The Eaton Electric Product

The Eaton Electric product I have chosen is the Panelmate ePro PS Touch screen. The product meets today's demand of faster processes, compact components and increased efficiency. The brand of Eaton isn't well known amongst consumers, however very well known in the manufacturing industry. The functionality of the product is said to be a "high performance and cost effective". The style of the product's aesthetics is a modern and contemporary design as shown below. Eaton's reputation is said to be higher than their competitors as judged by the quality of the products they provide. Safety of the product is well designed with curved down edges and the components inside are well placed in a firm position. The promotional strategy for this product is the technological push for the market. This in turn will draw in demand pull for the best technology available to buyers. Since Eaton is a major firm in the market, it has a relatively high market communication budget hence it has a high form of promotion strategies available to them. This way they can promote their products such as the Panelmate Touch screen easily. The packaging for this product would be appealing, however not as much as a possible consumer product. The customers that order this product already has pre-knowledge of what the product is capable of doing, so does not need. The distribution for this and other Eaton's products will be a channel of whole sales to firms. This method of delivery and production is called Right on Time; which means it is delivered on demand by the firm. The estimated retail price for this product is around $4800 (£3000). However there are bundling offers available by Eaton with purchases of other various products.

Eaton Electric is an American based company which is in the NYSE. Eaton has a number of segments including electrical, aerospace, automotive, truck and hydraulics. However, the electrical segment dominates the company's business area as 45% of its sales were in that segment in 2008. The majority amount of its sales was from the international region with 55% and the other 45% from US sales. The market structure that Eaton is in is quite weak as the C5 concentration ratio is 13%. With such a small concentration ratio, the structure is a monopolistic competition market. This means that there are relatively low barriers to entry and products are differentiated to some extent. Companies such as Schneider Electric, Siemens and ABB are the main competitors of Eaton Electric. Schneider currently holds the majority of the market share out of the 4 firms; however Eaton has been very well established in the years it has been running. Other overseas competitors can cause a larger threat to Eaton, but they are partially protected as the other firms have other policies.

Since this is a type of monopolistic competition, rivalry will be fierce in this industry.