in inner cities, next to freeways or even airports.  Other times it’s to lower the noise levels within structures by lowering the sound levels in appliances such as washers, dryers, dish washers and refrigerators.  And then there is the quest to lower sound transmission between rooms so we don’t hear every bathroom flush, discussion or television program from other rooms in our quest for solitude.

As most noise levels are not as regulated in the US as they are in Europe, most of our sound control efforts have been driven by manufacturer’s and builders as a means to differentiate themselves and provide a unique benefit.  Unfortunately most of these efforts have now become a confusing commodity much like the green and energy saving efforts that are now basically meaningless as everyone claims them with no way for consumers to evaluate their performance.  This is also caused by manufacturers only thinking of their products when it takes a system approach to be successful.  A well insulated house with poor windows won’t save much energy.  A single quiet appliance won’t do much to reduce the sound levels within a structure.

The other factor driving the quest for better sound control is manufacturers who see this as an easy way to dramatically increase their sales.  For years insulation manufacturers such as Owens Corning see this a way to literally double the amount the amount of insulation in every house, even though the addition of insulation to interior walls actually does very little to lower sound levels.

The fact that three new books have recently been written about noise in our lives shows that the interest is still there.  Perhaps if everyone took a step back and read these enlightening books, they would better see what noise really represents to people which would give them a fresh perspective on the why of noise rather than just the what.  It may be as simple as a new definition of the benefits of sound control instead of the features.  Sounds like sales 101 to me..

A group of contractors are pushing the envelope of energy savings with a technique called Deep Energy Retrofit.  They have discovered that foam insulation is a key element to successful savings.  What an opportunity for a brand like Dow, Owens Corning or Pactiv to get involved and differentiate themselves from other other energy saving techniques, insulation materials and brands.  Instead they continue to focus on displacing each other and loose site of the bigger opportunity to create more demand for foam.  Of course, they may be involved but their PR team is asleep at the switch.  Read the whole story at CNET

Homebuyers are now using apps from IPhone to aid in their house hunting.  It’s time for manufacturer’s to offer their own apps to aid home buyers.  For example checklists on energy or features could help differentiate homes with your products and encourage future upgrade sales.  Read more in the WSJ