Exhibition report: what buyers asked that the catalogue did not answer

Company · 2026-06-30

Two days of conversations produced a list of questions that a product catalogue structurally cannot answer — and the pattern behind them.

The question that appeared most

Not price, and not specifications. The most frequent question was about what happens to a product after something goes wrong in a market where the buyer is not present: who supplies the part, how long does it take, and what does the buyer have to hold to be able to answer a customer.

It is a distribution question, not a product question, which is why it is rarely answered by a product catalogue. It belongs in a spare-parts programme and a service path.

Second place: certification route

Buyers from markets with more than one acceptable compliance route asked which route we would recommend and why. The honest answer is that it depends on their channel, their existing registrations and their volume — and that a route which is correct for one buyer is waste for the next.

The useful part of that conversation was not the answer. It was confirming that buyers want the requirement list early, before tooling, so they can see what the programme will cost in time as well as money.

What we changed as a result

The compliance list moved earlier in our own sequence, and the spare-parts page was expanded from a catalogue list into a programme description. Both changes came from what buyers asked rather than from what we assumed they needed.

Where this sits in more detail

The reference pages behind this note, and the models it applies to.

Models this note applies to

Coffee Makers

Primary line. Parts-intensive, so the spares plan is designed with the product.

Pizza Makers

Primary line. Countertop heat appliance, pairs with the grill range in one programme.

Grills & Baking

Primary line. Seasonal shape, pairs with pizza makers and air fryers.

More notes

• Why a platform structure lowers the cost of your second SKU2026-10-02Multi-model programmes are usually justified by volume discount. The stronger argument is that models sharing a platform share tooling, fixtures, test jigs and inspection points.
• Decide the destination market before the specification is frozen2026-09-18Six things change as soon as the destination country is fixed — voltage, plug, test scope, marks, labelling and importer identity. Most of them are expensive to change afterwards.
• Usable capacity versus total capacity: the cheapest return-rate fix available2026-08-27The most-cited reason for returns in the air fryer category is a specification wording problem rather than a product problem.
• Spare parts: a design decision, not an after-sales task2026-07-14A replacement-part list defined during design costs almost nothing. The same list assembled from field failures costs more and covers less.
• Lead time is a design decision more than a factory fact2026-05-21The number of distinct platforms in a range moves delivery time more than the number of machines on the floor does.