4 out of 5 pick Status zendow

Status’ Sales & Marketing Director, Kevin Warner picks up the story. ‘We routinely discuss customer satisfaction with our fabricators but there was clearly something very special happening with our zendow customers. All of them were demonstrating significant growth from a combination of trade sales to installers and direct retail sales. Closer investigation of customer feedback revealed numerous references to the aesthetics of zendow.’ Armed with this information Status Systems opted to examine the process by which consumers select and purchase windows and then to quantify how important product aesthetics were to the decision.

One of the UK’s leading market research companies and a specialist in face-to-face consumer studies, ICM Research was selected to conduct the study. Following an initial briefing with ICM, it was decided to conduct a hall test where researchers could conduct in-depth interviews with the public, off the street. Two windows, a zendow and a chamfered window of identical specification would be placed side by side for the public to make observations and ultimately choose a preferred product. In order for the exercise to be totally independent, the research venue was off limits to anyone from Status Systems during testing.

The hall test was conducted in Sheffield, over two days in February this year. ICM researchers approached members of the public in the street to participate in the research. Before being invited to take part, questions were asked to exclude individuals who would never consider PVC-U products and others who were not in the market for replacement windows. Only those who had recently purchased or were considering purchasing new PVC-U windows were interviewed. 69% of interviewees stated that they were likely to purchase in the foreseeable future. All participants were joint or sole decision makers for their household.

Black gasket disliked

The first element of the exercise was to determine consumer’s first impressions. Unprompted by the research team, members of the public were asked for their initial likes and dislikes to both products. At the outset, respondents identified the superior aesthetics of zendow, highlighting the shape of the profile, the low sightlines and the colour of the weatherseal with strong approval ratings. Unprompted, nearly half expressed that they liked the shape of the zendow interior profiles, 35% liked the exterior shape and 27% said they liked zendows’ grey weatherseal. The only strong dislike for either product, by 28% of respondents, was the appearance of the black gasket on the chamfered window. Surprisingly, the element of security and the nature of PVC-U as a material did not provoke strong reactions, scoring lowest among the unprompted likes and dislikes.

When a comparison of specific features was prompted, including interior profile shape, style of bead, appearance of sightlines, gasket colour and overall appearance, zendow was preferred by at least three-quarters of respondents. The exterior profile shape of zendow was preferred by approximately two-thirds of respondents. These results, added to the unprompted comments, clearly demonstrated that consumers were placing great importance on product aesthetics. It was not the case that they disliked the chamfered product, simply that in this instance they strongly liked the contemporary appearance of zendow.

Final analysis

When asked to choose their preferred window, there was a greater preference for zendow amongst females and among respondents under the age of 45. In both cases, 86% chose zendow over the chamfered product. Nearly two-thirds of research participants perceived that the zendow was the more expensive product. In reality, both zendow and chamfered products are offered at similar prices. The most significant statistic in the final analysis, was that four out of five respondents chose the zendow product. Four out of five respondents also said that they would be likely to consider buying zendow if considering purchasing double-glazing. Status Systems has released a synopsis of the research results to its customers.

Kevin Warner observes, ‘The research clearly demonstrates the old adage that the public buy with their eyes.

‘Four out of five people chose zendow on its looks even before they discovered it was the same price as the chamfered alternative’.

Essex-based zendow fabricator, Mr. Window, experienced this recently when a householder seeing zendow being installed into a property in a nearby street, placed an order to reglaze her home in Rosewood zendow without even talking to other window companies.

Potential Status Systems customers can receive a presentation of the ICM zendow research on request.