Mark-Hans Richer, the senior vice president-chief marketing & innovation officer with Moen, says the company is a “unique moment in its history.”
“It’s a nearly 80-year-old company,” he states. “Yet, like any other company it has to move an advance with the times. We felt it was time to make a statement about the great things the company does for our customers.”
The statement is in the form of a new showroom at the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago featuring a plethora of working Moen products such as showerheads and hand showers, faucets, and bathroom accessories. Moen tub fillers are also on display, but do not have a working water line.
“We wanted to show the customers how these products can help them first-hand.”
Richer states that before the showroom it was tough for customers to get some hands-on experience with Moen products unless they previously were installed in their homes.
“This is a space for a lot of people, but ideally for architects and designers to walk around in and get to feel our products,” he says. “They can see ― in one space ― how any of our products can help them solve their needs and satisfy their clients.”
Richer adds: “We intentionally designed this with a neutral palate so they could imagine what this could be like in their own environments. There are so many tastes out there that to try and build lifestyle vignettes you could never get it all right. We wanted to lean on the imagination of the designers to think about Moen in their world.”
The prestigious downtown Chicago location isn’t just about understanding the Windy City or Midwest markets, it’s about a wide-scope vision.
“The nice thing about the Merchandise Mart is it’s not just about Chicago,” Richer says. “It’s a global community of architects, designers and people that are really paying attention to what’s happening in the industry. That allows us to not just apprise this market or the Midwest, but around the world.”
