AQUALISA Quartz –

Marketing Plan
Group 10 (Group 2 – Div B)

AdityaMalpani

Akhil Sharma

Avinav Mishra

JasveenKaur

Vishnu Sasidharan
1. Introduction:

In May 2001 Aqualisa launched the Quartz Shower. According to Mr. Harry Rawlinson, managing
director of Aqualisa, it was the most significant innovation in the U.K shower market. Even though the
technological innovation was far ahead of the competition but still the quartz shower wasn’t selling.

2. Objective:

Despite the initial positive reactions from field tests after officially launching of “Quartz”, the sales never
picked up. The core objective is to generate sales momentum, either by discounting on the premium
price or targeting customers directly or by overhauling the entire marketing strategy and all these within
a span of two years.

3. Analysis (3 Cs):

3.1 Internal Analysis (Company): The Objective of internal Analysis is to find out possible strengths and
weaknesses of the organization both internal and external and develop insights on the same.

3.1.1 Company’s current image in the market: Aqualisa has strong market reputation in U.K of having
top quality showers under its stable. It is also recognized as a premium brand and delivering great
service. Poor brand awareness..

3.1.2 Core competencies: Aqualisa was highly competent in the mixer shower category where its
product the Aqauvalve 609 was a market leader. Aqualisa also had a following amongst its customers
(plumbers) as a highly reliable power mixer with the state of the art technology. (20.8 % of market
share).In electric Showers too it is highly competent with a combined sales of 186,000 (16.9 % of market
share).

Insights: Any small modification of product in the value segment of electric shower category would be a
sure success because of its high acceptability among the DIYs.

3.1.3 Resources

Financially the group is quite healthy base profit of 17,355(in thousand euros)
 Break up of over heads
Departments % share of over heads
Sales 28.2
Marketing 18.8
Customer Service 9.2

R&D 12.2
Fin Admin & 31.6
depreciation
TOTAL 100

Insights: Possible cut down in internal spending if possible and allocation more budget on sales and
marketing of Quartz

3.2 Customer analysis

Segments:

 Plumbers:
1. Needs: Highly performing and reliable showers.
2. Basis of decision: Brand loyalty and familiarity with a product. Servicing from the
manufacturers. Distrust electronic showers.
 Do it yourself Buyers (Value Consumers)
1. Needs: Easy to retrofit and do it yourself products
2. Basis of decision: Highly discounted and mass marketed product
 Developers
1. Luxury Builders (Premium consumers)
(a) Needs: Shopped in show rooms ,Style and design main concerns
(b) Basis of decision: Service and performance are a given.
2. Non- luxury builders (Standard consumers)
(a) Needs: Low /medium priced. Works in multiple setting
(b) Basis of decision: Reliable and nice looking products
Insight: Either develop strong relationships with plumbers or look for methods to circumvent the
involvement of plumbers. Allocate resources to educate plumbers regarding quartz.

3.3 Competitor Analysis:

 Triton: High brand awareness among public, market leader in electric showers (ahead of
Aqualisa by 293,000 units) lags in Mixer shower segment by 73,500 units and at par with
Aqualisa on power showers at 25,000 units. Weakness in mixer showers segment, market cap of
7.4 % only. Total shower market capture of 30.3%
 Mira: Lags behind Aqualisa in electric shower segment by just 31,000 units but market leader in
mixer showers segment with a market share of 36.36%. Ahead of Aqualisa in Power showers as
well with 10,000 more units sells. Total market share of shower units is 21.6 %. Moderately
strong in all segments.

Insights: Aqualisa is not a market leader in any of the shower segment.. Aqualisa should use triton
as a bench mark for Electric shower segment and Mira for mixer showers and power showers.

4. Market strategy

Target brand of Aqualisa: Quartz

4.1 Value proposition – Style, brand, quality, technology, service and ease of installation. Price is not an
issue for this segment.

We should focus Quartz as a separate strategic business unit. The objective of this business unit is to
increase the sales from 30-40 units per day to 100-200 per day i.e. 300 to 400%. The total lead time
before a competitor adopts the technology is two years. Hence, in order to have a first mover advantage
we need to achieve our objectives at least within the next one year.

4.2 Market Segmentation

Alternatives of Value proposition vs targeted segment:

Value propositionTargeted segment

Style, looks & reliability  Premium segment (luxury developers, showrooms, plumbers)

Do-it-yourself feature  Value segment (Landlords & apartment dwellers) *Price-sensitive

Looks & reliability  Standard segment (general developers) *Price-sensitive

4.3 Target selection

From the above alternatives we eliminate the general developers, landlords and apartment dweller
segment as these are price-sensitive markets, hence there would be no demand unless Quartz brand is
discounted by more than 50%. Also we have a very good market share for electric showers from the
landlords & apartment dwellers, hence pushing the Quartz segment maybe futile as it would only end in
cannibalizing the electric showers.

Hence, the selected target segment is premium.

4.4 Ansoff’s Product-market expansion grid and 4 Ps

Current
products New Products
1.Market 3. product
Current penetration development
markets strategy strategy
2.Market
Diversification
New development
strategy
markets Strategy

For market penetration strategy, place and promotion is the most important aspect.

Price – we do not want to make any change in the price as we want to showcase Quartz as a premium
product only.

Place (distribution and channel) – Showroom, luxury developers, plumbers, direct consumers

Promotion – This aspect to be considered in the implementation strategy.

Product – We do not suggest in any modification in the existing Quartz model.

5. Implementation:

1st Priority - Showrooms

Our targeted segment is the premium segment which usually buys from showrooms. Showrooms
provide installation services through sub-contracting plumbers. Also they have technically sound
consultants who can highlight the unique features and benefits of the Quartz brand. Presently our
product is available only in 25% of the 2000 showrooms in UK. Hence, we should make Quartz available
in all the 2000 showrooms. Currently 15 units per day are being sold through 500 showrooms; hence we
can forecast that the number of units sold per day can be 60 units by making quartz available in another
1500 showrooms.

Insight: 51.2 units per day of sales are required to break even with the cost incurred for R&D ; 5.8
million sales/(310*365) = 51.25

2nd priority

Reach luxury developers by direct sales & marketing.

3rd priority

Aqualisa should target more plumbers (other than their own plumbers), train them by giving
demonstrations of the product and then convince them to install and recommend the Quartz homes.
Aqualisa can do this by offering them a commission/ incentive program.

 This will help Aqualisa penetrate into the ‘standard’ market segment where people
install showers on the recommendation of their plumber. Thereby increasing the sales
of Quartz.
 The Quartz is a ‘push-fit-connect’ type of product, i.e. it is very easy to install and use.
Thereby saving time of the plumbers for installations and providing a wonderful
experience to users.

4th priority

Hotels and hospitals

Target the untapped luxury hotels & hospitals. (New & existing)

We observe from the current case that there is only a 40% availability of our products in the trade-shops
for whom the customers are plumbers. As the plumbers are very influential in the buying decisions of
the developers, we should increase the availability of quartz brand in such trade-shops targeting the
luxury developers.