Questions about KBIS New Products Pavilion
Submitted by advisor on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 1:11am.
EXCLUSIVE. 110 products were in the Pavilion paying $350 for table display and $600 for floor display. Votes were collected from visitors for Best NEW Kitchen and BEST new Bath products. The Lance Larkin 10-cup coffee maker was voted winner in the kitchen category, beating out the kitchen products listed below. Video of Acceptance Speech
- American Range French Door Wall Oven
- American Range Outdoor Steakhouse Broiler
- American Range Hybrid Range
- Broan QDE Range Hood Series
- Broan Elite XE Trash Compactors
- Capital Cooking Equipment Precision Series 30" Self Clean Ranges
- Euro Cast Design Inc Ultra-Light Cast Travertine Kitchen Hoods
- Fagor New 24" side door opening convection oven
- Fagor New Induction Cooktop
- Fuji decorative Keystone Chimney Hood
- Lance Larkin 10 cup Brew Express: Voted Best New Kitchen Product of 2008
- Liebherr CS 2062
- Liquid Stainless Steel faux stainless paint
- Metallo Arts Inc Kitchens
- Perlick's Fully-Integrated Signature Series
- Scotsman Gourmet Clear Ice Machine
As much as we like the spunky little company with the niche built-in coffee product, the addition of a 10-cup product to their 4-cup model is not, to us, the makings of a "Best New Kitchen Product". We wondered what the voting looked like, but after 2 months of trying to get the voting results from the KBIS PR firm Trent and Company, the KBIS sponsor K+BB, we finally heard back 2nd hand from show producer Nielsen Business Media (owner of K+BB and a sibling AC Nielsen the TV ratings service).
I just heard back from Atlanta and unfortunately, they said that they don’t release that information.
Nielsen refused to respond to us directly. We contacted a few of the non-winners who had paid to enter the Pavilion and the competition and they were not provided voting results either. The New Products Pavilion generates between $38,000 and $66,000 for Nielsen. The winner nets real marketing value. Though we have nothing to indicate anything untoward took place in the competition, our difficulty in obtaining the results does make the imagination do a back flip.
The structure of the New Products Pavilion competition MUST be reorganized BOTH to eliminate the potential for corruption AND to build a foundation of legitimacy and propriety for the competitors.
- Voting MUST be tallied by a 3rd party
- Voting results MUST be made public
- Voters should vote for up to (3) different products in Kitchen and another (3) in Bath, not just one each.
- Voters MUST have their identities "scanned".
Our choice? We love you all, but did you see that Liquid Stainless Steel? That stuff looks great. Why didn't someone think of that before?
We know, we know..... it's a cop out.
