This case focuses on Aqulaisa, a U.K. shower manufacturing company. Since its start, Aqualisa has done a fairly decent job at market research. They identified the issues that both consumers and plumbers had with their current showers and produced several different product lines to address a few of these issues. However the existing brands were not addressing all the needs of the consumers or the plumbers. Aqualisa spent 3 years and millions of dollars conducting research to find out what area they were not showing enough attention to. In 2001 Aqualisa launched a new brand called the Quartz. The purpose behind this new brand was to address the remaining concerns of consumers and plumbers which existing brands failed to acknowledge.
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There are multiple reasons that the Quartz did not sell but ultimately I believe it boils down to two factors. First I would say the price was a major cause for the lack of sales. The Quartz was much higher priced than any other shower on the market. Granted the Quartz adds value, it should have been rolled out at a lower price to stay competitive with the competition. More importantly plumbers do not trust the Quartz. Plumbers are Quartz most effective form of advertisement. Their brand loyalty and ability is absolutely invaluable. Because plumbers tend to latch on to a product it is the only one for life. Before introducing the new brand Aqualisa knew that plumbers do not trust innovations. On top of that electrical components in showers has crashed and burned before. This severely hurt sales since 53% of purchases are either made by plumbers or mad because of a plumber’s advice. Aqualisa should have targeted the developer market first in the beginning. This would force plumbers to get familiars with the product, which is almost the equivalent of giving them a free trial. This strategy would allow plumbers to fall in love with your product.
In conclusion, moving forward Aqualisa should change their marketing strategy to focus more heavily on developers. By focusing here first Aqualisa will get the plumbers, who are arguably Aqualisa most important asset, on board with their products. The Quartz has potential to definitely be a mainstream product. Reintroducing the electrical component to the showers sets up so many future innovations and with Aqualisa planning ahead they are primed to expand the Quartz and change the shower
Up until …show more content…
There are multiple reasons that the Quartz did not sell but ultimately I believe it boils down to two factors. First I would say the price was a major cause for the lack of sales. The Quartz was much higher priced than any other shower on the market. Granted the Quartz adds value, it should have been rolled out at a lower price to stay competitive with the competition. More importantly plumbers do not trust the Quartz. Plumbers are Quartz most effective form of advertisement. Their brand loyalty and ability is absolutely invaluable. Because plumbers tend to latch on to a product it is the only one for life. Before introducing the new brand Aqualisa knew that plumbers do not trust innovations. On top of that electrical components in showers has crashed and burned before. This severely hurt sales since 53% of purchases are either made by plumbers or mad because of a plumber’s advice. Aqualisa should have targeted the developer market first in the beginning. This would force plumbers to get familiars with the product, which is almost the equivalent of giving them a free trial. This strategy would allow plumbers to fall in love with your product.
In conclusion, moving forward Aqualisa should change their marketing strategy to focus more heavily on developers. By focusing here first Aqualisa will get the plumbers, who are arguably Aqualisa most important asset, on board with their products. The Quartz has potential to definitely be a mainstream product. Reintroducing the electrical component to the showers sets up so many future innovations and with Aqualisa planning ahead they are primed to expand the Quartz and change the shower