Air Purifeir

SUMMARY

In 1995 Mr. T. Wan of RW & Company agreed with his foreign suppliers that there would be a market for its BIO-CLEAR air purifier in the Philippines. Since there was then no such comparable commercial product in the local market, the decision was to bring it to the market fast as possible. The decision was made to preempt the competition, to be able to define the market by being the first product that was to be locally for available, and to build up brand equity. Arrangements where therefore made for the initial shipments of the product’s range of models in the Philippines.

A year later, however, Mr. Wan as struggling with unsold inventory consisting mostly of the more sophisticated and computerized higher priced models. Sales in the provincial outlets were consistently poorer than predicted versus those in the urban areas, especially Metro Manila. Metro Manila sales, however, were still marginal as well. Product sales were barley covering costs, and Mr. Wan was wondering whether it would be better to simply discontinue offering the line. He would be talking to the foreign supplier’s representatives in a week and needed a good position to be able to negotiate with confidence, especially because this supplier was not only the source of the BIO-CLEAR line of air purifiers, but also of other home appliance products that RW & Company was selling.

The BIO-CLEAR purifier combines the function of an ultra high efficiency filtration system with that of an air ionizer. It is the first product in the local market that can improve air quality in an enclosed environment to levels that were only previously achieved in “clean rooms” (ultra –clean environments for the production of microchips).

The BIO-CLEAR air purifier is listed in the supplier’s catalog (and the product’s user instruction manual) as the Air Purifier AC-2100 Series. It is offered in five models, namely: 2101,2102,2103,2104, 2105 .All of these models...