So there we sat in autumn 2021. We from the marketing team of the CLASSEN Group. Around the big wooden table in Kaisersesch in the Eifel (region of Germany). In our "Forum", the large showroom for our products.
The task we had set ourselves was not easy. How do you pour the soul of a company into words that can already look back on more than 70 years of history? How do you describe what drives your colleagues to deliver top technological performance time and again? How do you formulate all this briefly and succinctly, but in such a way that it is understood all over the world and in which employees can find themselves?
More than that. Because actually, it's not just our company that should be in the foreground, but also our products. Floor coverings. Hardly anything is so close to people, to our customers, occupying several square metres of their very intimate environment. Few things can have such a direct influence on how comfortable they feel, how healthy the air is that they breathe when they sleep, how cosy it is when they come home in the evening.
Wie also erzählt man das, was wir Marketing-Leute eine Unternehmensstory nennen? Brainstorming-Zettel wurden ausgefüllt: Was fällt jedem von uns spontan ein, wenn er an CLASSEN denkt? Laminat und CERAMIN, unsere Produkte, standen natürlich darauf. Aber eben auch ganz oft Nachhaltigkeit, Verantwortungsbewusstsein, Design und Patente.
It fell to me to come up with a proposal for our slogan and the CLASSEN corporate story. Even though I had only been with the company for a few months, I was already amazed to learn a lot and fascinated to see with my own eyes what was written in just a few words on the brainstorming sheets. CERAMIN, for example. The material for plastic floor coverings that CLASSEN had developed more than 10 years ago, completely PVC-free and recyclable, and which today is more up-to-date than ever for the avoidance of plastic waste and for indoor air without pathogenic plasticisers. Despite initial setbacks, the company stuck to its idea unwaveringly and is today almost unrivalled on the market with CERAMIN.
My first visit to our factory in Baruth in Brandenburg was also still fresh in my mind. Not only as the largest laminate plant in the world, huge in its size, but also almost inconceivable with what a few enterprising people in the middle of the pine forest of the sandy region of Brandenburg are inventing and implementing over and over again to make production even more environmentally friendly and efficient. For example, a pink bubbling sauce in huge steel tanks with three billion bacteria that clean exhaust air of pollutants instead of blowing them into the air. A biomass plant, planned by colleagues on site, because there is no such thing off the shelf and it is so efficient in saving CO₂ that it has become the benchmark in the industry.
Plus engineering services such as patented, customer-friendly rapid installation systems and an in-house design centre to develop special surfaces with which to stand out from the competition. So how to compress all this into one text?
I brought a few suggestions to our next marketing meeting. We filed together, shifted words back and forth, exchanged and added. And somehow we even agreed relatively quickly on which slogan could best represent our company CLASSEN:
„Floors for a better tomorrow.“
And to this end, CLASSEN's journey for us is briefly told like this: "For decades, people all over the world have been fascinated by our high-quality designs and unique technologies. Because our floors are up to all of life's challenges and make it easier, more carefree and more beautiful. At the same time, we are aware of our responsibility for the future of our planet. Every day we evolve to make our production even more efficient and sustainable, as well as to create floors that inspire now and don't burden later generations."
Very quickly, the entrepreneurial family also found itself in this. Of course, it was discussed whether the rather conservative family business from the Eifel was ready for an English slogan. But finally we decided to send "Floors for a better tomorrow" on a journey around the world and to make the company behind our products even better known with the story in the respective languages.
An exciting time has begun. We hope that many people will get to know CLASSEN and its employees even better from now on and appreciate its products even more. That our colleagues will be able to carry their employer in their hearts even more. And that we can always live up to our motto with new achievements: Floors for a better tomorrow.
