Salamander goes mobile

London – Salamander markets a range of high quality water care products in hard water areas across Europe and in the Middle East. A specialist water treatment company, it is based in the North West of England with its UK product range distributed and stocked by wholesale building and plumbing merchants.

Around 60% of the UK population live in hard water areas, and people living in these areas require water care products to help ensure a good quality water supply. Salamander water care products distributed and stocked by building and plumbing merchant networks include solutions for corrosion, hard water, filtration and domestic condensing boilers.

Salamander’s research and development department develops an extensive range of products to tackle problems associated with hard water, corrosion in central heating systems and unfiltered water for drinking and cooking.

Over recent years Salamander has experienced significant growth and needed to better inform its customers and new markets about how to sell and install their products, and be seen as leaders in the market.

As part of Salamander’s online marketing strategy it wanted to develop and grow its digital and online campaigns and explore other innovative ways to effectively promote Salamander and its products.

With the rapid demand and growth for mobile technology being used for both business and personal use, Salamander wanted to explore the opportunities of creating a mobile app, initially for its Salamander Electrolytic Scale Inhibitor (SESI) hard water market product.

The purpose of the app would be to provide added value to merchants out in the field selling the SESI product, giving them expert knowledge and insight through the free of charge mobile app, to drive sales.

Polymorph had previously worked with Sentinel Performance Solutions Ltd, Salamander’s sister company on a number of creative and development projects and was therefore aware of its range of products and services.

Salamander’s brief for the SESI app included the need for it to be easy to use, with the scope to develop and add further product apps and providing reporting back to the merchants.

Polymorph’s creative team set to work designing an app which incorporated a variety of content including installation and product information, details of stockists and maps, with the app to linking back to a specific web page, http://www.sesi.uk.com/. This provides all the necessary information about who would benefit from SESI and what it actually does.

Neil Davis, European marketing manager, Salamander, stated: “We needed a tool to help installers demonstrate the benefits of the SESI product, and carried out extensive market research beforehand to understand the best means to do so. With many installers and merchants using smartphones and tablets, an app was the most suitable.”

With the app supported by this website, installers are able to demonstrate on the road the benefits that the SESI product can have.

For example if selling to a customer at their house, the installer can type in the customer’s postcode, determine whether they are in a hard water area, and discuss the benefits of SESI, in particular the cost of installing the product over the cost of repairing water pipes blocked by limescale, likely to be much more in the long run.

Polymorph came up with an alternative to the traditional app by also developing a web-based solution for the app for Android and iPhone. This provides Salamander with the scope to develop the app and add further products, giving it flexibility down the line.

With promotion of the app via adverts in merchant stores around the country, with QR codes on the adverts allowing users to download the app straight away, Salamander spread the word about the free to use app to merchants and installers.

ssentially it was designed with them in mind, to help increase sales and drive demand for the SESI product, as well as benefitting customers in hard water areas, saving them money in the long run.

The app provides tracking reports and a place to download information so that installers can report back to merchants on the success of the app and how it has helped them when selling to and educating customers on the damage hard water can cause.

So with one app design, Polymorph has enabled Salamander to not only drive business for itself, it has allowed Salamander to add value to its merchants and installers, as well as educating the installers on the road selling its products.

But importantly it positions Salamander as a leader in this field; with smartphone and tablet technology set to play an increasing role in the business to business marketplace, this kind of technology will help businesses like Salamander stay ahead of the competition.

“Polymorph knew exactly what we wanted in terms of output for this app - to drive sales, educate installers and customers, and add value to those selling our product, and delivered an app that met all of these targets,” concluded Davies.