Aqualisa is a UK shower manufacturer with a strong reputation, a premium brand

and freat service

They invested 5.8 million to develop a breakthrough product*May 2011), the
Quartz dhower that positions itself superiorly in terms of quality, tech, design and
ease of installation

Problem is to find out a marketing strategy to generate sales momentum for

Aquakisa Quartz
Market
1. Relatively mature markets
2. High competition same prices less margins << that’s not true for
thiscompany though
3. This market looks like in an happy equilibrium and not fragile equilibrium>?
4. Not intensely competing on prces, everyone is making a lot od money
Rollinson comes in and spends 25% of the profits on this

Different Problems in shower market`

1. Low pressure
2. Archaic plumbing requirements
3. Fluctuations in pressure meant fluctuations in temperature
4. Everyone had bathtub only 60pc had showers

Customers hated –
1. Poor pressure
2. Varying temperature
3. Manual adjustment of temperature
4. Low brand awareness
5. Little understanding of different product options
4P’s ->
 1. Product
a. Showers with various categories (Electric, Mixer, Power)
2. Price (Premium, Standard, middle-low)
3. Place/Distribution(Trade shop, distributor, showrooms, DIY outlets)
4. Promotions(Adevrtizement – brochure, web)
Aqualisa’s products and price
1. Electric Shower
a. Value- Gainsborough 95 pounds
b. Standard- gainsborough 155$
c. Premium- aquastyle 230$
2. Mixer
a. Value- aquavallve 390 pounds
b. Standard- aquavallve609 715$
3. Power
a. Value- Aquastream manual 480 pounds
b. Standard- Aquastream thermostatic 670$

Channels of distribution
1. Plumbers (total 10,000 master plumbers,73%sales, advise a brand to
consumer, install 40 to 50 showers a year  this could increase by 4 times)
2. Showrooms(prefer high end product lines, multiple options, offer
installation through contratcs, Aqualisa brand sells in 25% of these stores)
3. Trade shop(have products from all brands, primary consumer was plumber,
Aqualisa sold in 40% trade shops)
4. DIY shed(offers discount mass market products that are cheaper and easy
to fit, gainsborough brand was available in 70%DIY sheds)
Quartz – the breakthrough product
1. Remote processor
2. Efficient and reliable water pressure
3. A single hole drilling
4. One touch control
Why poor sales –
1. Concentrated in selling to existing customers
2. High price
3. Plumbers were vary of innovation
4. Showroom penetration was low
Value proposition
1. For the plumbers
a. Easy to install
b. More profitable – able to do more number of installs
c. Take half day vs 2 days
d. Even less experiences apprentices could install them
2. Consumers
a. Efficient and reliabel water pressure and temperatire
b. Safe for kids and elderly
c. Much easier to install for DIY sector
d. Excellent design and aesthetics which increases ownership pride

Target consumers directly

+ build a consumer brand like triton
+- Costly ad spend required
+- time dimension
Target developers
+ don’t want to spend so high, new homes
+ could seels in large volume but developers were reluctant tobuy because of high
price and they don’t wanrt to reduce price
+this will help plumbers to become familiarized with the n[roduct
Negatives include > it could take time to get product to consumers and they could
lose their leads, developers constitute only 15% of the market
Target DIY could cannibalize their w offering because gainsborough sells high),
diyers are not easthetic sensitive but rather price sensituve
Target Trade shops and plumbers (they have direct contact with customers,54%
of mixer shows are installed by plumbers and trade shops represent 46.7% of the
UK shower market, plumbers influence in decisions
The problem is that prlumbers distrust innovation and tech and its costly to
change their perception, trade shops carry other brands
Assets he built –
1. Engg team
2. Patents
3. He is looking at new set of products based on this research
Final reco is to target trasde shops and plumbers becauee
1. They can be more productive (4 times) and twice more profitable
2. Consumers are getting all that they want
3. Aqualisa will develop and strengthen its relationship within the districuton
channels and establish long term bonds
4. Overll product wareness and benefits will increase
5. Installation with independent plumber covers 54 of the market(exhibit 7),
28 pc people take plumbers advice on type and brand of shower
6. Trade shops – mixer shower is a huge market 400K, trade shops cover
46.7% of the market and 72.7% of the market in mixers showers (exhibit6)
7. How they could do it – instead of 90 pc sales team for maintaining existing
accounts use more to develop customers, explain not face to face but
online , ads,
8. Promotion should be targeted at plumbers -> give them a unit for free with
guarantee| reach out to more trade shops | publicizeinstallationa dns costy
savings, improve distribution(right now u cover only 40 pc trade shops, and
only 25% showrooms)
9. Facilitate spaces for training, certifications, exhibitions, incentives to
plumbers – take care of plumbers cost in case there is any issue
 10.Target the progressive plumbers here << GOOD POINT << who are already
good with technology – the salesforce is so useless that they don’t know
who within the segment is likely to take the risk to this new product.
SHOWROOMS SEEMS TO BE THE BEST
alternative
40pc homes don’t have showers
What is the contribution margin for this product – its almost the same, make a
solutions sales (save time)
Conclusion
1. Create an intensive marketing communicating campaign to target market
(consumer) and target influencer(plumbers)
2. Focus in the premium market share to increase sale

Professors thoughts

Great product don’t necessariliy sell by themselves

Mediocre products sell for quite a bit of time
New prod intriductions can be very often highly linked to strategy

Company is tryingto become a tech company – this is a hard problem for legacy
problem. Most of them fail but this company has a breakthrough product.
For a lot of selacy companies some of the resisytence is internal -> he says itys a
niche product -> high margins not a lot of sales <<< but Rollinson is thinking of it
as a breakthrough product – see the resistance and skepticism inside the
companu

Think about segmentation - >

High q uality low on proce sensitivity – looking for something new and how do I
reach this segment through the right channel – the showrooms become the best
way to go ahead.

>> showroom is the answer

Is the pricing too low for the premium product ? YES because the compitiotn is
actually selling the entire package for 2000k this would mean that the plumbers
are making a lot of money