beachnik
Contributor
It makes little sense that any established filling station doesn't shell out the $786 bucks for an in-line analyzer...
Analox CO Clear: Analox - Looking after the air you breathe.
I know times are hard and all but good grief! If I were wanting a market differentiator and a leg up on the competition it is a paltry investment!
I will by the personal Analox as soon as it becomes available.....which got me to thinking... why would they push sales of the in-line tester to the filling stations? Simple economics for them.... say there are 3 or 4 filling stations on Coz.... they stand to make $2400-$3200..... now if 20% of the divers who visit Coz hand over $350+ for the personal version, what is that going to net them??? There are about 0.5 million visitors to the Island (and 3.6 million cruise ship visitors a year) ... even if we take a sample of the people who stay on the island and exclude the cruise folks we could estimate(conservatively) that 20% are divers and say 20% of the divers buy a hand-held unit the gross sales prospect is around $7 million....
now...where was that grassy knoll??
I don't mean to be a pessimist, but I'm inclined to agree. I went through the same mental analysis - there's really only a few 'filling stations' that present themselves as possible customers for the 'CO Clear'. Analox is on the eve of launching what is for them a new product for divers - there are many more divers than fillers.
In reality, Analox probably has nothing to be concerned about - they could sell solutions to both ends of the market. Why (?) - most businesses in Cozumel are oriented toward hiding information, the concept of PR - improving products/services, generating free publicity for having done so, building brand and loyalty - is something that seems not to have caught on yet. They don't seem to comprehend that they are sitting on a marketing opportunity that would give them a leg up on the competition.
A day ago, I composed a post suggesting the points noted above, I ditched it thinking I was being a little too hasty and rash. Prior to that point in time:
- I had had email communication with Analox in Southern Calif - asking them to contact Meridiano specifically.
- I then had a voice call with the same office. Granted, they don't owe me anything in the way of update info, but I was hoping. I got a little suspicious when I did the tour of Meridiano a few weeks ago - when I brought up the issue of the CO Clear, I didn't hear anything like 'Oh yes, we've been contacted by those folks and they are sending us specs and pricing'. It was "Yes, we'd consider installing that product".
- Thinking that the problem might be that the UK office was in charge of international marketing, I went looking for and found Michele's email address here at Scubaboard. Her profile indicates she's in the UK, she left a post last year asking for suggestions on how Analox could improve. I sent her an email asking her to contact Meridiano. That was on the 15th. No response. No un-deliverable bounced mail. No 'I'm on vacation' thingy. Nothing.
- Not wanting to jump to the wrong conclusions, on May 22 I did a follow-up email to the Analox office in SoCal. Told them about my tour of Meridiano and the post here on SB to that effect, told them about my email to Analox UK (with no response), told them about RubberDucky's finding of excess CO in Meridiano tanks, encouraged them that the timing was right to contact Meridiano, asked them to give me some feedback.
So, let's see, I've contacted Analox 4 separate times. Hmmm.
I've waited long enough, I think "Uber" has hit the nail on the head.
