Why don't Clipsal market directly to the public?

How many of you have had potential clients say they have never heard of C-Bus?

Why is a company the size of Clipsal not marketing C-Bus in the broad stream media, and making it a familiar household term?

Now I know all the old chestnuts that that I hear time and time again are going to crop up like;

"Because the general public don?t buy electrical products, that is the job of an electrician and Clipsal market to them instead"

But frankly this is a load of rubbish. Electricians are about the worst people to use to try and market and on sell C-Bus. Electricians, like most trades people are fundamentally risk adverse. They will almost always lean towards the familiar, and will not go out of their way to offer a potentially better solution to the customer if it makes their risk higher. To put it another way, they will try and install what they always install, because they know it well, know how much margin there is and the likelihood of being called back to fix an issue. Clearly C-Bus requires somewhat more knowledge than just conventional wiring and obviously carries more risk of a future problem for the unfamiliar installer, so why would they expose themselves to that if they don?t have to. The short obvious answer is they won't and don't. A significant number of electricians are either single operators or very small businesses. These guys often survive on job to job payments and life can be pretty tuff for them. They want to take on work that where they feel comfortable with known guaranteed profit margins. These are not the people to try and use to sell C-Bus.

Another interesting fact is unlike most other service industries, the average electrician does not form any sort of ongoing relationship with their clients, and almost never is proactive about contacting them with the view to picking up some more work, or even better telling them about a new product that has come onto the market that may be of benefit to them. This is even true with C-Bus installations, I have come across many houses with C-Bus that were commissioned, then never touched again. These homeowners know nothing about the later products released by Clipsal, such as Wiser, PAC, Shutter controllers, fan controllers, not to mention all the new switches that have come out since the original standard units. Once they realise this new functionality can be retro fitted to their existing installation to make it more functional (or even just look cooler) they are receptive to the getting the work done. But while they don't know it exists, they can't buy it.

So the question is, why haven?t home owners (and the public in general) heard of C-Bus? Obviously because nobody is telling them.

If you still think marketing to the public is a waste of time, take the Hot Water Heater industry as a similar example.
Every day I hear about Rheem and how it has the "Hottest of all hot water ever seen", the Rinnai infinity that "Never runs out of hot water" and the Aquamax and its "Hot water power".
The average home owner knows about as much about their hot water heater as they do about their electrical system, and are just about as likely to undertake the work themselves. So why bother marketing to them, surely you would be better off just marketing to plumbers instead?

The answer is simple. Make the brands a household name and drive the purchasing decision from the other end. If a home owner sees something they want (like cool C-Bus switches and functionality) then they will seek out and instruct their electrician to install it. Lots of people will install C-Bus in their homes, if only they knew about it.

So Clipsal, how about getting your marketing people to put down their Double Chai Mocca Latte's, tie back the pony tails and start marketing to real people in the mainstream media. Maybe then people will stop thinking I'm talking about some sort of superannuation fund.

Clipsal C-Bus, the best product that no one has ever heard of.......

Regards

Rohan

 

Cant be said much better than that.

It has always stumped my as to why they take they approach they have. It makes the integrators job so much harder trying to sell a product that costs significantly more than a standard switch. If Clipsal got the homeowners on side and got them asing for it it would make life so much easier.

We are still wiring houses like we did over 100 years ago - go figure...

There has to be many marketing opportunities out there for them to work with and create a brand around - "Do you have a C-BUs home?"

 

Hmm

I agree with you, but I guess the market is small. It's only for new home buyers, and even then mainly the luxury end of the market, and the self-builders. That's a pretty narrow band. Still, they could probably push it more through architects and builders perhaps. But with smart light globes coming down the pike, I wonder if it will become even more niche.

 

That's all part of my point. The current C-bus market is small because most people don't know about it.

Australians love technology, and have one of the highest uptakes of new technology in the world. If you tell them about it, they may buy, if they don't know about it, they will never buy.
I don't agree that it is only for the luxury end of the market. It is now, because its small. Sell lots more of it and prices come down and it sells even more.

Pushing it through builders and architects is the same outcome as electricians, they are all risk adverse and will go with the familiar every time. The answer as I said in my first post is simple, make the end users want it, and they will demand it from their electrician/builder/architects.

And if you don't think this is true, When I built my last house I told the builder I wanted C-Bus, they had never heard of it, but after my house they offered it in all their future homes as an option. the problem was none of their future clients had ever heard of it, so uptake was slow.

Advertising in a few trade mags is just a poor effort in marketing. Telling the electrician about how cool an eDLT is, is a complete waste of time, he's not buying it for himself. You'd be better off advertising the profit margin.

The last home show I went to, Clipsal had a relatively small stand with one small area of C-Bus that had a couple of non functional switch plates. When I asked the completely disinterested staff about C-Bus, they told me they didn't know anything about it and just handed me a brochure.

C'mon Clipsal Get the word out, produce some funky modern ad for TV that showcases young end users living in a cool C-Bus enabled house, probably having a party and dancing round the pool. If you want inspiration, just look at a Coke ad, or a mobile phone add (especially Apple or Samsung).

Make it look cool and they will buy it.

Rohan

 

Good luck

I am pretty new to this industry, I am now on my third build for a customer. I have sent email after email, but never seem to get any where. I am still trying to get on the AI list so I can sell it a bit easier. I have done all I can through the CIS website registering sites etc and still nothing. It seems it does not exist down here unless your in the commercial field!!!!

 

There is something more fundamentally wrong at Clipsal since they were bought out by Schneider. Clipsal used to be Every Room Every house.
Electricians loved using Clipsal as everything was engineered to work with every other product. Every time I am at the Electrical distributors there is some one complaining how Clipsal are letting them down. If Schneider are not quick to turn this around the Clipsal name will be worth nothing.

As time has gone by Schneider are just replacing Clipsal product with Schneider product. (they can not do this with c-bus!)

I know 3 electricians trying to get C-Bubs Certification but Clipsal are not interested after may emails and phone calls. (Adam 6 above is another example)

Every Trade show that has a Schneider stand I ask them about c-bus and they have never heard of the product.

I know 2 hardware suppliers who have been waiting over 18 months to their products C-BUS certified under the C-BUS Enabled program and getting no communication or progress from Schneider.

Clipsal are the only company I know that can launch a product and ship it 12 months later and then have no stock for 6 months.

Some really clever people left the C-Bus team. You can be sure they did not like the Schneider working environment. People like this don't leave there baby unless the environment is toxic.

To Schneider C-Bus Australia is nothing.. probably 0.5% of revenue or less and probably gets no TLC and no resources.

I would be surprised if the CEO even knows what c-bus is.

It has been over 3 years now and still the Door bell issue on the Multi room audio is not fixed.

CBUS is time tested and proven technology It is a real pity to see this AUSTRALIAN product on the downward slide over the last 3 years.

Apple see the home automation as a huge market. Clipsal c-bus were years ahead now they are years behind.

Schneider should be on the stage at the apple launch event IOS8 home automation. Should have shipping product or using partners. so they can sell c-bus wireless to existing builds and c-bus wired in new builds and ride the apple wave..

Schneider should be wiring a house on the block with c-bus on house rules etc. Just seeding the public with what is possible.

Bring back the CLIPSAL Power house that shows the end user what is possible. Every client that I had that went through that house installed c-bus.


Please Schneider Management get behind Clipsal C-BUS it is a winner.

Charles

 

Firstly, I know all the C-Bus folk are hamstrung by the decisions above, and I know that you all probably wish things were different. But the bosses still have to know.

So, where did that channel come from? I have never heard it mentioned anywhere before? Looks like not many others have either with only 154 subscribers.
There are a couple of adds there that could be played on prime time television, but there are some that are truly awful (even by YouTube Standards).
That obvious green screen family home one is cringe worthy. It isn't going to make any woman want C-Bus (and they are the ones that you need to market to in particular) especially that last scene.
If anybody has missed this little gem and feels like squirming in their seat,

Of course in order for someone to see the YouTube videos they have to be searching for that sort of stuff anyway, which more than likely means they already know about it.

The other striking thing is they all seem intent on advertising the fact that Clipsal is a brand of Schneider, probably so they can drop the brand eventually

Rohan

 

That was scary. That plasma tv in the second scene, must be a time machine it was watching a program abound the 'Clipsal Minder !!!!!'



It was interesting watching the EDLT launch video again.

What were the significant developments that will continue to strengthen the C-Bus range. Before the 20th anniversary.

Are Clipsal practicing what they preach on the second slide....

Clipsal are not a block sponsor but seem to get the most expensive power point you can buy on the block. (are they handing out boxes to the sparkies) I thought I saw a DLT on the kitchen reveals Sat, and I saw some pink cable today.. so there must be some cbus. Samsung multi room audio being installed not c-bus multi room audio.

 

Nice pickup... missed that one

Don't normally watch it, but happened to walk in and couldn't miss all of the Saturn GPO's and switches

I think it was a DLT. Shame it wasn't an eDLT

 

What was even scarier was they seem to have found an extra child from somewhere. Only one child leaves, but two return.........

 

Anyone got a part number for that hallway sensor?