A conversation with … package pool and vinyl liner manufacturers: Pool & Spa News' round table discusses the business of design choice with leading manufacturers—and we also share tips for incorporating brick and rock coping for a custom-look package pool

Pool & Spa News, April 19, 2002 by Shannon Harman

McKaughan: We put as much importance on what a customer wants, unless it is something that goes against standard building practice and/ or code, or is just not practical.

Sobel: We try to take into account the feedback we get from staff, dealers and consumers. They all have valuable ideas. But we only implement the ideas that we feel we can execute, ideas that make sense for our company.

Toomey: For our company, recommendations for new designs begin with staff members.

Smith: We always pay attention to staff regarding design and fabrication techniques. They are the ones who have to turn out the product. Most consumers are not that well-versed on design. Again, that is our job. But we do listen, especially in the area of color and pattern ideas.

Saxer: Primarily, we consider the opinions of our dealers, our employees, our vinyl manufacturers and outside agencies.

Patel: Dealers' opinions have a lot of weight, but they're mostly looking to us for what's available. They're not really saying to us, "We want this." If they have a request, we'll try to accommodate them.

Chamberlain: Our customers truly know what is most appropriate for their respective markets, so we let them give us quite a bit of direction on the patterns we design for them.

How does it influence the designs? Does feedback influence your pattern or material choices?

Chamberlain: All of the patterns that we custom design for the pool-liner fabricators are very much influenced by the customer we are designing for. Generally, we give them an initial concept to work with and then it becomes a two-way street, [where we're] working together to produce the final pattern.

McKaughan: The feedback we receive from customers doesn't usually pertain to actual design or material choice. We already offer many choices in design (more than 146 pool selections) and about four different liner manufacturers' samples as well. I would say that if there were any influence, it would possibly be in changing one of our existing designs to suit their own pool location. This is easily done because our product [sidewall panels] can be manipulated on site to suit each individual customer and location of the pool.

Sobel: We try to look at this information and keep improving our product. It does not happen in giant strides, but a little at a time every year. Often the decision-makers at companies do not have constant contact with their customers, so they are slower to react to changes in the market.

Mulvaney: We created [al material to meet just such a demand. Our consumers had been asking for a liner that looks better longer. [They wanted a liner that would stand] up better to the chemicals and sun exposure that fade liner patterns and sun-rot out areas such as the corners of the pool. [In response to that demand], we created Ultra-Mayd with a completely different formulation to stand up to these elements.

Smith: As far as material choices go, we try to keep abreast of colors and designs that are fashionable. But it's still guesswork. It's a roll of the dice when you bring in new colors or patterns. Once you have it on the floor, it's yours, and you hope consumers will like it. You can't effectively test-market, and there is no amount of salt and pepper that will assist in digesting un-sold raw materials.