On Fri, 16 Sep 2005 00:09:55 GMT, "david lang"
wrote:

Hi All

Just noticed that B&Q Performance Power range of power tools has changed
colour to grey/white and Screwfix have started selling Titan, which look
suspiciously like Performance Pro in blue/yellow.

What is going on here?

No wonder they are having problems!


B&Q and Screwfix are volume warehousing operations. That's it. The
business model is based on cost, volume and margin. A relatively
fixed cost is the space used to store and retail the goods. This is
why B&Q has most low value goods stacked in high racks and only those
that have to be layed out further to sell at all and higher
value/margin items are spread out. Key measured parameters are the
turnover and margin per square metre and the number of turns per year
of stock. If the space can produce a higher rate of return by
renting it out to other complementary businesses then it is a
consideration.

The so-called Performance Power, Titan etc. "brands" are simply
shells. There is no long term commitment to a given product or even
style and no proper backup provided.

Volume operations like SF and B&Q don't want to deal with these
issues. The equation is that they agree to a certain volume with a
Chinese factory and if the volume/price equation is there, agree the
colours and the label for a period of time or volume. The so-called
warranties are carefully calculated as a marketing exercise on the
basis that if the tool is cheap enough, people won't bother to return
it or will throw it away and buy another. There will be certain
return rates which are factored into the cost of the line and may even
be pushed back to the manufacturer.

The reality is that these are all cheap generic Chinese products in a
given colour and packaging. They will continue to come and go.

There is no problem with this as long as people understand that this
is what they are getting. However, too often I have seen people in
the returns area of B&Q trying to get spares for one of these products
or to get something done after the warranty. Of course it's non
existent, but for some reason people seem to think that they can
expect the same type and level of product cover that they would have
had if they had bought Bosch, Makita, etc.

IMO, that is not an acceptable way of marketing. The customer has
been given the impression from the warranty that there really is a
proper brand with all the backup. The reality is that there is a
veneer.

So if the Kingfisher group changes things around and the same product
appears in a different colour from another outlet, this is not an
indicator of having problems, but simply a natural outcome of this
type of product and how it is marketed. No surprises at all.




--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl