The Bathroom Manufacturers Association’s Technical Director, Andy Mclean, recently attended and assisted ten Keele University Business School students in their Creativity Module studies to better understand promotion of water conservation and related products.
The students at Keele University are all studying for a Master’s Degree, and as part of their Creativity Module, they were set a two-day task to delve into this topic further and provide feedback.
As water conservation dominates headlines and is a significant focus for water companies and recent important Government policy actions, the task set out to discover:
• What water conservation means to consumers, developers and building contractors;
• Regarding specification, how can water-saving products be made easy to access and easy to understand for the consumer;
• What sorts of products are available, and how their water-saving features are promoted;
• What are the general technologies, and how are these used to assist in public understanding and to influence a final sale; and
• What is the process of specification, purchase, and promotion of the technologies through to installation?
The students thoroughly engaged in the task and returned with some interesting and fresh ideas, including the limitations to support promoting products to market. They explored how this could be overcome. Their findings could help drive the BMA’s water-saving technology promotions and potentially a BMA-certified ECO bathroom, which the association will explore more fully.
It was a privilege for the BMA to be involved in supporting a local university and its students, and the raw research they provided is available to view in their water conservation feedback.