gigondaz said:
Meguiars should stop blindly introducing "new products" just for the sake of having new stuff on the shelf. Even if these new 2011 SKUs sell like hotcakes...it's not necessarily a good thing because it might be cannibalising the sales from the OLDER SKUs - buyers of older products merely "convert" from the old to the new ones. Meguiars shd be launching truly innovative and EFFECTIVE stuff to attract and retain NEW users.
If I'm Meguiars, I'll stop to think strategically, conduct lots of market research, find out WHAT do people want from their polishes, waxes etc, develop totally new ground-breaking formulations, TEST them extensively vs competitors stuff for at least 6mths,....and then start getting excited about a product launch.
I'm trying to understand your criticisms. I presume we are speaking here about Meguiar's consumer line. What products specifically do you have in mind? Do you have any sales and marketing data to support the suggestion that the introduction of new products has hurt the sales of products that have been selling well? Do we know what products have not been selling well? In the absence of such data, I don't know how any of us can have an informed opinion.
As I look over Meguiar's consumer-line of products, the only area where there seems to be excessive duplication is in tire dressings. But tire dressings are like ice cream. Everyone has their favorite flavors. Why shouldn't Meguiar's offer multiple tire dressing flavors?
The one product I can think of that may have been hurt by a the introduction of a new product is Gold Class Shampoo. Since the introduction of Ultimate Wash & Wax, I do not see the Gold Class shampoo very often in the stores I visit. From my perspective, this is a genuine loss, as I have not been particularly impressed by UW&W; but I understand why Meguiar's deemed it necessary to offer a gloss-enhancing car wash to compete with Armor-All and Eagle One.
In contrast, look at Ultimate Compound and SwirlX, both based on Megs' innovative non-diminishing abrasive technology. I believe that UC, in particular, is a very fine product, and I can't think of a consumer-level polish/compound that can compete with it. I'm not as big a fan of SwirlX, and I gather it has not been selling well and will be eventually replaced by Ultimate Polish. Yet both products are clearly superior to comparable products sold by Meguiar's popular over-the-counter competitors. The introduction of UC and SwirlX probably sealed the demise of Deep Crystal Cleaner, but is anyone missing it?
Ultimate Quik Wax is another of Meguiar's recent offerings. Everyone agrees that it is far superior to the other spray waxes in Meguiar's consumer line.
This winter Meguiar's will introduce the Ultimate Wax. Clearly it is designed to replace NXT, which has never received great approbation here on Autopia. If Ultimate Wax provides a superior, or at comparable, look to NXT and if it proves to be significantly more durable, will anybody complain?
Bottomline: I'm all for innovation and the introduction of new products. Let consumers decide which products they like and do not like.
