Kone Monospace
KONE: MONOSPACE LAUNCH IN GERMANY
Factors contributed to the launch performance of KONE on the Netherlands, France and UK? When launched, sales of KONE’s Monospace was the highest in Netherlands, then France and in UK none was sold in the first 3 months. Monospace is an elevator invented by KONE using the latest technology that uses an “EcoDisc” that eliminates the use of a machine room and further incur significant energy cost savings for the building management. It is an upgraded version for geared traction elevators. There is more construction freedom and construction costs could be saved using Monospace too. The technology of Monospace then could be used for buildings of 12 floors or less. Hence KONE marketing team targets the low-rise residential elevators market segment in Europe. UK is dominated by low quality construction and high quality construction building works with very few in between mid-ranged constructions. For the one extreme spectrum, high-end elevators are in demand and the other, low budget and quality hydraulic elevators are in demand. Some of the low quality elevators barely meet regulatory standards in UK. Hydraulic elevators took up 90% of the market and only 10% for geared tractions. There are very high switching cost that deters customers to switch from hydraulic to Monospace elevators. The price of a Monospace elevator is twice the price of an hydraulic elevator. Thus even if Monospace made presentations in the London’s Science Museum with all relevant parties, there is a lack of market for Monospace and probably it explains why the sales were so low when it first launched. The situation in Netherlands was the complete opposite. Mid-ranged and low-rise elevators are in great demand as medium quality buildings dominate the market. Furthermore about 70% elevators in Netherlands are geared tractions. All these factors gave Monospace a huge market to play in. Coupled with direct selling tactics, strong working relationships are fostered.
Factors contributed to the launch performance of KONE on the Netherlands, France and UK? When launched, sales of KONE’s Monospace was the highest in Netherlands, then France and in UK none was sold in the first 3 months. Monospace is an elevator invented by KONE using the latest technology that uses an “EcoDisc” that eliminates the use of a machine room and further incur significant energy cost savings for the building management. It is an upgraded version for geared traction elevators. There is more construction freedom and construction costs could be saved using Monospace too. The technology of Monospace then could be used for buildings of 12 floors or less. Hence KONE marketing team targets the low-rise residential elevators market segment in Europe. UK is dominated by low quality construction and high quality construction building works with very few in between mid-ranged constructions. For the one extreme spectrum, high-end elevators are in demand and the other, low budget and quality hydraulic elevators are in demand. Some of the low quality elevators barely meet regulatory standards in UK. Hydraulic elevators took up 90% of the market and only 10% for geared tractions. There are very high switching cost that deters customers to switch from hydraulic to Monospace elevators. The price of a Monospace elevator is twice the price of an hydraulic elevator. Thus even if Monospace made presentations in the London’s Science Museum with all relevant parties, there is a lack of market for Monospace and probably it explains why the sales were so low when it first launched. The situation in Netherlands was the complete opposite. Mid-ranged and low-rise elevators are in great demand as medium quality buildings dominate the market. Furthermore about 70% elevators in Netherlands are geared tractions. All these factors gave Monospace a huge market to play in. Coupled with direct selling tactics, strong working relationships are fostered.