Smit Shah's Blog

Accordion Hurricane Shutter
(AHS)

Accordion Hurricane Shutter (AHS) manufactures and installs hurrican shutters for individuals.
Their core products are

• Garage Door Brace
• Aluminum Hurricane Panels
• Clear Lexan Hurricane Panels
• Hurricane Fabrics
• Bahamas Shutters
• Colonial Shutters

Their products are better in quality and not just meet but exceed the requirements set forth by the State of Florida. Their customer relations is the best amongst their competitors. They make sure their customers are satisfied with the service. Their professionalism and direct communication with their customers is a good indicator. They take the quality of their product seriously and do not cut edges to make a higher margin. AHS being a small company does not have the amount of awareness as some of their competitors do. Because they do their entire manufacturing onshore and with equity while striving to provide excellent quality, their cost of goods sold (COGS) tends to be higher then some of ther competitors. Their promotional campaigns have helped them build awareness, but they could do more with their marketing expenses.

Their customers can be individual home owners or commercial building construction companies. Majority commercial builders are looking for low cost alternatives, which for AHS would not be a good match. However, if the approach home builders, who offer their products as an optional upgrade, they might be able to gain sales volume, however it will be at a lower margin. If they try to do direct sales to customers (individual home owners) they have to spend additional marketing dollars to gain market awareness and market share. The margins are however higher. So, the home builders can be refered to as wholesale and individuals as retail. Currently they need volume for their business, hence having builders help boost sales seems like a good idea. And later on when have a stable volume, they can go for higher margin sales.

Some of the hurricane shutters offered by AHS help decrease insurance payments, which would be a good marketing hot button. For someone who is planning on buying a home, it seems like a good idea to add that to the total cost of the house and pay it in installments over the life of their home mortgage. They can even talk to local insurance companies, and have them approve and recommend their product. which would help sales and customer satisfaction. The word of mouth business is becoming more and more critical as competition increase. Their excellent track record and a long list of satisfied customers will help referal sales.

Promotional Plan

• Build a more professional looking website with information categorised by relevance and have customer testimonials
• Provide subscription to visitors on hurricane updates
• Provide subscriptions to AHS deals
• Provide information about advantages of working with AHS, boast about the quality of AHS products
• Order paper prints of the attached image and drop it at target home communities
• Build an online order / estimate / communication portal for customers as a good percentage of their leads are coming from their website.
• Build multiple websites to draw more customers to final site.
• Provide informative seminars to home owners at colleges and universities to build awareness.
• Give out as many discount coupons as possible to draw more customers and increase awareness.

http://www.flshutters.com/
http://www.hurricaneshuttersflorida.com/
http://accordionhurricaneshutters.com/

// posted by WizKid @ 12:25 PM