Aqualisa Quartz: Simply a Better Show
Harry Rawlinson, Managing Director for Aqualisa, understands the company is vunerable for several reasons. One, other companies were catching up to Aqualisa in product quality. Second, Rawlinson believes that the market is beginning to perceive Aqualisa’s products as over priced. Also, Aqualisa’s service is stilled perceived as great, but actual service had slipped over the past years. Finally, about 10% of Aqualisa showers still “went wrong,” a percent that hasn’t changed in many years. As a result, Rawlinson hired a Research and Development Team in order to create new innovations for Aqualisa, which, if successful, would steer Aqualisa back in the right direction. After many brainstorming sessions and market research, Aqualisa created The Quartz. The Quartz is a breakthrough in technology with many benefits: installment period is only a half a day, provides efficient and reliable water pressure and temperature was available with one touch of a button, and there is no bulky box that is a inconvenience for most people. During field trails, consumers loved the new shower, and Aqualisa thinks it is ready to put it on the market. However, Aqualisa’s sales representatives did not sell as many as they thought they would, and Rawlinson is starting to wonder if this new shower is not the breakthrough that Aqualisa needs. The company’s channel partners have bought thousands of these new showers, but they have only sold 81 (p.9). Aqualisa needs to sell 100 to 200 showers a day for this product to break through. Part of the problem is that plumbers do not want to install something that they are not sure will not break or mess up, and electronic showers are known to break easily. How can Aqualisa generate sale momentum with t ...