After much teasing a drip feeding of information about their new product offering, Brisant have officially launched their new product range called Sweet Doors.
Following on from their rampantly successful LockLock door handle, the company has taken their un-pitable formula and applied it to a number of other door hardware areas to expand their range and create a full – suite – which they hope will contribute to the end of the industry’s pitting problems.
Of course, there is much more to this than the anti-pitting aspect.
The range
The Sweet Doors hardware range now consists of:
- LockLock door handles
- Letter box
- Numerals
- Door Knocker
- Escutcheon/cylinder pulls
- Regular handles
All are made in exactly the same way as the LockLock door handle is. From a performance point of view, this is where it has the key USP. If all these other new products can withstand the salt spray testing, just as the LockLock door handle is and approaching the year mark, then home owners will finally have a full suit of door hardware products that may actually stand the test of time.
Explore the range here
Taking hints from the round design of the LockLock handle, all of the new hardware options are designed in the same way. All rounded. What this gives you is consistency across the whole range, something that is not always possible for installers, depending on who they buy their hardware from.
The designs are a radical departure from the existing array of options out there. Letter boxes, cylinder pulls and door handles have all looked very similar to each other for quite a long time. Yes there are the companies out there like From The Anvil and Traditional Window Fittings, but their markets are different to the one Sweet is taking on. Brisant are taking on the established, mass-market hardware makers, and by design and production alone they are set apart from the rest.
Right now, there are a number of stainless steel options on the market which offers an anti-pitting option, and that’s fine. But, to dispel a myth, stainless steel can indeed pit and rust. It’s not stain-proof, the clue is in the name. Yes, it offers much better protection than the standard polished stuff on the market, but it’s not 100% perfect. At the moment, Brisant’s LockLock handle remains in the salt spray booth, which provides an accelerated effect when it comes to corrosion. To my knowledge at the time of writing it remains in good condition. So, if the Sweet range, made in the same way as the LockLock handle, can perform just as well, installers would then have access to a suite of door hardware which on the face of it remains pit-proof.
Sweet marketing
If there is one thing that Nick Dutton is known for in the industry then it has to be marketing. The companies he has been involved with have always been equipped with some of the best marketing the industry has seen. Be it in print or digital form, it’s something he has always done very well. Sweet is no different.
They have a very easy to use website which explains their range perfectly. It’s not a massive site, and it’s not overloaded with text or pretty much anything a reader would find boring. It is a simple set up, that focuses on the products, images of said products, and a clear demonstration of it’s USPs and advantages. For example, you can enter your house number and it will show you in real time what your Sweet numerals look like in the available finishes. There are cool like graphics dotted about showing you how the letter box and door knocker works for example. It’s got a smooth feel, just as the LockLock and Ultion sites do, and fits in nicely with their wider product ranges.
The product is one thing, but industry competitors also should be looking at their marketing. It’s a very heavily digitised industry now, and IT makes up such a massive part of marketing. The success of Sweet will not only be down to the product, but also the power of their marketing. It will be given the same treatment that other products such as Ultion and LockLock have had in the past, so you can expect to see a lot more about it in the coming weeks and months. Personally, I’ve never seen anything in the hardware sector that markets their products as well as Brisant does.
Sweet is going to rattle the market, in more ways than one. What I’m hoping is that this becomes a catalyst for the whole of the sector to make a real push towards a far better offering for installers and home owners when it comes to door hardware.
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