By Claire Reilly
As one of the newer brands to enter into the kitchen appliance space, Schweigen is making a big marketing push in the local region, with a little help from a four-time Olympian, a MasterChef, and a new app designed to make life easier for sales staff.
Named for the German word for ‘silent’, Schweigen markets rangehoods designed to operate at ultra-quiet volumes. Equipped with a German-designed IsoDrive fan and motor assembly, the rangehoods are designed to extract cooking vapours, steam and smells quickly and efficiently from the kitchen. But unlike traditional rangehoods, the motor and fan assembly is positioned at the top of the rangehood ducting rather than at the base (near the cooktop), meaning noise is greatly reduced.
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According to Schweigen Home Appliances CEO Anthony Fletcher, the brand’s rangehoods are amongst the most energy efficient on the market.
“The highly-efficient IsoDrive Motor is able to generate a lot of useable power due to being positioned outside the home, meaning that it never has to push air up, against gravity, to remove it from your kitchen,” he said. “This lets the rangehood concentrate all of its power on its primary purpose: removing large volumes of cooking steam, smoke, grease and odours from your kitchen.”
While Schweigen has big plans for the Australian market, all its focus was on New Zealand last week where it launched its product range to kitchen designers and retailers, alongside local distributors Parex Industries.
Held at the Kouzina Appliances showroom in Auckland — home to a number of other brands including Miele, Gaggenau, Sub-Zero and Vintec — the event also played host to local celebrity chef and MasterChef New Zealand judge, Simon Gault, who was on hand to demonstrate the brand’s products.
While it’s all about MasterChef in New Zealand, Schweigen also has an endorsement from four-time Australian Olympic basketballer and coach of the Sydney Kings, Shane Heal, who is acting as an ambassador for the brand. Finally, Schweigen is signed up as a gold sponsor for Kitchen & Bathroom Designers Institute of Australia (KBDi).
While the brand hopes to use these kinds of endorsements to generate buzz around the Schweigen name, it is also working to drive sales on the retail floor with a dedicated smartphone app designed to help retailers when selling the brand’s rangehoods.
Available for both iOS and Android devices, the app has an easy to navigate display of the brand’s products which retailers can use to get details on features and specifications, while also showing off the range to consumers.
About the app, Fletcher said, “I gave my guys a brief that, if I had no reps, how could sales staff on the floors sell our product? So the easiest would be if they had a phone app with all the info on it. It’s more information for retail floor staff to use.”
MasterChef New Zealand Judge Simon Gault (left) and Schweigen Home Appliances CEO Anthony Fletcher stand under one of the brand’s new rangehoods at the Kouzina Appliances showroom in Auckland. (Photograph by Jackie Meiring Photography).
To see the rangehoods in action, check out the Schweigen video below.