‘Discover what’s next’: With this guiding theme, LIXIL EMENA successfully launched its digital experience hub, GROHE X, for its GROHE brand on Tuesday 16th March 2021.
The comprehensive brand platform offers informative and inspirational multimedia content to both GROHE’s professional business partners and consumers. Tailored to the needs and interests of the respective target groups, a customised programme of content is available, which includes how-to videos, inspirational articles, and 360° virtual rooms that allow visitors to immerse themselves in the latest product highlights. In addition, there are exciting video formats such as ‘A Glass of Water with…’, in which various GROHE experts offer behind-the-scenes glimpses of the global brand, or ‘Wow of the Week’, in which a particularly inspiring project or topic is presented each week. While visitors to the brand hub can explore the world of GROHE on their own, GROHE X also opens up new ways of interaction. Business partners can use the platform to make appointments with their sales representatives and thus exchange information directly about the innovations that have just been introduced.
“GROHE X is a milestone in our brand history. It opens up unprecedented opportunities to experience GROHE and to discover our products and the issues that drive us. You can connect with GROHE X wherever you are and whenever you want. GROHE X is thus bringing us closer together in a time when we need to stay physically distant. The positive feedback I have received from customers all over the world has reconfirmed that we took the right decision eight months ago. The digital journey we have embarked on with GROHE X has only just begun. The platform is here to stay and will constantly evolve over the next months. My biggest thanks go to the team who made all this possible while working remotely. I’m extremely proud of the courage and leadership they demonstrated in transforming an idea into GROHE X,” says Jonas Brennwald, Leader LIXIL EMENA and Co-CEO Grohe AG.
A new milestone in GROHE’s sustainability journey
For the launch of GROHE X, various event formats, both live and on demand for invited guests are available on the platform in addition to freely available editorial content. The highly anticipated GROHE X launch week commenced with a premiere keynote, which gave the global brand the opportunity to once again prove its status as a sustainability pioneer in the sanitary industry and announce its latest achievement: its four best-selling products as Cradle to Cradle Certified ® variants. In contrast to the linear Take-Make-Waste model, Cradle to Cradle stands for continuous material cycles. A product is manufactured in such a way that, at the end of its life, the components can be used to create new products. To achieve certification a product is evaluated in terms of the following five categories: material health, material reutilisation, renewable energy, water stewardship, and social fairness. “Achieving Cradle to Cradle certifications at Gold level is a huge step in our sustainability efforts. I am very proud that we are one of the first brands in the sanitary industry to once again make a clear commitment to sustainable transformation and set a new benchmark. Since the building sector accounts for more than 50 percent of worldwide material consumption, the moving away from a linear model in favour of a circular economy is essential to stop the exploitation of natural resources. We need to transform our business model towards a circular value creation and start considering products at the end of their life as valuable material banks instead of using new resources,” explains Thomas Fuhr, Leader Fittings LIXIL International and Co- CEO Grohe AG on the importance of the circular approach within the brand’s sustainability strategy.
The significance of initiating a paradigm shift in the construction industry and putting a focus on green buildings based on Cradle to Cradle® design principles was also the key issue in one of the platform’s panel talk discussions, when Dr. Christine Lemaitre, CEO DGNB (German Sustainable Building Council), Dr.-Ing. Peter Mösle, Partner Drees & Sommer SE and Managing Director, EPEA GmbH, and Thomas Fuhr discussed how sustainable architecture can be thought and implemented both today and in the future.
During the keynote, GROHE also introduced the new “GROHE Installer Vocational Training and Education” (GIVE) programme which strengthens the social dimension of the brand’s sustainability engagement. GROHE is already collaborating with 26 institutions to date, offering plumbing training across the EMENA region. As part of the GIVE programme, the brand will support plumbing schools in creating a state-of-the-art training framework by installing modern training facilities and providing learning material and experienced technical trainers. Students will complete a specific product training designed by GROHE, for which they will receive an internationally recognised certificate. Given the shortage of skilled installers in the sanitary industry, it is more important than ever to offer an attractive training programme that helps young people build the foundation for a prosperous future.
Relevant innovations for the living spaces of tomorrow
Another determining theme of the keynote was the reclaimed customer-centricity. This focus on the customers’ expectations and needs is not only reflected on GROHE X or in the brand’s new commercial approach, which offers a differentiated product portfolio and dedicated services tailored to target groups, but is also a guiding principle when developing new products.
This was impressively underlined with the presentation of the relaunched bestseller GROHE Eurosmart. With the fourth generation of the tap range, the brand reinvented one of its core products, making Eurosmart the most versatile line in the brand portfolio. Users can now choose a hybrid tap, which combines manual operation and touchless hygiene, or different lever variants such as the loop lever, which simplifies gripping thanks to the cut-out centre, or the long lever which allows users to operate the tap with the elbow, thereby minimising the contact with surfaces – ideal for healthcare settings.
“When we design a new product, our first question is always: Who are we designing this product for? Human- centric thinking and a deep understanding of consumers are key to developing meaningful products that improve and add value to the daily lives of people around the world”, says Patrick Speck, Leader LIXIL Global Design, EMENA. “With our products, we want to respond to changing consumer needs and react to social trends. In our product development, we are guided by three key macro trends: Urbanisation, Health & Wellbeing, and Sustainability. In the last year, for example, the idea of the bathroom as a spa or wellness area has really accelerated. Consumers are looking for bathroom products which help them create memorable experiences, and want to transform the bathroom into a space where they can take good care of their body, mind, and soul. Our response to this trend is the new GROHE SPA collection which we curated to include the most exclusive products from our portfolio to allow users to enjoy unique moments of bliss.”
Which trends are shaping the ways consumers are living today and tomorrow? This was the central point of discussion in one of the opening panel talks on GROHE X, with Patrick Speck and trend expert Oona Horx- Strathern, CEO of the renowned Zukunftsinstitut Horx.
GROHE will also celebrate the launch of its platform with various event formats throughout the launch week. In the future, GROHE X will be expanded to include hybrid and mobile brand experiences in addition to the digital offering.
