• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, October 15, 2008

Between the slowdown in luxury brands and the hellacious U.S. real-estate market, it's safe to say that Karastan isn't having its best year. But for Mohawk Industries, the high-end carpet brand's parent company, that means it's time to try and increase its share of voice.

"When the economy takes a turn for the worse, all our competitors pull back," says David Duncan, VP/marketing for the Dalton, Ga.-based Mohawk, one of the world's largest floor-covering companies. "From our perspective, it's very important to maintain our brand-marketing position, and really try to increase our share of voice." While it's true that people aren't buying lots of carpet right now, that doesn't mean they aren't craving it. And when houses do begin to sell again and America gets re-bitten by the home-decorating bug, "that share of voice will be worth more."

Mohawk, which handles the creative for its Karastan brand in-house, just shifted its $10 million media-buying budget for Karastan and its flagship Mohawk brand to Cramer-Krasselt in Milwaukee, as well as creative responsibilities for Mohawk. And increasingly, he says, while there will still be spending on TV and print buys, "we're shifting a lot of those dollars into online.

"Our research shows that every time a consumer shops for flooring, it's like the first time. Even if they've made a significant flooring purchase in the last five years, they need to learn about it all over again. And the place they want to do that is on the Web." In its most recent financial results, Mohawk reported a 23% decline in earnings and a 7% decline in sales, squeezed by the slowing economies in the U.S. and Europe, as well as declines in U.S. home construction, home sales and residential remodeling. In its Mohawk division alone, sales fell 13%. And Karastan, its luxury brand, best known for its high-end area rugs crafted from New Zealand wool, may be particularly vulnerable.

A new study from Unity Marketing, fielded just after the recent stock-market meltdown, found that the majority of affluent shoppers (those in the top 20% of earners, with an average income of just over $209,000) are changing the way they shop--shopping less often, buying more strategically, and doing more research before they venture into a store. Duncan believes the brand's positioning as an investment is still on target. (Current ads are themed "Make a statement. Your own.") The company expects to take some more lumps in the months ahead, and that 2009 will be a no-growth year. "But we believe in the brand. The first reaction with any company is to completely pull back the advertising. We don't want to do that, because we believe we have a competitive advantage."