Clean Queen Case
Market Orientation & The Clean Queen Situation
The case opens with an 8:15 AM meeting among several key people at the Danbury, Illinois plant of the Floor Care Products Group of Atlas Industries Worldwide. The group consisted of the following persons:
• • • •
Dave Matters: Chief Design Engineer (CDE) Jack Davis: General Manager, Danbury Plant (GM) Molly Hudson: Product Manager, Clean Queen Floor Care Products (PM) Bart Simpson: National Sales Manager, Floor Care Products (NSM)
Jack (GM)
Thanks for coming down today, Pete, Molly... Let me introduce you to Dave Matters, our new Chief Design Engineer. He 's joined us from Hoover where he has had 14 years experience in product design and 5 years as product manager. I 've asked Bart to give us a quick history of the Floor Care Group. Dave will spend the next few days pouring over old reports, but Bart can bring you up to speed for our immediate problems. As you all know, our annual marketing plan is due next month. The corporate targets are higher than ever and we 're going to have to do some fancy footwork to keep with the program. You all know what I think of this "annual exercise", but Corporate seems to be getting more and more insistent upon having our participation in this.
Bart (NSM)
Thanks, Jack. [Pete switched on the overhead projector and placed a transparency on the glass.] As you can see, we haven 't been growing in units shipped during the past few years. The total numbers are a bit deceiving, however. They mask the fact that our upright line has maintained a respectable 5% per year increase in units (in a market that 's only been growing about 3%). But that increase has been more than offset by our loss of position in canisters. The problem is even more serious because our gross margin on canisters is larger than uprights, so we have been unable to meet profitability targets.
Background: Clean-Queen Vacs
• • • • • •
1948 - First Clean-Queen canister vac 's introduced on the west
The case opens with an 8:15 AM meeting among several key people at the Danbury, Illinois plant of the Floor Care Products Group of Atlas Industries Worldwide. The group consisted of the following persons:
• • • •
Dave Matters: Chief Design Engineer (CDE) Jack Davis: General Manager, Danbury Plant (GM) Molly Hudson: Product Manager, Clean Queen Floor Care Products (PM) Bart Simpson: National Sales Manager, Floor Care Products (NSM)
Jack (GM)
Thanks for coming down today, Pete, Molly... Let me introduce you to Dave Matters, our new Chief Design Engineer. He 's joined us from Hoover where he has had 14 years experience in product design and 5 years as product manager. I 've asked Bart to give us a quick history of the Floor Care Group. Dave will spend the next few days pouring over old reports, but Bart can bring you up to speed for our immediate problems. As you all know, our annual marketing plan is due next month. The corporate targets are higher than ever and we 're going to have to do some fancy footwork to keep with the program. You all know what I think of this "annual exercise", but Corporate seems to be getting more and more insistent upon having our participation in this.
Bart (NSM)
Thanks, Jack. [Pete switched on the overhead projector and placed a transparency on the glass.] As you can see, we haven 't been growing in units shipped during the past few years. The total numbers are a bit deceiving, however. They mask the fact that our upright line has maintained a respectable 5% per year increase in units (in a market that 's only been growing about 3%). But that increase has been more than offset by our loss of position in canisters. The problem is even more serious because our gross margin on canisters is larger than uprights, so we have been unable to meet profitability targets.
Background: Clean-Queen Vacs
• • • • • •
1948 - First Clean-Queen canister vac 's introduced on the west