18 May 2011

Congratulations to Delta/ Brizo!

The first kitchen and bath manufacturer I ever interacted with was the Brizo faucet brand and its parent, the Delta Faucet Company. It's no secret that the Brizo brand has a special place in my heart.

A couple of years ago, Brizo was the new luxury brand from Delta Faucet. On the watch of Delta Faucet Company's brilliant CEO Keith Allman, Brizo was allowed to develop and flourish and shortly after that they started working with MSL. To call MSL a PR Agency sells them short, but I suppose that's what they are. Maybe if I called them the world's PR Agency of record it would come close...

Anyhow, MSL's Director of Social Media Outreach is a guy named Charlie Kondek, and two years ago Charlie reached out to me, an unknown kitchen and bath designer in St. Petersburg. Charlie was working very closely with Brizo's Senior Channel Manager, Jai Massela.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that Jai, Charlie and lived out a real-life social media case study over the last couple of years. In the course of living out the case study; a guy in Ann Arbor, a woman in Indianapolis and a guy in St. Pete developed a friendship I treasure. In the course of watching Brizo grow into the recognizable brand it is today, it's been a real thrill to call the people behind the brand my friends and I love recalling how I knew them when.

Here's a shot of me and Jai from a couple of years ago but oddly, I don't have one of me, Charlie and Jai. Charilie? Jai? We need to arrange a photo op!


On May 5th, Brizo and Delta cut the ribbon on their new showroom at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. It's over 3000 square feet with 96 working examples of their products. The Showroom is called DREAM2O. Among those displays are 40 working lavatory faucets, 40 working kitchen fixtures, 11 full showers and five H2Okinetics (shower and body spray combinations).

They're on the fist floor of the Mart and if you're in Chicago, please stop in and say hello. If you do, tell them I sent you. What follow are some photos of the grand opening from May 5th.

Endless congratulations gang, you deserve every accolade you get for this new showroom.


 







5 comments:

  1. Paul, I feel the same way about Delta and Brizo. I have since interacted with a number of other faucet manufacturers, and expect to interact with many more, but there will always be a special place in my heart for Delta and Brizo. All I can do is add my amen to what you said about Charlie Kondek and Jai Massela. The first business trip my blogging partner and I ever took was to Delta’s headquarters at Indianapolis. I had been in contact with Charlie earlier, but getting his email inviting us was a decided high point. Or maybe it was actually going to Delta’s headquarters. I wrote some five blogs on the experience, I believe, starting with the standing ovation we bloggers received when we entered their headquarters.

    I also got a chance to spend quite a bit of time with Charlie while there. The last night was a steak dinner, and I sat beside Jai and had a wonderful conversation with her and the others at our table. I recognized Stephanie Oyer from MSL in the pictures you posted. I caught up with her at KBIS where she introduced Joe Dusel and me to the latest offerings from Delta and Brizo. Sweethearts one and all!

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  2. Delta and Brizo have separated themselves from the pack with a very classy act all the way around. And they pick good company!

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  3. Thanks for the comments gang and kudos once again to the whole Brizo, Delta and MSL gang.

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  4. Beautiful showroom! From the pics and description you posted Paul, the plumbing for the displays alone must have been a challenge not to mention the electrical work involved.
    -Brenda-

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