I remember when Star Bamboo first started production in 2001, there were concerns over the viability of the business.
People could see that our bamboo flooring product was lovely and durable, but they wondered if eco-friendly products would do well in a market where price was often the prime consideration.
Would people be willing to spend their money on eco-friendly products?
I received a bounced mail today.
It was a traditional Lunar New Year greeting card sent to an overseas associate. I had written only the street address, without the city nor postal code. This is perfectly fine in a small country in Singapore, where the city is the same as the country.
In my rush, I even omitted the country, which you could see was hastily scribbled in right before I popped it in the post:
It took 3 months to be sent back to me.
This is an incredibly slow and inefficient way of telling me that I’ve written an incomplete mailing address. With email, it will take less than a minute.
Then it struck me how much I’ve come to rely on the Internet.
Star Bamboo is based in Singapore, with our factory in China, and we sell to customers around the globe.
I rely heavily on the following to communicate with my clients and business associates:
)All these would have been impossible without the Internet. It is vastly more efficient than letters, faxes and phone calls.
Just think about how you found Star Bamboo, and chances are it’s through the Internet.
So I will be emailing my associate above to wish him a terribly belated Happy Lunar New Year instead.
What a dry and boring title, sounds like it’s from an academic journal.
Wait a minute, it is from an academic journal. Forest Products Journal, to be precise.
This was a scientific study to evaluate the properties of commercial bamboo flooring, like those made by Star Bamboo. You will need to pay to obtain the full report, but I gleaned some interesting facts from the abstract (my thoughts below each point):
1. Bamboo flooring was more dimensionally stable than red oak flooring.
No surprise, this is one of the main benefits of using bamboo flooring – it’s dimensionally more stable than many popular hardwoods.
2. The mean hardness of bamboo flooring was significantly greater than those of red oak flooring at 65 percent RH and a temperature of 21°C.
This is verified by the Janka hardness scale as well. Bamboo flooring has a Janka hardness rating of around 1500, which is about 10% higher than that of American red oak (~1350).
3. Exposure to 90 percent relative humidity (RH) and water submersion caused more hardness reduction in bamboo flooring than in red oak flooring.
Considering the high hardness of bamboo flooring, this result is surprising. It suggests that bamboo flooring is not suitable for extremely humid regions, or locations which are open to rain such as bathroom, garden and balconies.
Thankfully, there aren’t many regions with a constant RH of over 90%. I hail from hot and humid Singapore – it is impossible to get through a day without sweating.
Yet our RH is usually only around 50% to 70%. In fact, most indoor environments have a RH of only 30%, thanks to the ubiquitous air-conditioning.
So it’s safe to say that bamboo flooring is suitable for installation in almost every country.
In any case, we already advise our customers not to install in the bathroom or unsheltered areas (this is also the case for most wooden products).
It’s nice to have some scientific proof to back up what we say in our brochures, it’s not all just marketing talk you know. 
p.s. If you’re curious as to how I found the above journal article, it’s thanks to a new Google feature called Google Scholar. I love Google!
Whenever I get a customer enquiry, I would ask where they found us from. It’s the simplest and most effective way of tracking our marketing efforts.
Usually they found us from the Internet, or came across our booth at the various trade shows we do.
The other day, the customer’s answer took me by surprise.
“Oh, I found you from Home & Decor magazine. The latest issue.”
Home & Decor is one of the most established and well-respected interior design and renovation magazine in Singapore and Malaysia.
It was certainly a pleasant surprise because it has been some time since I met with the writer Sio Hui.
So I popped by the big magazine kiosk in IMM building where our office is, and bought a copy.
There’re lots of interesting snippets in the article, and introduces various recycled and renewable materials that are both funky and eco-friendly.
Star Bamboo was mentioned for our “resilient bamboo flooring and furniture fabrications”.
I would like to scan the article (at least part of it) for you, especially those international clients from outside Singapore.
So I’m dropping an email to the magazine to seek their permission first. Will update you once I hear from them.
Thanks again, Home & Decor!
Today, the newly appointed Singapore Consul-General in Xiamen, China, Ms Tee Bee Lock, visited our factory in Shaowu, Fujian.
Star Bamboo is one of the more prominent Singapore companies in the area, so it was very nice of them to come by for a chat.
The Consulate-General office is a great channel to reflect our concerns and feedback about doing business in China.
According to their web site, their mission is to “safeguard the interests of Singaporeans visiting, living and working in the Consular Districts of the Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan Provinces as well as to promote bilateral, political, economic and cultural links between Singapore and China.”
Sounds great to me.
Our Managing Director, Mr Tan Yin Keong, postponed his flight for 2 days in order to meet her.
In this day of instantaneous electronic communication, nothing beats talking face to face.
Our Managing Director, Mr Tan Yin Keong, explaining how bamboo flooring is produced to the Singapore Consul-General, Ms Tee Bee Lock (right). At the center is Ms Tee’s assistant.
Mr Tan and Ms Tee in front of our Star Bamboo factory. Actually, this is the back of the building – all the action happens at the front.Thanks very much for coming by, Ms Tee!
What is branding?
To me, it is the mental image that you have of a company and their products.
This brand promise is easy to fulfil when the company has only one core product. What happens when the company expands their portfolio of offerings?
Google has gone from search to email, RSS reader, news groups, blogs, photo software, 3D images etc. According to Seth Godin, there is the danger of brand ubiquity.
When your brand is lots of things (like AOL became) then the expectations were all over the place and the emotional resonance started to fade.
This is something we pay close attention to. That is why as we expand our product portfolio, we have to maintain a common theme.
Besides bamboo flooring, we also have:
Which is the odd one out?
That is a trick question because the common theme is not “bamboo products”, but “eco-friendly products”.
We made a deliberate decision to obtain the distributorship of Timberex, a range of eco-friendly natural flooring oils for South East Asia.
It allows us to expand beyond bamboo products, yet maintain our brand promise at the same time.
So the next time you think Star Bamboo, think “Eco-friendly”.
Hello everyone, this is Star Bamboo’s first blog posting. My name is Hun Boon, and I’m the business development guy for the Singapore office.
In case you’re wondering, we do have another office in China. That would be our wholly-owned factory, where we make all that wonderful bamboo flooring.
Even though we are a Singapore company, it would be impossible to manufacture bamboo flooring over here. After all, all the best bamboo is there!
Oh by the way, our corporate web site is still alive and kicking. This blog will complement it nicely by sharing with you on the goings-on in Star Bamboo, and also eco-trends and news around the world.
Stay tuned and thanks for your support!
