Sunrise medical Inc. case study summary notes

Guardian Products-> crutches, walkers
Quickie Designs -> only wheelchairs

Strategic planning at 1994, guardian plan to penetrate lightweight standard wheelchair market
which Quickie has 13% market share (57% -  Invacare)

Invacare - single salesforce

Lightweight standard wheelchair -> Quickie invented this category but its strategy has no competitive anymore since its market share is dominant by invacare
Growth in sales forecast at 15% p.a
Medicare distinguish lightweight standard wheelchair from standard ->
Medicare reimbursement up to $850 trigger to increase sales in lightweight standard products

Guardian has advantage in lightweight standard wheelchair product since they also served elderly from their standard wheelchair so know their customers. and it has bigger margin than other product they sold in the market.


Selling process
Dealer
physical therapist
physicians
patients
insurance company

Wholesale 60% of retail price paying to manufacturer
large dealer 42%


Distribution channel

	Standard	Lightweight	Ultralight/sports	power&pediatric
Rehab suppliers	10%	10%	75%	75%
General HME dealers	55%	70%	25%	25%
Meg/surg distributors	35%	20%

Rehab suppliers
General HME dealers
Meg/surg distributors

Invacare distribute its products through general HME dealers
Bundling -> invacare’s price is based on dealer’s volume  in the entire invacare line. up to 42% from retail price


Guardian’s decision for lightweight standard wheelchair - changes in medicare guideline in 1993
a few changes on its standard wheelchair model and can be 10% below of wholesale price than invacare’s

Quickie’s brizzy - lightweight standard model
simpler design with fewer parts and welds
aluminum alloy frame
nylon upholstery
bright colors
Both management of Quickie and Guardian acknowledged Quickie’s and Invacare’s are better than Guardian’s proposed product in design, materials, and features

Guardian’s marketing approach
60% from general HME dealers
40% med/surg distributors
bundle discount and free freight to dealers like invacare
5% higher price than competitor due to higher quality

1993, Guardian had problems on quality and delivery problem with its Taiwanese vendor which is handling fabrication of wheelchair

Proposal to Sunrise inc
Let Guardian to penetrate lightweight standard wheelchair product and serve the needs of general HME dealers price pressure because Guardia’s lightweight standard model can be 10% lower in wholesale price than Invacare. And also for the rehab dealers, Sunrice can still offer the Quickie’s model.
And for the unified order-entry system for the large buyers which might be general HME dealers and med/surg distributors, Sunrise can set contact line or single salesforce which will role unified order-entry system and the salesforce can distribute the order to respective department.


Market Segmentation
Elderly Young Adults Sports player People who can not use manual wheel chair

Market Targeting
Invacare -

Guardian’s penetration to lightweight standard wheelchair market

Advantage

Refreshment in the company
This market is dominant by Invacare although this category was created by Quickie first. And Quickie is focused its effort on Ultralight product now. But penetrating by Guardian can make the Quickie team refresh and be more creative like the early period

Competing at Lowering Price
By few changes of its standard product, it can produce lightweight standard product and it  can cause offering at 10% lower price in wholesale than its competitors

Reducing possible quality and delivery problem by eliminating subcontracted company


Disadvantage

Quickie has 13% market share already so it has conflict market within the company

Quickie and Invacare are superior in terms of Design, materials and features than Guardian’s proposed lightweight standard wheelchair