Be smart about buying festive and experience lighting this year
Here’s the scenario: you and your team have been going through your up-coming marketing campaigns and you’ve agreed that to really engage and excite visitors and get them talking about your space, you need lighting and décor that will create the right atmosphere AND help you stand out from the crowd.
Now it’s time to put together an invitation to tender and invite lighting suppliers to submit proposals to turn your vision into a reality. It’s all going well until you start outlining your expectations about the LED products themselves. You stop, scratch your head, and wonder, “What criteria do I need to include in my proposal to make sure that the products we buy are right for us?”
Not to worry. Here at MK Illumination, we understand how difficult it can be to include all the right content and criteria. That’s why we’ve created what we call the “Buy Smart Valuation Model©” and today we’ll discuss the key elements of the model to help you “be smart” about buying festive lighting this year.
Buy Smart: a quick overview
If you want to make smart purchasing decisions when it comes to LED lighting products, it’s a good idea to include criteria in your tender to make sure that your supplier provides products that:
- Meet your NEEDS
- Are SAFE
- Are LEGAL
- Are EFFICIENT
- Are SUSTAINABLE
Let’s take a look at each of these in turn, or get in touch with us to discuss the criteria in person.
The “Buy Smart Valuation Model©”
Our “Buy Smart Valuation Model©” has five tiers. Use these to define your tender criteria to make sure that you get the very best possible solution for your needs.
Prefer to speak to someone rather than reading on? Get in touch for a chat.
Tier 1: A solution that meets your needs
Tier 1 is a no-brainer – something obvious that you’ve probably already defined. It’s an outline of what you expect the lighting solution to offer. This might include your creative vision and information about space and other expectations, but on a practical level, you should also include information about the LEDs themselves.
Here at MK Illumination, we commit to the following, for example:
- We only use only Premium LEDs
- Our solutions are connectable and extendable
- Our solutions use our QuickFix® modular system
You might want to include similar criteria in your tender document.
Not sure what practical criteria to include? Let our friendly team give you some guidelines – contact us.
Tier 2: A solution that’s SAFE
Whether you’re sourcing an experience lighting solution for a shopping center, a city, a train station, or a completely different space, you want the lighting products used to be safe and fit-for-purpose. For example, outdoor lighting needs to be water resistant and any lighting— indoor or outdoor—that’s in easy access of visitors and small hands shouldn’t electrocute or shock!
We ensure the safety of all MK Illumination’s products with continuous quality control, and we provide proof in the form of:
- CE certificates
- Independent test reports
- IP67 certification for our professional light chain system
Important: Safety is one of the minimum criteria for LED products for all lighting manufacturers, so make sure that you ask for and receive proof of safety.
Not sure what safety criteria to request? Let our friendly team give you some guidelines – contact us.
Tier 3: LED lighting products that conform to LEGAL standards
When you’re installing lighting products to create a festive display or an atmospheric experience, you want to be certain that the products you are using are legal. If you want to be completely confident that the products your lighting supplier is legal, they need to provide evidence that they are only using patented and properly licensed LEDs.
Our LED lighting products are all compliant, patented and properly licensed. We provide evidence in the form of:
- Documented validation by independent, certified testing institutes – so your legal certainty is guaranteed
Important: Legality is one of the minimum criteria for LED products for all lighting manufacturers, so make sure that you ask for and receive proof of compliance.
Not sure what legality criteria to include? Let our friendly team give you some guidelines – contact us.
Tier 4: LED lighting products that are efficient
Efficiency can mean different things to different people. When we talk about efficiency, we’re talking about:
- Lighting products that stay brighter for longer
- Lighting products that last longer
- Lighting products with homogenous (uniform) light color
Our LEDs are all efficient, and we’ve been able to measure the benefits efficient lighting products for our customers. These include:
- Cost-savings on products over the medium-term
- Cost-savings on electricity (thanks to energy-efficient LEDs)
- Reduction in the need for replacements
- If individual light points DO need replacement, this can easily be done without changing the whole product – but only if the light color is homogenous. This means longer-life products, and lower-cost retrofitting instead of expensive replacements possible when needed.
- Your lighting display will continue to shine brightly, beautifully, and have a uniform appearance thanks to homogenous light color, too.
If these benefits are important to you, make sure to define efficiency criteria in your tender.
Not sure what efficiency criteria to request? Let our friendly team give you some guidelines – contact us.
Tier 5: A solution that’s sustainable
Here we’re talking about whether your supplier will be using lighting products that support your sustainable business goals. In other words: how environmentally-friendly are your lighting products?
Choosing sustainable lighting makes good sense for the planet and its inhabitants, and it also makes good sense if you want to align your brand with sustainable business AND if you want to introduce more cost-efficiencies (see Tier 4 above).
Did you know that the high highest CO² emissions occur during the production process of the light chains and NOT their use?
The benefits of using longer-lasting LEDs like MK Illumination’s include:
- Longer-lasting LEDs = the need for fewer replacements = reduction in consumption of natural resources
- Positive environmental benefits
“Due to their longer lifetime, the Product Carbon Footprint of MK Illumination’s products is significantly better than the ones of its competitors in every scenario considered. That means that its products can save up to 2.5 times greenhouse gas emissions.” – Evelin Kletzer, denkstatt (www.denkstatt.at)
It makes good sense to include sustainability criteria in your tender, too.
Not sure what sustainability criteria to include? Let our friendly team give you some guidelines – contact us.
Need a little help defining the criteria for your festive lighting tender?
We literally set the standard when we developed the “Buy Smart Valuation Model©”, so when it comes to setting the right criteria, we know what we’re talking about.
Get in touch with our team to discuss the importance of these criteria in your tender or request our FREE Buy Smart Guide here.