Dress up your rooms with new designer air conditioners
Customers nowadays are harder to please. Demanding to get more value out of every peso they spend, Filipino buyers have already learned to be far more discerning with their purchases.
“Consumers are changing. Ten years ago it was just about product. Today, it’s more than just the product—it’s the experience [that the product provides],” says Raul Joseph Concepcion, chief executive officer of Concepcion-Carrier Air Conditioning (CCAC).
“The consumer is very, very smart—he has access to the Internet; he knows about the product, so you can’t fool him. What you have to do is you have to give him an experience that he would look for in your product,” Concepcion says in an interview.
Giving a whole new level of experience was exactly what CCAC was trying to provide, according to Concepcion, with the recent launching of the company’s Carrier Designer Series air conditioner.
“With the Carrier Designer Series, we wish to give our customers the best of both worlds: good looks and great features in one cooling solution,” Concepcion adds.
“When we talked to consumers, they were looking for several things. They were looking for stylish air conditioners. They wanted those in different colors; the best in filtration system; something that saves them energy; something that protects their unit. So we put everything together and came out with (the Designer Series),” he further explains.
Energy savings
Most notable in the Carrier Designer Series is its energy management features, which can help rein in one’s electricity expenses, amid high power prices.
Such features would include a run-hour timer, which works like a prepaid card that would allow the owner to automatically program the air conditioner either based on the monthly budget or target usage per month. A cycle timer has been built in the air conditioner, allowing one to program the unit to turn on and off at 30-minute intervals.
Compared with the regular, older air conditioners, the Designer Series allows one to save roughly as much as P13,000 in electricity costs per year.
The company explains that 10-year-old air cons, for instance, consume an average of 854 watts of electricity as against the current model of Carrier, which consumes only 445 watts. This would translate to savings of about 48 percent, it adds.
Apart from these energy-saving measures, the Designer Series is also equipped with an 8-in-1 filter system, which can trap fungi and dust particles; filter out smoke and odors; kill viruses; and neutralize the so-called free radicals that can harm the skin.
The Carrier air con’s self-diagnosis features also ensures years of worry-free operation.
“This innovative cooling solution blurs the distinction between hi-tech and high style—one that is beautiful on the outside, intelligent on the inside,” Concepcion says.
Made available only this month, the Carrier Designer Series window air conditioner sells for P15,000 to P30,000, depending on the horsepower capacity.
Market leader
CCAC says it remains to be the market leader for cooling systems with the lion’s share of 45 percent in the local industry.
“(On being No. 1), I would believe that it had to do with the values of the company. Integrity and innovations—those are key foundations,” he says.
Even after 50 years of providing efficient cooling solutions, CCAC believes that it continues to hold an edge over its competitors not only because it has the global technology expertise but also because it develops features that are relevant and suitable to the Filipino market.
Although CCAC has already cornered a considerable chunk of the local market share, Concepcion believes that this can still grow as the industry is also seen to expand further over the long term.
Concepcion explains that out of 18 million families in the Philippines, only 10 percent, or 1.8 million, have air cons in their houses, which means that a portion of that 16.2 million families can still be a potential market. In fact, CCAC expects this penetration level to even go up to 20 to 30 percent in the long run.
“So if you look at that, the (long-term) potential is tremendous and that is what we’re really investing in—that this market is going to grow, to explode. You’re seeing (that growth) with the buildings coming up. However, there are some challenges, such as inflation, which would probably slow down the growth this year,” he says.
Despite the challenges, however, Concepcion says CCAC is still expecting a conservative 5- to 10-percent growth in 2011.
