When Aqualisa decided to partner with design consultancy Seymour Powell, it hoped to create an ongoing product development process designed to drive the business into new areas without losing sight of its core markets.
Seymour Powell and Aqualisa have now been working together for over ten years, and some big changes have occurred in this time, but as Dick Powell, co-founder of Seymour Powell explains, the relationship started by focusing on the small things: ‘Partnerships with manufacturers tend to be longstanding because of how involved you get in a business. Trust is a hugely important factor, so we start by using design to help solve everyday business problems. This might include rethinking core product lines or giving a lift to an original product. They tend to be small incremental changes that improve the business, build trust between our two companies and kick start the learning process for everyone concerned.’
Powell and his team began to engender a new innovation culture ‘through demonstration’, as Powell puts it. They began by asking Aqualisa for a wish list of what the company’s new products should definitely include. A creative workshop among top management followed, resulting in the creation of hundreds of sketches for possible new products.
Then a brainstorming session involving staff from every area of the business helped generate a shortlist of 50 ideas which were each marked out of ten.
‘We’re not marching in and pulling a rabbit out of a hat,’ says Powell. ‘It’s a much more discursive process: working together, exposing them to thoughts and possibilities, building enthusiasm for ideas and change and ultimately generating creative output.’ Within the manufacturing sector, this inclusive approach to ideas generation and innovation is vital. Engineers and production staff will have a very different perspective to marketing and sales personnel, and each department has its own specialist knowledge and expertise to bring to the process.
In the case of Aqualisa, bringing everyone together also helped to demonstrate that design and innovation can be used to improve every part of a product, from its inner workings and outer styling to the user guides, installation booklets and marketing materials.
In 2001, the first results of Aqualisa’s new innovations process came to fruition in the form of Quartz, a digital, powerful, easy to use, quick to install shower. A combination of group creativity, extensive user research, trade input, design consultancy expertise, market knowledge and excellent timing resulted in Quartz Digital soon becoming the company’s best-selling and most profitable product.
But the launch of Quartz Digital was really just the beginning for Aqualisa. Since then, the company has continued to implement its ongoing innovation process, holding regular company-wide design assessment meetings and encouraging creative product development as an integral part of the business.
Under Seymour Powell’s guidance, Aqualisa has undergone an extensive product repositioning and branding exercise, creating discrete product lines, improving targeting and positioning, establishing more effective brand communication and a clearer identity for the overall company.
For Aqualisa Managing Director, Harry Rawlinson, the ongoing creative process is vital for the company’s long-term success: ‘We operate in a niche market, but that doesn’t mean we’re immune to competition. We have to stay one step ahead all the time, and it’s our creative processes and innovation strategy that enables us to do just that.’
