July 2007

Recently, I began the hunt for a hot tub. Admittedly, the Spa Industry is one in which I do not hold a wealth of knowledge. Apparently, I was not alone. I began asking friends and colleagues to name the top three brands in the industry. Unfortunately, this little informal survey was quite fruitless. Few could name more than one manufacturer and the "one" named varied from associates to associate. Even friends who had hot tubs could not remember the brand. Most people, named not a hot tub brand, but rather a seller of hot tubs.

With that in mind, I took my research to the next level. I looked up the top selling manufacturers, but didn't know how much stock to put into this information. After all, I wanted a quality hot tub and while one car, for example, may outsell a more quality vehicle, that doesn't necessarily make it better. With that in mind, I met with a couple of salesmen from the top three brands. I asked one simple question, hoping to put this category into terms that I could relate to: "Compare your product to the auto industry and tell me is your spa a Mercedes...a Pinto or somewhere in-between." The answer from each was an emphatic: Mercedes.

"How can this be," I asked after hearing the same response for the third time. Yes, Mercedes-Benz is often considered to be sitting atop the luxury car category, but it battles for this distinction with quality names such as Cadillac, Lexus, etc. each of which has its own distinction within the category. Is Spa Category one in which a plethora of brands sit near the top with no one company holding a clear edge over the others? Is this a category where a standard of quality leads to a price that sets one manufacturer far apart from the others? What then, is a conscientious consumer to do?

Simple. I made a brand-less decision. I created the ten categories of consideration that were important to me in making this decision: i.e. maintenance, energy efficiency, number of jets, pumps and filters, etc. I assigned a weight to each category to ensure that the machines that were stronger in the more important factors would receive stronger consideration. Next, I reviewed all of the information on each tub and assigned a grade for each tub in each category. After tallying up the marks, I had made my decision.

Wow! I literally spent hours on this decision when I could have spent significantly less time. Going through this process made me better appreciate sound, well-defined brands.  Distinct brands help consumers make these decisions more easily. Consumers, even those that have limited or no experience with the brand, know what to expect from a well-defined brand. They already know the ups, downs, ins and outs of a brand that has established itself in its industry. When decisions are made regarding brand-less products, well, get ready to check out some websites, sharpen up your pencil and put on your thinking cap! When every company is a Mercedes, a consumer has to work a lot harder to make a good decision.

 © BrandVision Marketing. 2007. Matthew Scott Trueblood. All rights reserved.

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