Episode 155: How the Manufacturer’s Role Should go Beyond Just Supplying Product with Brad Parker and Donny Cislo of Fluidra

Episode Summary: 

Since its founding in 1969, Fluidra has grown into a well-respected multinational group in the pool and wellness industry, operating in more than 45 countries through its subsidiaries with a team of over 6000 employees. Fluidra’s portfolio includes a number of prestigious brands such as Jandy®, AstralPool®, Polaris®, Cepex®, Zodiac®, CTX Professional®, and Gre®. 

Joining us today are Fluidra’s North America’s Vice President of Marketing Brad Parker, and Director of Trade Marketing & Sales Ops Donny Cislo. After a brief introduction to Donny and his professional journey, we talk about the overall response to Fluidra’s rollout of Jandy® quitting the internet (a topic which we discussed at length with Brad back in Episode 31) as well as the merger between Fluidra and Zodiac. 

The rest of our conversation with Brad and Donny revolves around what all goes into being a manufacturer, such as product development, quality processes, and improving existing products. We also discuss why a manufacturer should strive to become a good partner to its dealers, as well as how they can stay accountable as the first mover in the supply chain. 

Lastly, we touch on communication as being key when looking to retain consumers, especially as demand begins to go up and how the manufacturers alongside pool companies have a responsibility to create products and experiences that will allow customers to capture those poolside memories that last a lifetime. 

Topics Discussed: 

• 01:13 - An introduction to Donny Cislo 
• 08:18 - What Brad Parker has been up to 
• 11:20 - The Response to Jandy quitting the internet 
• 12:50 - What qualifies as a violation of the policy 
• 14:31 - Breakdown of the Fluidra and Zodiac Merger 
• 19:45 - Using market research to develop new products 
• 26:30 - Fluidra’s approach to product development 
• 30:03 - Fluidra’s robust quality process 
• 31:52 - How Fluidra improves upon an existing product 
• 36:22 - Why systems and processes are so important 
• 43:17 - Distinguishing “manufacturer”, “distributor”, and “dealer” 
• 54:20 - Fluidra's focus on forming partnerships with dealers 
• 59:48 - Providing growth with trackable leads 
• 1:05:35 - Communication between Fluidra's different locations 
• 1:12:04 - Illustrating the evolution of the pool industry to consumers 
• 1:22:45 - Communication with dealers amid the pandemic 
• 1:26:40 - What’s next for Fluidra? 

 

 

 

Sponsors: 

• Fluidra 
• Leslie’s 
• Primate Pool Tools 
• Lyon Financial 
• CCH 

 

Connect with Guest: 

• Website 
• Facebook 
• Instagram 
• Twitter 
• LinkedIn 
• YouTube 

 

Connect with Pool Chasers: 

• Website 
• Instagram 
• Facebook 
• Facebook Group 
• Twitter 
• YouTube 
• Patreon 

 

 

Key Quotes from Episode: 

• How can we make our dealers win in the marketplace? When they do, we win, too. ~Donny 
• We don’t win if our customers don’t win. ~Brad 
• We are supporting our dealers’ vision of what the industry could be. It’s about hearing what they need; hearing their pain points. ~Donny 
• It’s tough to operate on an ad hoc basis where everything is a judgment call, during the moment. You have to develop teams and processes to help automate the decision-making. ~Brad 
• To be doing our job right—whether it’s just from the perspective of peer responsiveness, or future product development, or just general brand engagement on a base marketing level—we need to be actively listening to all those points of feedback. ~Donny 
• We want to make sure that our number one conversion tool is the way in which we support our dealers—through transparency, through supporting them, and through having a very high-quality sales team. ~Donny