The Report Card of Build Avenue

As build Avenue completes yet another year of success and excellent readership, we just decided to sum up what we have done for you great readers.

Build Avenue has always been proactive and result oriented in presenting its content. The idea has been to write about issues and matters that are in grey areas and questionable and make them more clear and useful.

There is a lot of information flowing, our team strives to convert the same into knowledge and carve them into words that can be understood by the common reader as well as an expert. With the same theme and style of writing in the past three years, we have been successful in growing our readership as well as reach in India as well as abroad.

Markets and Expansion

From educational to informational, the generalized topics on Markets and Expansion have been our favorite. Ranging from Macro-economic perspective to minute negotiations while buying, we covered a lot of exciting articles.

Many of these were HELP YOURSELVES GROW articles that included :

Exhibition Importance for manufacturer, dealers and another professionals, highlighting the need and effectiveness of exhibitions. Marketing in monsoon, Different strategies to win the markets in Monsoon. Winning The Project: discussing minute aspects and details of confirming a project deal. Buy Your Way to Profits, tips and tricks to ensure efficient and profitable buying.

The Expansion write ups were mainly written with a view to make readers aware of the expansion that had taken place and the future expansions forecasted by our team. future of ceramic industries in 2013, set a broad vision of things to come in 2013  International Visions : Brazil, giving internaitona perspective to markets,   Export booming with poor Rupees and technology and

Quality,  highlights the growth of Exports in the wake of rupee fluctuations. Anti Dumping Duty, Just Dumped, What Now?,  impact of the change in law and its economic significance.

PRODUCTS: TILES

The first and the most important product group for us has always been tiles. This is largely due to the ratio of tiles being manufactured and consumed compared to other ceramic goods. Further, the variety is so large, that each and every new technology, design and consumer trend needs to be highlighted for the sheer need to clarify and increase the ability of reader to differentiate.

The articles that highlighted tiles and its impacts in the markets were:

Glazed Vitrified Tiles: Strength and Beauty combined, which took an in-depth view of GVT. This article had good response especially from people who were confused about VTs and GVTs.

Big : The new definition of Success in Tiles : The Next BIG STEP AND From BIG to HUGE: The article tried to impress upon the Sales channels about the impact that BIG tiles are having in the market. The goal was to get them to not miss the BIG success bus that demand for BIG tiles is generating.

PRODUCTS: Sanitaryware

Sanitary ware is another major product of Ceramic Trade. Not as spread as tiles, but equally important in the business. We have covered bits and pieces of Sanitary ware in different articles that were general in nature or were a part of Markets and economic situations.

However, we did have one very excellent writing on Sanitary ware, Inspiring Growth in Slowdown: 4 NEW Sanitary ware Factories.  IN times of challenge and change, growth remains constant. The new units pumped fresh blood of hope to many by setting another trend in Sanitary ware investments.

PRODUCTS : Roof tiles

By popular and consistent demand of some of our readers and advertisers, we researched the Morbi Ceramic Broth Products, the roof tiles. We directly went to the current scenario and the solutions to the challenges. Roof tiles : The Leaders under stress, was the article that was read by many. It was appreciated for its innovative approach to find smart solutions to the challenges in the current business scenario.

The magazine was never without its regular sections. The Reader Review section was one of the most important to us as it was probably the only section where we could show the readers, the views of other readers from across India.

The Entrepreneur Profile a info-fun section that sought to bring out certain aspects of entrepreneur which other wise would never have come forth.

Company Profiles represented a company and some of its detailed information for the readers to relate to.

Management story of another infotainment category that runs across all issues and is well appreciated by the readers.

The Trade Shows and Events Section was the News You can Use information to plan your participation or visit to the events relating to Ceramic Sector across India and the world.

The journey of Build Avenue has been one of excellent soil rich land where all fruits have grown. We have tried to explain in the best possible manner, about the land, the trees fruits and other living beings in the landscape.

We hope to improve with time and your involvement in the improvement is inevitable. Do send us your feedback.

Keep reading… BUILD AVENUE… Forever.

The Report Card of Build Avenue

As build Avenue completes yet another year of success and excellent readership, we just decided to sum up what we have done for you great readers.

Build Avenue has always been proactive and result oriented in presenting its content. The idea has been to write about issues and matters that are in grey areas and questionable and make them more clear and useful.

There is a lot of information flowing, our team strives to convert the same into knowledge and carve them into words that can be understood by the common reader as well as an expert. With the same theme and style of writing in the past three years, we have been successful in growing our readership as well as reach in India as well as abroad.

Markets and Expansion

From educational to informational, the generalized topics on Markets and Expansion have been our favorite. Ranging from Macro-economic perspective to minute negotiations while buying, we covered a lot of exciting articles.

Many of these were HELP YOURSELVES GROW articles that included :

Exhibition Importance for manufacturer, dealers and another professionals, highlighting the need and effectiveness of exhibitions. Marketing in monsoon, Different strategies to win the markets in Monsoon. Winning The Project: discussing minute aspects and details of confirming a project deal. Buy Your Way to Profits, tips and tricks to ensure efficient and profitable buying.

The Expansion write ups were mainly written with a view to make readers aware of the expansion that had taken place and the future expansions forecasted by our team. future of ceramic industries in 2013, set a broad vision of things to come in 2013  International Visions : Brazil, giving internaitona perspective to markets,   Export booming with poor Rupees and technology and

Quality,  highlights the growth of Exports in the wake of rupee fluctuations. Anti Dumping Duty, Just Dumped, What Now?,  impact of the change in law and its economic significance.

PRODUCTS: TILES

The first and the most important product group for us has always been tiles. This is largely due to the ratio of tiles being manufactured and consumed compared to other ceramic goods. Further, the variety is so large, that each and every new technology, design and consumer trend needs to be highlighted for the sheer need to clarify and increase the ability of reader to differentiate.

The articles that highlighted tiles and its impacts in the markets were:

Glazed Vitrified Tiles: Strength and Beauty combined, which took an in-depth view of GVT. This article had good response especially from people who were confused about VTs and GVTs.

Big : The new definition of Success in Tiles : The Next BIG STEP AND From BIG to HUGE: The article tried to impress upon the Sales channels about the impact that BIG tiles are having in the market. The goal was to get them to not miss the BIG success bus that demand for BIG tiles is generating.

PRODUCTS: Sanitaryware

Sanitary ware is another major product of Ceramic Trade. Not as spread as tiles, but equally important in the business. We have covered bits and pieces of Sanitary ware in different articles that were general in nature or were a part of Markets and economic situations.

However, we did have one very excellent writing on Sanitary ware, Inspiring Growth in Slowdown: 4 NEW Sanitary ware Factories.  IN times of challenge and change, growth remains constant. The new units pumped fresh blood of hope to many by setting another trend in Sanitary ware investments.

PRODUCTS : Roof tiles

By popular and consistent demand of some of our readers and advertisers, we researched the Morbi Ceramic Broth Products, the roof tiles. We directly went to the current scenario and the solutions to the challenges. Roof tiles : The Leaders under stress, was the article that was read by many. It was appreciated for its innovative approach to find smart solutions to the challenges in the current business scenario.

The magazine was never without its regular sections. The Reader Review section was one of the most important to us as it was probably the only section where we could show the readers, the views of other readers from across India.

The Entrepreneur Profile a info-fun section that sought to bring out certain aspects of entrepreneur which other wise would never have come forth.

Company Profiles represented a company and some of its detailed information for the readers to relate to.

Management story of another infotainment category that runs across all issues and is well appreciated by the readers.

The Trade Shows and Events Section was the News You can Use information to plan your participation or visit to the events relating to Ceramic Sector across India and the world.

The journey of Build Avenue has been one of excellent soil rich land where all fruits have grown. We have tried to explain in the best possible manner, about the land, the trees fruits and other living beings in the landscape.

We hope to improve with time and your involvement in the improvement is inevitable. Do send us your feedback.

Keep reading… BUILD AVENUE… Forever.

A Short History of Ceramic Tile

Ceramic AND Tile : The Birth of the Word…..

The word ‘ceramic’ comes from the greek word ‘keramos’ meaning pottery. It is related to India through an old sanskrit root meaning ‘to burn’ but was primarily used to mean ‘burnt stuff’.

The latin word ‘tegula’ and its french derivative ‘tuile’ mean quite precisely a roof tile of baked clay. The english ‘tile’ is less precise, for it can in addition be used of any kind of earthenware slab applied to any surface of a building.

However, when these two combine, they give us Ceramic Tiles.

Origin: The First Appearance…..

Man has always preferred to create living and working spaces which were beautiful, durable, cost effective and user friendly. With the same thought, ceramic tile has been made by man for 4000 years.

Beautiful tiled surfaces have been found in the oldest pyramids, the ruins of babylon, and ancient ruins of greek cities. Decorative tile work was invented in the near east, where it was popular and assumed a greater variety of design than anywhere in the world.

Tiles are the simplest form of ceramic art. The earliest known examples are Egyptian and from 4,000 BC. Through history, tiles were made by Assyrians, Babylonians and the Islamic Empire. Early tiles can be seen in Tunisia (c.9th), Kashan Iran (c.11th), and many middle-eastern mosques display Koranic scripts using highly colored relief tiles (c.12th onwards).
In the 13th and 14th centuries Europe's churches were paved with decorated tiles. Holland was an important center for tiles in the 17th and 18th centuries and in the 19th century Britain pioneered mass-produced tiles.
The earliest tiles in Western Europe (late c.10th) were found in a number of locations in England (eg. York and Winchester). Glazed tiles were an expensive building item which resulted in their use being restricted to wealthy ecclesiastic establishments. From the 16th century onwards Moorish tile making slowly spread north through Spain. Some of the most spectacular ceramics can be found at the Alhambra Palace in Granada, and in the Great Mosque in Cordoba. From the14th century tin glazed tile making spread from Holland over to England.

So, most of the inventions in Tiles came about in every part of the world, west as well as east.

The Mass Production….
In the 19th century Britain pioneered mass production of tiles. English tile making expanded rapidly during the industrial revolution, peaked in the late 1800s and slumped soon after the turn of the century. American tile makers enjoyed a similar period of prosperity to their counterparts but had to compete with English imports. The Arts & Crafts movement reinvigorated the handcraft of tile making, and it was used extensively in interiors for fireplace surrounds as well as wall decoration.
Usage in the period
The tiles upto this time were still considered a bit expensive and hence had limited use. They were mainly used in Kitchens and bath spaces. This was largely due to the hygiene awareness and demand increasing in the world, specially the western countries.
The elite would lay these tiles in their living rooms, which became a matter of pride for them. Very few also preferred to lay them in their private living spaces, which was shear luxury.

The Construction

Tiles are basically made of two parts, Body and the Glaze.

Body Development

A ceramic tile is tile made of clay. Tiles were made by hand, in early days clay bricks - made by flattening the clay and cutting pieces into shape - were dried beneath the sun or baked.

Later the only mechanical aid was a wooden mould carved in relief, which indented a pattern on the clay slab. The slab was dried and the impression filed with clay, which after further drying was shaved flat.

After the formation of the tile body,ceramic tiles go through a firing process in a kiln under very high heat to harden the tile body and to create the surface glaze.

Historically, unglazed tile was fired once. Glazed tile was fired twice. The first firing formed a tile body called a ‘bisque’. The biscuit firing had the highest temperature at 1060 c that fixed the tiles for size and shape.

Glaze

The biscuits’ surface are then glazed with a colored thick liquid. This is called glazing. After glazing the tiles were glost fired at about 1020 - 1240 c. On glaze decoration was fired at 750 c,just before the glaze began to melt.

Decoration: Making tiles unimaginably beautiful

1. Unglazed:

The color range in unglazed tiles are limited to the natural colors of the clay, ranging from a light sand to a red brick.

2. Plain glazes:

White lead, flint, china stone and china clay were ground to make a glaze. A clear glaze brought out the natural body Colour and might be applied over any coloured decoration. Glazed tiles are decorated with natural and artificially colors.

Palette of colors consists of glaze and underglaze colors. The first glazes were blue in color and were made from Copper. Also turquoise and light green glaze were popular colors. Ground metal oxides could be added to give different colours.

2. Encaustic or inlaid:

This method was to fill the matrix of a stamped tile with white pipeclay before it was glazed and fired. The two sections fusing during firing. This trend was very appealing when it first appeared on the scene.

3. Mosaic:

Tiles in such colors as yellow, blue, brown, black, turquoise,green and white were cut and carved into small pieces according to a previously prepared pattern. These pieces were placed close together and liquid plaster poured over to fill in all the opening and gaps. After the plaster dried and hardened, a large single piece tile panel had been created, which was then plastered onto the required wall of the building. This is a manual process and hence was very costly. The process is mechanized now.

4. Hand painting:

The artist painted freely onto a plain surface tile. The glaze was one centimeter thick, with hand-painted decorations of flowers, plants, geometric designs, birds and human beings. A design could also be copied from an original sketch by 'pouncing'. Alternatively a tile could be transfer printed and coloured by hand.

Screen Printing has now taken over this nostalgic activity.

5. Lustre painting :

The metallic lustre of glazed ceramics is a very special type of decoration. It can be red, brown, ochre yellow or green in scattered light and shows, in specular reflection, coloured metallic reflections (blue, yellow, orange, rose…silver, gold ect). Metallic copper and silver colloids suspensed in glazes compose lustre decoration.

6. Tile pictures

Square tiles were placed together and necessary design was painted in glazed colors on them. Each tile was fired. Then all were placed again next to each other to create the main large illustration.

7. Patterns

Mathematically-minded people elaborated geometric designs, providing a continous decoration. Most designs required four tiles to complete a pattern,some required as many as sixteen. A ‘wallpaper’ pattern is one that has translation symmetry in two directions (such as left/right and up/down). A frieze pattern is one that has translation symmetry in one direction. A rosette pattern is one that has no translation symmetry, just reflection and/or rotation symmetry.

Why Branding?

A brand offers instant product/company recognition and identification. Consumers identify branded products and, because of effective advertising, have faith in product quality. Retailers like branded products because they increase their profitability — buyers attracted to branded products spend three to four times more on products than do buyers of unbranded products.
Branding provides four key benefits to you as the manufacturer:

• Product differentiation. A brand provides a clear and definitive reason for customers to buy your product. If this reason does not exist, your product is a commodity and the only measure of value is price. Small, value-added businesses cannot compete on price successfully and need to incorporate some form of differentiation.

• Perceived value. Consumers and influencers perceive branded products as higher quality, more reliable and a better value than unbranded products. Generally speaking, the number-one brand in a category can command a 10 percent price premium over the number-two brand, and a 40 percent premium over the small brand. This price premium is known as a brand tax. Consumers understand that a strong brand can reduce getting stuck with disappointing or faulty products.

• Brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is the recurring stream of profit generated by repeat and referral sales of a specific brand. Repeat sales can be as much as 90 percent less expensive to a company than new customer development.

• Pride in the product. Branded, recognizable products build a sense of pride in those associated with production, promotion, sale and distribution of those products.

The above related to Ceramic Industry. Let us say one company X has developed a Brand Named MyTile. The brand developer puts some amount into building the brand on a regular basis. He also educates his distributors about his product, benefits and with proper advertising and promotion relates the product with the brand. He develops relations with the Architects and interior design specialists in promoting product with the brand. He sees to it that his every package, outward communications, presentation, web site, all promotes the brand with the product. His every marketing activity also involves the brand.

His neighboring manufacturer does not create a brand. But he too educates his distributors, talks to designers, promotes benefits of his products develops networks as well. The same process minus a brand name is carried out. He saves some money on advertising.

Now, If the same designers or distributors are asked what tile brand come to the mind, 90% of the times, they will say MyTIle because the second manufacturer did not have any name or BRAND attached to the product.

Who will Get repeat Sales…MyTile. Who will get better referrals..MyTile. Who will get immediate Buyer preference MyTile.

Here are just a few benefits you will enjoy when you create a strong brand:

• A strong brand influences the buying decision and shapes the ownership experience.
• Branding creates trust and an emotional attachment to your product or company. This attachment then causes your market to make decisions based, at least in part, upon emotion-- not necessarily just for logical or intellectual reasons.
• A strong brand can command a premium price and maximize the number of units that can be sold at that premium.
• Branding helps make purchasing decisions easier. In this way, branding delivers a very important benefit. In a commodity market where features and benefits are virtually indistinguishable, a strong brand will help your customers trust you and create a set of expectations about your products without even knowing the specifics of product features.
• Branding will help you "fence off" your customers from the competition and protect your market share while building mind share. Once you have mind share, you customers will automatically think of you first when they think of your product category.
• A strong brand can make actual product features virtually insignificant. A solid branding strategy communicates a strong, consistent message about the value of your company. A strong brand helps you sell value and the intangibles that surround your products.
• A strong brand signals that you want to build customer loyalty, not just sell product. A strong branding campaign will also signal that you are serious about marketing and that you intend to be around for a while. A brand impresses your firm's identity upon potential customers, not necessarily to capture an immediate sale but rather to build a lasting impression of you and your products.
• Branding builds name recognition for your company or product.
• A brand will help you articulate your company's values and explain why you are competing in your market.

We are sure the above article will help you decide whether branding is for you or not.