Ask me about Lava Lite. Top 5 unanswered questions go to Lava Lite for answers

[Autumn]

As do most of my good ideas, this one came to me after waking up in the morning. As most of you know I have been talking with Dale, the CEO of Lava Lite in an attempt to bring the collecting community and Lava Lite on to the same page. I am going to be answering questions about Lava Lite today. Anything I don't know the answer to I will put on a list and the top 5 questions will be presented to Lava Lite.

Ready? Go!

~edit~

Here are the top 5 questions and answers.

The top 5 unanswered questions.

#1. Formula, formula, formula. Will the exact formula from the 90's be used? What exactly is going on, and what happened to make things so bad?

#2. Will new lamp designs be more bold? The past 10 years worth of lamp designs have been bland, can we spice it up a bit?

#3. New base finishes in 32/52oz lamps? Copper? Chrome? (Personal note: I'd love chrome)

#4. New grande colors? We want more color options

#5. This will be my question. You mentioned that small batches will be possible when production starts in the USA factory. Will it be possible to request custom lamps, as well as send in globes for refills on lamps such as the consorts and giants?

"

#1. 

This is the big question. This was our big question and our problem to solve.

The formula was not the problem. Not following the procedure is where the problems have existed. The formula is the exact formula used in the 1990's. The process of making the formula has to be followed precisely every time.The proper heating of the wax/formula to an exact temperature is a long slow process. This is followed by a slow cool down. Every time, every batch.The problems occur when heating too quickly/and or cooled too quickly. Our two key people spent weeks at a time supervising the process. We also have an independent engineer/quality person in China. This was incredibly frustrating on our end initially. It was very simple to us.  "Just follow the formula." The real issue proved to be the process was being rushed. Less Time= Less Labor. Factories can do many things to their cut costs. Not many products exist where the end user can detect any change in quality. Our product quality is totally visible. Our team communicates with our factories every night by Skype. When they aren't present they are watching the manufacturing on Skype. We watch them like a hawk. 

#2. 

You will see many new designs and products that I would consider bold. The Clearview is the first of many being released this year. The process of creating products is painstaking and costly. From concept to release takes roughly a year. Next years design work has already begun. Having a constant flow of new interesting and exciting products are critical to our success. 

Questions #3-#5 are all good questions that primarily relate to marketing and product development, now and in the future. 

New attractive products are the lifeblood of any good consumer product company. New sizes, finishes and colors are currently in the works or in development. My personal favorite size is the Grande. The Grande could be the ideal product to initially manufacture in the USA for the following reasons: Ability to be nimble to changes, smaller batch sizes, ease of adding new colors, inventory management, upscaled finishes with smaller limited quantities and reduced lead times for products to enter the market. Initially US made product will be more costly. The larger sizes are not as price sensitive as our current line. Custom lamps would be very costly and probably not feasible.

Refilling globes would be possible and would need to be further explored. I can't provide specific timing to many of LL's current projects. These are works in progress. I assure you that our very experienced team are pros at handling any challenge. There is never a dull moment at LL. 

"

[Justin]

its not ONLY to vent, also to get answers and discuss product quality.

[Jim]

Justin - you need to read the whole thread.  This thread started off as a way for us to ask the CEO ANY question we wanted regarding Lava Lite via Autumn.  From Autumn:

As do most of my good ideas, this one came to me after waking up in the morning. As most of you know I have been talking with Dale, the CEO of Lava Lite in an attempt to bring the collecting community and Lava Lite on to the same page. I am going to be answering questions about Lava Lite today. Anything I don't know the answer to I will put on a list and the top 5 questions will be presented to Lava Lite.

The results of the poll.  From Autumn:

The top 5 unanswered questions.

#1. Formula, formula, formula. Will the exact formula from the 90's be used? What exactly is going on, and what happened to make things so bad?

#2. Will new lamp designs be more bold? The past 10 years worth of lamp designs have been bland, can we spice it up a bit?

#3. New base finishes in 32/52oz lamps? Copper? Chrome? (Personal note: I'd love chrome)

#4. New grande colors? We want more color options

#5. This will be my question. You mentioned that small batches will be possible when production starts in the USA factory. Will it be possible to request custom lamps, as well as send in globes for refills on lamps such as the consorts and giants?

That being said, do understand that this thread is not strictly about quality issues.  Its going to run the gamut according to the top five questions posted above.  If you have comments to make about quality, find a post related to question #1 and try to redirect the discussion back there.  That question is answered and there is a lot of feedback at the start of page 3; review those and add your feedback.  Don't try to stifle discussion on new innovations as some of us had questions regarding that and it is in line with what this thread is about.  Please read the ENTIRE thread.

Justin said:

its not ONLY to vent, also to get answers and discuss product quality.

[Autumn]

And finally the last 3 answers.

"

#3. New base finishes in 32/52oz lamps? Copper? Chrome? 

#4. New grande colors? We want more color options

#5. This will be my question. You mentioned that small batches will be possible when production starts in the USA factory. Will it be possible to request custom lamps, as well as send in globes for refills on lamps such as the consorts and giants?

Questions #3-#5 are all good questions that primarily relate to marketing and product development, now and in the future. 

New attractive products are the lifeblood of any good consumer product company. New sizes, finishes and colors are currently in the works or in development. My personal favorite size is the Grande. The Grande could be the ideal product to initially manufacture in the USA for the following reasons: Ability to be nimble to changes, smaller batch sizes, ease of adding new colors, inventory management, upscaled finishes with smaller limited quantities and reduced lead times for products to enter the market. Initially US made product will be more costly. The larger sizes are not as price sensitive as our current line. Custom lamps would be very costly and probably not feasible.

Refilling globes would be possible and would need to be further explored. I can't provide specific timing to many of LL's current projects. These are works in progress. I assure you that our very experienced team are pros at handling any challenge. There is never a dull moment at LL. 

"

So there you have it.

Discuss!

[Steven]

I'm looking forward to what I'm hearing thus far. So far I can only describe myself as being teased by these flashy color combos that are limited to the 20oz lamps and smaller. Awesome colors yet too small to enjoy. But if good things are coming then I'll be waiting.

[kiramarie]

20 oz lamps are a waste..

Steven said:

I'm looking forward to what I'm hearing thus far. So far I can only describe myself as being teased by these flashy color combos that are limited to the 20oz lamps and smaller. Awesome colors yet too small to enjoy. But if good things are coming then I'll be waiting.

[Autumn]

The only reason 20oz lamps are made is because that is what their big customers forced them in to making. If walmart says it wants $20 lamps Lava Lite has to find a way to make that happen otherwise walmart won't carry their products.


kiramarie said:

20 oz lamps are a waste..

Steven said:

I'm looking forward to what I'm hearing thus far. So far I can only describe myself as being teased by these flashy color combos that are limited to the 20oz lamps and smaller. Awesome colors yet too small to enjoy. But if good things are coming then I'll be waiting.

[Dr. WHAT?!]

I do know that every time I do go to Walmart, I either dont see any lava lamps at all or they are have one or two of the standard 20oz yellow/blue, nothing I see that would fly off the shelves. So its weird that they would be concerned with what Walmart wants. But again Walmart is a huge company and there's a lot stores throughout the country so what looks like very little at some select stores, is most likely much bigger as whole. If these little lamps bring us bigger and cooler exclusive lava then so be it, sell your 20 ozers lol!

As for the new colors etc. All I ask from LL is that if they do decided to release new colors or exclusive lamps that they make more them available to customers. For example, and I'm still looking for one, but last year they released a red/white 52 oz at select Spencer stores. I went to 3 different stores to look for this lamp and not one had them in stock. I even asked Stephanie if she could get me one and she couldn't because there are no where to be found. Its a major bummer really..... Why can't they jsut sell every new lamp they make on their online store instead of relying on Spencers to do it for them?

[Erin]

Shawn, I agree. Different stores sold different things and there seemed to be no consistency as to who sold what, how long it  was sold, etc. Their website didn't sell things I could find on other stores online. Their product line has been very confusing. You know where the best selection could be found if you wanted new Lava Lite lamps? eBay. LOL 

Also, Shawn, Mike (BlindFaith) has that lamp to sell if you want one. 

James - I wholeheartedly agree: It SHOULD be Wal-Mart who wants to sell their products, not the other way around. I'm tired of Wal-Mart dictating to vendors like that! Wal-Mart is part of a larger problem though. 

[Autumn]

There are about 3,800 Walmarts, and 1,800 Targets. They want the 20oz lamps.  If each store sells 2 lamps a week that is 11,200 a week, 44,800 a month, 537,600 a year. And that is only for 2 lamps a week. If they made $2 net profit each lamp thats $1,075,200 a year in profits. Of course these numbers are 100% made up except for the number of stores, but you can see why they accommodate Walmart. Walmart wouldn't even flinch of they were to drop Lava Lite, but for Lava Lite it would be a huge hit. When you look at it with the right perspective it is common sense. 

Erin said:

Shawn, I agree. Different stores sold different things and there seemed to be no consistency as to who sold what, how long it  was sold, etc. Their website didn't sell things I could find on other stores online. Their product line has been very confusing. You know where the best selection could be found if you wanted new Lava Lite lamps? eBay. LOL 

Also, Shawn, Mike (BlindFaith) has that lamp to sell if you want one. 

James - I wholeheartedly agree: It SHOULD be Wal-Mart who wants to sell their products, not the other way around. I'm tired of Wal-Mart dictating to vendors like that! Wal-Mart is part of a larger problem though. 

[Gwen Williams]

Let us not also forget about the Menards, Home Depot, Lowes and other regional stores that sell the 20oz lamps hand over fist, esp during the holiday season

Autumn said:

There are 3,800 Walmarts, and 1,800 Targets. They want the 20oz lamps.  If each store sells 2 lamps a week that is 11,200 a week, 44,800 a month, 537,600 a year. And that is only for 2 lamps a week. If they made $2 net profit each lamp thats $1,075,200 a year in profits. Of course these numbers are 100% made up except for the number of stores, but you can see why they accommodate Walmart. Walmart wouldn't even flinch of they were to drop Lava Lite, but for Lava Lite it would be a huge hit. When you look at it with the right perspective it is common sense. 

Erin said:

Shawn, I agree. Different stores sold different things and there seemed to be no consistency as to who sold what, how long it  was sold, etc. Their website didn't sell things I could find on other stores online. Their product line has been very confusing. You know where the best selection could be found if you wanted new Lava Lite lamps? eBay. LOL 

Also, Shawn, Mike (BlindFaith) has that lamp to sell if you want one. 

James - I wholeheartedly agree: It SHOULD be Wal-Mart who wants to sell their products, not the other way around. I'm tired of Wal-Mart dictating to vendors like that! Wal-Mart is part of a larger problem though. 

[Steven]

I understand there's a large selection of 20oz lamps but and Spencers and the other companys order their own custom colors. If you log on to the LL website thats pretty much all you see and that's been the case for quite some time. So we can't exactly say that the reason why we see so much is because of walmart and the other buisnesses. In my personal opinion it seems that there was a point where the creativity and investment in the larger lamps were ignored.

[Tim Gill]

Thats a very good point - the investment in the larger lamps has been ignored and it got steadily worse when LL moved to china. - They dropped a lot of colour and base options on the larger lamps, stopped the colossus, didn't really make much in the way of the star-ships (I don't know if this line was dropped when moved to china).

To replace this they have made a lot more cheaper options such as the 20 - 8ozers as well as the glitter designs. We don't know how much of this is down to presher from other companies or just LL wanting to make a quick buck. I am sure that the buying power of Walmart, Target etc had something to do with it.

Unfortunatly if you sell to big retailers then you almost have to obey to them as they are your biggest customer and seller. Yes LL can go away from big shops and get people to buy from them directly and approved Spencers shops, but this risks losing money and alienateing them selves (similar to how Mathmos is becoming).

I personally think that although I wouldn't like LL to be dictated by places like Walmart and for them not to sell there if this is going to help them and get things back in shape then fair enough and if they end up selling decent USA lamps there then this could mean that people who would ushlie buy trash lamps as there was no real choice can now have a proper lamp - its the best win win you can get in this situation when dealing with big corporations.

Steven said:

I understand there's a large selection of 20oz lamps but and Spencers and the other companys order their own custom colors. If you log on to the LL website thats pretty much all you see and that's been the case for quite some time. So we can't exactly say that the reason why we see so much is because of walmart and the other buisnesses. In my personal opinion it seems that there was a point where the creativity and investment in the larger lamps were ignored.