Nursery Today – June 2006 – Feature on car seats
RESEARCH PUTS DOREL IN FRONT
Independent surveys show Dorel’s dominance of the car seat market
Retailers’ comments that more and more parents are asking for Maxi-Cosi car seats have, until now, been based on that rather vague unit of measurement, ‘gut feeling’, coupled with Dorel’s own reports of rapidly-increasing sales.
But now, two recently-released pieces of independent research have shown the same result, that Dorel is indeed becoming the predominant manufacturer in the car seat sector.
Views from mums
MumsViews* is an independent market research company specialising in research amongst pregnant women and women with young children. Between November 2006 and January 2007, the company carried out interviews with more than 11,000 mums and pregnant women into their views on 601 brands in 37 categories.
Respondents were asked to rate the brands and products they had used on a ten-point scale. In the car seat category, Maxi-Cosi came out top, with Britax second and Graco third.
Paul Petrie of MumsViews says: “This has been a huge project for us which we hope will provide a useful top-level insight into the baby market as a whole and just how many brands and products are competing for mums’ attention. It’s very interesting to see the outcome of the car seat sector research, which has probably shown a different result to what many people will have expected”.
Poll facts
Around the same time as MumsViews were concluding their research, Bounty.com carried out their own website poll which asked the question: “Which brand of toddler car seat would you be most likely to recommend?”.
The poll had been carried out 16 months previously, in December 2005, and exactly the same question was asked again in April 2007. The results, and the differences between the two polls, were striking.
Every brand of car seat had reduced in terms of parents’ willingness to recommend it, except Maxi-Cosi, which had risen by six per cent. The Bounty poll indicates that effectively, Maxi-Cosi is taking share from every other player in the market.
The ‘Bugaboo factor’
There’s no doubt that the decision by some of the leading stroller manufacturers: Bugaboo, iCandy and Micralite among them, to make their products compatible with the Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix has had an impact on the sales of this seat.
The car seat market is intensely competitive and R&D now so prohibitively expensive – the new Bébé Confort Axiss rotating Group 1 car seat has taken four years to develop – that few companies want to take the risk despite the rewards.
But the ‘Bugaboo factor’ affects only Group 0+ seats whereas the Bounty researched focused on ‘Toddler car seats’ – involving the age group that would use Maxi-Cosi Priori XP, PrioriFix, Tobi and possibly even Rodi XP.
In addition, Dorel’s own Quinny brand, which is designed specifically to work with Maxi-Cosi, has been hugely successful. The Quinny Zapp is the company’s best-selling stroller by some margin, and CabrioFix sales have mirrored its success.
Brand values
For a brand that’s been available in the UK for only a decade, Maxi-Cosi has pulled off a remarkable feat in achieving such a positive market position. Ultimately, its brand values stem from an understanding of its market; that parents want the safest seat for their child. They also want one that looks fabulous.
A style-led approach, underpinned by the highest-possible standards of safety, has delivered customers for Dorel. Huge resources are put into design, fabrics and colours alongside genuinely innovative selling points like belt hooks, seat belt tensioners, IsoFix bases, and hold-open harnesses.
No company in this market is ever unassailable but with the launch of the Bébé Confort Axiss, the world’s first Group 1 rotating car seat, Dorel is beginning to look that way.
*For more information about MumsViews, please contact Paul Petrie on 01926 429249 or email paul.petrie@mumsviews.com
