Growth of globalisation

Headquartered at Zell am Moos near Salzburg, Austria, FN Neuhofer is a genuine example of an old-established family company. For ten generations now the processing of timber has been the family’s chief concern. Today the company has a presence in international markets. We had a talk with managing director Franz Neuhofer junior. How does FN Neuhofer Holz approach the question of brand management, in international markets above all? Franz Neuhofer: We offer our customers a full range of accessories for floors, walls and ceilings and, moreover, are well known for providing rapid and uncomplicated solutions, from the product itself to our POS support system. Over and above this, the origin of a product and its sustainability are important factors in this age of globalisation. We are able to score on the international scene through our facility in Austria, which has certification as follows: ISO 9001, ISO 14001, FSC, PEFC and VEH. Consequently our brand enjoys an extremely high level of recognition within the industry, both national and international. A uniform image is of course an unavoidable pre-condition for international brand management. Our word-picture imagery and clear colour-coding based on green is consistently carried through in all our markets. This applies to packaging, displays and other POS material, and to our traditional communication through the media. Also very important in our brand management is the inclusion of “FN” in every one of the segments we offer. This results in all the sub-categories being consistently labelled, from “FN dowel-fix” to “FN digiprint”. Our most important means of communication are the website at www.fnprofile.com with pro­duct videos and configurators, plus all the catalogues and folders, etc to download and leaf through, together with our print product catalogue. Nowadays this latter is produced in large numbers in both German and English. What is more, we are already concentrating more on working with QR codes. Of course there are linguistic adjustments. For instance, we appear in America as “FN Profiles” and in France, for political reasons, as NPF (Neuhofer Profiles France) – “FN” would stand for “Front Nationale” there. Our claim that “We offer you more” must obviously be adapted to the relevant language as well. What different consumer habits are to be taken into consideration in the different countries? Consumer habits are becoming increasingly uniform through the growth of globalisation – sometimes with a…