Case study for pre-read: Aqualisa Quartz: Simply a Better Shower
Source: (https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=28768)
Conclusion from the study: Plumbers directly influence 73% of the shower selection decisions (Exhibit 4) for home needs.
Hence, Plumber influence on sales = Sales in cases where Plumber selects type and brand without consumer consultation (25%)+ Sales in cases where Plumber influences type of shower and not brand (20%)+ Sales in cases where Consumer takes plumber?s advice on type and brand of shower (28%)
= 73% sales of installation of mixer showers at home
Now, to analyze impact of reluctance of plumbers to recommend the Aqualisa Quartz shower, we have to imagine ourselves as a plumber and try to understand their behavior. We will try to use Human Psychology to explain this reluctance.
Imagine you are a Plumber. If we consider no. of customers per month approaching for work to be similar (since people install showers only when necessary), we can assume it to be constant.
As per the data, a plumber works for 40 to 50 new installations per year, which is app. 4 per month. If we assume no. of repair jobs equal to the no. of of new installations, then 4 repair jobs per month are available.
Hence, monthly income of a plumber is analyzed in the images below.
Monthly income when installing Traditional showers
Monthly income if switch to Aqualisa Quartz
Thus, we see that monthly income of a plumber is reduced by app. 75% if they install only Aqualisa Quartz showers.
Thus, it is possible that the plumbers may have realized the consequences of switching to this brand and in order to keep their income source stable, they wantonly promoted traditional showers only and discouraged installation of Quartz showers.
Since they affect 73% sales of installation of mixer showers at homes, it may have been one of the major reasons for low product sales.
Thus, we can say that the defensive approach used by the plumbers (due to basic Human Psychology of need to protect oneself), is one of the reasons for downfall of this product.
Lessons from the study: Make sure that your customers and business partners are in sync with each other. One?s business should not harm other?s livelihood. Otherwise, the ones feeling threatened will work against you to preserve their interests.
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