Specialty Fabrics Review interviews Alex Kouzmanoff, vice president of Aztec Tents

Interview by Sigrid Tornquist

Your Tidewater Sailcloth tents have been hugely successful. How have you marketed the product?

We’ve gone about marketing the Tidewater Sailcloth tents in a couple of ways that seem to have been productive. One is by creating a website solely for users of that product. We did this as a marketing leverage piece to get people on board because so much of the product’s appeal is visual—and how do you sell something so image-focused? By images.

The other approach we’ve taken is to market to specific end users. We target individuals within a certain age group who are engaged. We use social media to bring the messages to the identified demographic: You could get married under one of these tents. And we have a directory of addresses and phone numbers of individuals who can supply and service the tents—so we’re driving customers to our customers.

Sigrid Tornquist is a freelance author and editor based in St. Paul, Minn. She is also the associate editor of InTents magazine, a publication of the Industrial Fabrics Association International.