Calor Aquaspeed iron

When French company Calor approached Seymourpowell to develop a new version of its midline steam iron range Avantis, it was against the backdrop of a declining market. In the key territories of France, Germany and the UK, the overall market value of this sector had fallen by 6% in 2003 and 7% in 2004. Calor needed to deliver demonstrable product innovation in order to lead a reinvigoration of the market.

Challenge
Irons present a complex industrial design challenge: their internal workings are inseparable from the external form, itself partly determined by ergonomic and functional considerations. Additionally, any product design must permit easy manufacture at low cost and with reasonable investment. In this project, all this must be achieved in a saturated market exhibiting falling sales.
To demonstrate product innovation, the new design must also address some typical complaints about steam irons - namely that they are slow and messy to fill, heavy and hard to handle and with a dangerous tendency to topple off the ironing board.

Response
Seymourpowell Foresight, the consultancy's research division, mapped out a visual history of the Calor range (known as Tefal in the UK), as well as national market analyses of key irons, charted against price and visual sophistication, and an assessment of the relative successes of brand languages used by Tefal/Calor and its competitors. This product research included an external panel of design experts and an analysis of general, social and product trends.
From this, a vision for the new product design was developed and presented to Calor's engineers. The resulting technical solutions involved rethinking the iron's basic architecture, assembly and functionality, providing Calor with a series of defendable patents. The lightweight and stable design included a completely open heel with a large trapdoor, through which water can be quickly and conveniently poured.

Result
The new model, Aquaspeed, launched across Europe in 2004 and achieved incredible sales. In the UK and France, it was a number one best-seller; in Germany, it reached number four in the market, where its predecessor ranked at number 33. Share in the mid-range segment rose by 9.9% points year on year in Germany and by 13.3% points in France. Global success followed and production volumes rose by more than 25%. Three national independent consumer associations voted the iron a 'Best buy'.

The client says...

"Successful products are the oxygen of our business. But alloying visionary innovation with technical feasibility, and then delivering it to consumers at an affordable price is no easy task. Seymourpowell have done this for us…many times." - Jean-Pierre Lefèvre, Chief Executive of Calor and Director of parent company Groupe SEB