Masonite's newly launched Advisar unit, which sells doors direct over the internet to buyers in central Florida, has generated so many concerns and questions that the manufacturer decided to write lengthy responses to both its dealer/distributor network and to ProSales. Here, in Q&A format, are details about Advisar (it's pronounced AD-vee-sar), using Masonite's own words as often as possible.
What Is Advisar?
Advisar is "a premium pre-finished and prehung entry door system for remodeling and renovation projects, utilizing a fully digital configuration and ordering platform," Masonite CEO Fred Lynch wrote in a letter sent July 17 to the company's roughly 9,000 dealer and distributor partners in the U.S. A June 6 press release from Masonite decribed it as "a unique online platform [that] features select offerings of pre-finished and pre-hung premium door systems, complete with decorative glass and hardware, delivered to the job site when the contractor needs it in as little as five business days."
An early statement from Masonite described Advisar as an "incubator." More recent statements call Advisar a "beta test." What is it testing?
"We’re identifying numerous attributes of the customer experience to better understand the value and buying behaviors consumers and contractors associate with specifying, ordering, designing, finishing, delivering and installing," Lynch's letter said. "Our primary goal with this test is to better understand how we can make door replacement projects faster and easier so we can share the learnings and innovative practices with our channel partners."
Advisar's service area is limited to central Florida. If I'm a dealer in that area, how does this change my relationship with Masonite?
"Our commitment to and relationship with our dealers will not change except for hopefully building more business for them with our comprehensive resources and support," Tony Hair, president of Masonite's global residential business, wrote in a July 20 statement to ProSales. "There are select dealers and dealer installers participating in the Florida trial. Beyond that, we absolutely are committed to growing business with our traditional dealer base in Florida and believe the Advisar test can not only coexist with them, but also enhance their businesses by generating incremental demand for all doors."
What is Advisar's target market?
"Advisar is targeted at a specific segment of the marketplace that we believe requires premium, pre-finished door systems for remodeling projects that require short lead times," Hair wrote. " It also provides a different transactional approach, utilizing only online configuration tools and requiring credit card payments. As an open space that is underserved in general, we believe this approach will be appealing to dealers and contractors focused on replacement and remodeling projects. The vast majority of the existing market is well served by and will continue to be targeted through our existing network."
Wouldn't small builders be interested in this as well?
"The Advisar product offering and process are designed for R&R, more specifically the replacement contractor," Hair's statement said. " It’s not the type of customer experience that builders would typically be interested in. For example, our dealer partners provide values that are extremely important to the new home builder, large or small, such as extending credit to manage costs, bundling other building materials, onsite sales representatives who provide irreplaceable expertise on the right ancillary products for the job at hand and often offer special pricing and deals. Another value added provided by the dealer is the ability to coordinate and rapidly respond to job site delivery requirements and schedule changes that often occur. "
Why do this?
"We believe our role as an industry leader, and the real business opportunity for both us and our partners, is to unleash latent demand in the category to generate incremental and higher value sales," Lynch's letter said. "For example, more than 80 million U.S. homes are over 20 years old and probably need one or two new exterior doors. However, only 8 million exterior doors are sold for the remodel, repair, and replace (RRR) market. That’s just 10% of the total available opportunity! Through our significant research over the last two years, we believe we can unleash latent demand in the RRR market by drastically improving the customer experience and in doing so, raise the awareness of doors as a top remodeling project for both contractors and homeowners."
Why pick Tampa as the location?
"Florida was chosen simply because we have our global HQ, our digital team, and a manufacturing facility there, and the beta test could be closely executed/monitored by our team,", Hair wrote. "We built a link between the digital tools and the manufacturing plant and it was easier to build that with both nearby. Being that close allows us to spend time with it and understand the learnings from the test with select contractors, dealers and installers utilizing this test platform."
If a customer buys a product from Advisar and has a problem with it, do you expect the local Masonite dealer to handle the warranty?
"If there is a problem with a product purchased directly from Advisar, it will be resolved by the Advisar team," Hair wrote.
Will your future relationship with appropriate dealer-partners include a requirement that the local dealer be trained about Advisar and be encouraged to send people to that site?
"Our relationships with dealers will not change or impose any additional training requirements on them," Hair replied. "If anything, we want to enhance our relationship and drive incremental growth opportunities for them. Our overall goal is that Masonite grow the overall door category for our customers and theirs.
How long will the Advisar "beta test" last?
Hair: "The test right now is focused on the 2017 selling season."
If Advisar succeeds, do you expect to expand this model?
Here is Hair's response: "Success means that we bring more focus to doors and incremental door sales in the test region for all our customers. New revenues from untapped markets, a larger audience for doors and key learnings from the door buying experience is what we hope to gain and share with all our dealers and customers. We’ll get to test the value that contractors and end users place on different delivery, digital engagement tools and differentiated product. Success means we adapt those learnings with our existing channel partners. Other indicators of success include: reaching the untapped market of older homes needing replacement doors; reaching the replacement contractors who may not be buying doors or very few doors; and expand the opportunity and growth in the category for the entire channel. At the end of the day, as industry leaders, success means our category outperforms the industry (grow at a higher rate) and we are able to make the pie bigger for all involved. When we are successful and demonstrate we can grow overall demand for doors in the test market based on the many differentiated approaches Advisar introduces, we will use these learnings in other markets in a way that supports and enhances our established distribution network and potentially provides new approaches to grow their market opportunity. Our commitment first and foremost though in any market is to support, protect and grow our core business while establishing ways to reach a new audience with premium products targeted at this specific audience."
If I am a dealer or distributor handling Masonite products, should I regard Advisar's creation as a sign that you'll stop working with me some day?
"We will absolutely continue to partner with and help grow our existing Masonite distributor and dealer, and retailer businesses," Hair wrote. "Masonite values and cherishes these relationships and the value they provide--they are the lifeblood of the door category and candidly our business. Supporting growth with all of our channel partners continues to be the biggest investments we are making in the business."