Culligan's Water Treatment Systems example essay topic

Culligan Water Treatment, Inc has been serving the public with water softeners and water treatment systems for over sixty years. They have a unique marketing strategy that excels them high above all the competitors, both foreign and domestic. The personal touch and life-long commitment the Culligan Water Treatment, Inc gives each customer leaves them satisfied with their decision to purchase a Culligan water treatment System. Culligan Water Treatment Inc, and How they Market Their Water Softeners After an intense cardiovascular workout, on your treadmill, the first thing you want to do is get an ice-cold drink of water.

You go to your kitchen and reach in your cupboard and pull out a tall glass, than you turn on the faucet, put the glass under the faucet and start to fill the glass up with tap water. You now put the glass to your lips and take a big long drink. This scenario would have been common twenty years ago but today you grab that purified bottle water in your refrigerator. The water quality has change tremendously in the past twenty years.

With rapidly expanding cities, air pollution, toxic dumping, plus an endless list of reasons that our water isn't as healthy as it was when our parents were our age. Concern about the safety of drinking water is growing. News reports continue to remind people that they cannot take their drinking water for granted. Recent headlines have included: +The outbreak of a waterborne parasite in Milwaukee's waters supply. + Lead contamination caused by old plumbing. +Pesticide and fertilizer run-offs in local water supply.

+Radon and arsenic contamination. As public concerns about the environment continue to grow, the need for a constant source of potable water is becoming increasingly apparent. This is where the world's number one water softening company comes into the picture. Culligan Water Technologies, Inc has been in business for over sixty years selling water softeners and treatment systems for the following major markets segments: Household, Commercial, Consumer Retail Point-of-Use, Do-it-Yourself, Industrial, Vending, Bottled Water and Custom.

History: It all started in Jack McLachlan's blacksmith shop in NorthBrook, Illinois in 1936. Emmett J. Culligan had the idea to found a water conditioning company, based on a service plan. Right there, with only tools that the little blacksmith shop provided, a business was born. In 1938 the first franchised dealership had been started in Wheaten, Illinois.

Following this, a dealership was opened at Hagerstown, Maryland, and the third dealership was started in Iowa City, Iowa. Under Mr. Culligan's franchised dealership plan, contracts for exclusive territory where signed by the franchised operator and the company furnished the softener units. The dealer without deposit on the part of the householder made installations. Bills were rendered monthly, payable ten days after date, just as with bills for other utilities. There was no charge for installation or removal. Once a month, the operator removed the unit in the householder's basement and replaces it with another newly regenerated unit.

The exchanged softeners were so constructed that the change could be made in less than a minute of actual working time. By the start of World War II, the company had 150 dealers. On February 9, 1998 - United States Filter Corporation announced an agreement to acquire Culligan Water Technologies, Inc. for approximately $1.5 billion in U.S. Filter common stock. Combined, the tow companies will have more than $4.5 billion in revenues, 2,000 locations and more than 20,000 employees in 90 countries throughout the world.

Company Reports: Culligan Water Technologies, Inc Mission Statement To be the world's preeminent provide of water purification and treatment products and services, by giving those we serve the best value for there investment while focusing on the enhancement of the environment and the health of our customers. Analyzing the Customer: Customers purchase or rent a product or service to satisfied one or more of four basic human needs: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs. Culligan identifies with the physical needs of their customer. The need for clean water is apparent and does not seem to be going away in the near future. A market segment is a group of consumers with distinct needs (demands) or behaviors (both usage and shopping behaviors). Market segment analysis is the search for and understanding of variability in demand (that, in turn, determines customer satisfaction).

There are eight such market segments: Benefit segmentation. Life-cycle and lifestyle segmentation, Belief segmentation, Choice rule segmentation, Brand loyalty segmentation, Price sensitivity segmentation, and Search and shopping segmentation. Let us understand the variability in demand by analyzing the above market segments. Benefit segmentation was originally used to identify groups of consumers who were particularly responsive to specific advertising message.

Culligan water softeners are a benefit to a healthier life style. Life-cycle and lifestyle segmentation is based on how people live. Age, income, education and gender are a few lifestyles that would fit in this segmentation. For Culligan to sell their systems the customer needs to be able to afford it and have the educational background to realize that this product would be worth the purchase. Belief segmentation is usually measured to explain heavy usage or brand loyalty. You need to belief in the product and feel that it will actually do what it claims to do.

Culligan has a tremendous amount of research that is backed by the Water Quality Association (WA) and National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) which is an independent, nonprofit testing organization. Choice rule segmentation is broken up in three choices. Logical Choice Behavior - Identify and evaluate the choice options on several abstract dimensions. For example, the consumer may rate several water softeners and water treatment systems on such characteristics as warranty, salt intake, price and financial terms. The customer may even add up the ratings to create and overall quality score or use some other math rule to decide which alternative is most preferred.

Experiential choice Behavior - occurs when our fantasies and emotions drive the benefits we seek from a product. This behavior does not really apply in anyway to Culligan Water Treatment, Inc. Habitual choice - We are a slave to routine. We like to do everything because of habit, from the time we get up in the morning to what we have in our coffee. This choice is saying that we will buy because we always have. This doesn't apply to Culligan because once you buy their product you do not have to purchase it again.

Brand loyalty segmentation - is when you buy the brand because you are loyal to the name. For example you shop at one store just because it is a Spartan Store even though the prices and quality might changed. This is an area that Culligan might take advantage of. If your mother bought a Culligan water treatment system than you might buy one and in turn your children might buy one.

Since Culligan has been in business since 1936 this loyalty segmentation would be wise to invest in. Price sensitivity segmentation - The seller has to recognize that price sensitivity has many determinants. Culligan's water treatment systems are on of the most expensive on the market. Their water treatment systems range anywhere from $2000 to $4000. They need to realize and they do that this is difficult for the average person to be able to afford. Culligan approached this with information on how much you would save if you bought their product.

You would save money on detergent, heating bills, cost of replacing worn out cloths and even time on cleaning all those nasty hard water stains. Search and shopping segmentation - this is when buyers search for the right place to purchase the product they desire. Will it be Levi Jeans at Meijer's, WalMart, or KMart? With Culligan's personal selling approach they come to you to sell you their product you do not need to go anywhere to find it. Culligan has the marked of almost all the segments.

All they need to do is have the customer belief that they can not live without their water softener or water treatment system. Below is a list of a few organizations that believe that they can not live without a Culligan water or water treatment systems. Table 1 Restaurant Chains Food and Beverage High-tech Energy Arby's Coca-Cola Manufacturing Texaco Burger King PepsiCo Sony Shell Denny's Kraft AT&T Automotive Wendy's General Foods Hewlett-Packard Ford Motor Co Taco Bell M&M Mars Government Chrysler Pizza Hut Quaker Oats U.S. Army General Motors Long John silver Carnation U.S. Navy Toyota KFC Analyzing the Competitors: Culligan Water Treatment, Inc has very few competitors in the same league as they are. Osmonics, Inc. makes water purification for soft drink.

The company's cartridge filters reduce concentrations of contaminants in solvents, and wastewater. Its distillation equipment is used in laboratories and in the pharmaceutical industrial customers around the world: more than half its sales are to foreign customers. Thames Water plc supplies water services to more than seven million commercial and residential customers and wastewater services to almost 12 million customers in London and the Thames Valley. Thames Water plc also designs water and wastewater systems internationally. It has contracts for systems in Australia, China, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Thailand, and Turkey. Ionics, Incorporated equipment group supplies water-treatment and purification systems to industrial, municipal and utility customers around the world.

The company's desalination systems process and treat brackish water to produce potable water. The consumer product unit provides Aqua Cool Bottled Water and home filter systems. Table 2 Name of Company Net Income 1-Yr Sales Growth Employees Culligan Water Treatment, Inc $505 36.0% 4578 Ionics, Inc $351 3.0% 2200 Osmotic, Inc $177 7.8% 1360 Thames Water plc $2,128 8.4% 12492 million As shown in Table 2 Culligan Water Treatment, Inc had the largest 1-year sales growth compared to the other three companies. Marketing Strategies: Almost every advertising agency has its own mental model of how advertising works and uses it to train its employees and sell its skills to clients. Culligan Water Technologies, Inc uses the learn-feel-buy (LFB) model of consumer reaction to advertising. This LFB model assumes consumers make thoughtful decisions about buying products such as major appliances, automobiles, computers and water softeners.

Culligan Water Technologies, Inc sells its product by personal selling. They need to educate the population of the water problems that exist in their neighbor. A Culligan sales representative will ask if he or she could come to your house and do free extensive water testing on your current water supply. They might even offer you a free set of Ginsu Knifes just for you letting them take up your time. Culligan Water Technologies, Inc does extensive research on the quality of the water that is all around us. They pass this information to the customer with a wide variety of tests performed on the customers' own water supply.

This sets up the learn part of the LFB model. After Culligan informs you of all the problems your water has, for example: Hard Water - This is probably the most common water problem found in the home. According to the Water Quality Association of the United states, Hard water is water that contains dissolved hardness mineral above 1 GPG (grains per gallon) Copper In Water - This causes a Blue or blue-green Staining Odor in your Water - This is caused by Hydrogen sulfide that is produced in water supplies as a result of the decomposition of underground organic deposits. It has a characteristic of rotten egg odor and obnoxious taste easily detected its presence. Iron in the water - This is detected by reddish stains on sinks, toilets and fixtures. Iron types that are found in water are oxidized, soluble, colloidal, and bacteria or organic-bound.

As little as 0.3 ppm (parts per million) in a water supply can cause staining of clothes and fixtures. After Culligan determines the water problem you have, if any, they continue to explain and demonstrate how their water softener can allow you to have clean healthy water. This sets you up for the feel part of the LFB model. You get to actually feel and see what the water softener can do for you. They do several additional tests that show the difference of treated and untreated water.

On test entails you washing your hands in your their treated water and than your water. The difference you feel is remarkable. The softness of your hands after you wash them in their water is wonderful. Now that you were able to learn about the problems of your water and feel the results the water softener can do for you the only thing left to do is buy it.