February 27, 2004 (Atlanta) - Interface Inc. is the Grand Winner of this year's 12th Annual MAX Award, presented Friday, Feb. 27 during a breakfast at the J.W. Marriott in Buckhead. Over 400 attended the event that is cosponsored by the Robinson College Department of Marketing and the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Interface, Inc. won the Grand Award for its modular floor covering, a single product marketed through its residential division as InterfaceFLOR and its commercial division as the i2 Collection. The company used a combination of marketing tools to expand in both the commercial and residential markets including development of two new distribution channels, innovative use of the web to make it easy for customers to buy, and creative use of product demonstrations. Judges also noted Interface, Inc.'s recycling program and "green marketing."
Also declared MAX Award Winners were Georgia Pacific for its enMotion Automated Touchless Towel System and American Honda Motor Company for its Honda HRX Lawn Mower.
Winners were chosen from a group of finalists selected last month by the Georgia State University Marketing RoundTable, which is comprised of senior marketing executives from many of Atlanta's top companies. Included were active8media for Image Search Technology, BellSouth/darkGrey for BellSouth FastAccesss DSL Lite, Delta Air Lines for DeltaDirect, Georgia-Pacific for its Innovation Institute, Roper Scientific for Cascade Camera, and UPS for its UPS On-Call Pickup.
"In the MAX Awards tradition, the Grand Winner is selected by the GSU RoundTable for exemplary marketing innovation," commented Dr. Ken Bernhardt, chair of the marketing department at Robinson. "Interface is a great example of how a company can generate new revenues from an established product category through product innovation combined with creative promotion and distribution strategies."
In addition to the presentations, the MAX Awards breakfast featured keynote speaker Peter Schwarzenbauer, President and Chief Executive Officer of Porsche Cars North America, Inc. Also announced during the breakfast ceremony was this year's recipient of the 2004 Marketing RoundTable Outstanding Minority Marketing Student Scholarship, Zanta Marble. With a 4.0 GPA, Marble was selected from a pool of her peers currently enrolled at GSU. After graduating with her Bachelor of Business Administration/Marketing this coming May, Marble plans to pursue her MBA in the fall.
