Now that the dust has settled, press releases have been issued and frantic calls have been made seeking information, the question becomes, what does the decision by IDEA and Trade Service mean to everyday operations and the industry “vision” of […]
According to an email we just received from NAED, confirmed by press releases on Trade Service’s website and IDEA’s website, the two companies are moving on from their 10 year agreements. Click the links above to see the press releases […]
News reports that offers for GE’s Appliances’ group weren’t high enough and that the company is now looking at spinning off GE’s appliances, lighting and industrial groups could create interesting opportunities for a new entity, presuming it has the financial […]
Lutron, Leviton, Philips, the hardware industry and North Dakota were in recent articles we’ve read. Below are the items of interest: “Lutron says dimmed halogen bulbs are better than compact fluorescents ” was the headline on www.dvice.com. The article goes […]
A recent article in Forbes posed this question, “What happens when you don’t build more power plants?” and we’ll add “and the future of the automotive industry is electric cars”. Combine the two, plus the fact that electricity usage is […]
With commodity pricing soaring, many manufacturers are pushing price increases down to distributors who are scrambling to enter the information into their systems to update costs and then pass them on to their customers where ever they can. Sometimes they […]
Last week we interviewed a number of distributors in preparation for an operationally-oriented article we are writing based upon feedback we received in our Channel Challenges survey. The article will focus on at least three operational issues – data synchronization, […]
Historically distribution marketing has revolved around promotions and events (some with training). Other elements of marketing such as strategy development, customer and competitive research, satisfaction initiatives, direct marketing and brand development, to name a few, have been neglected. And in […]
Earlier this year we conducted a survey entitled “Channel Challenges” where we solicited input on the challenges that persist between manufacturers, distributors and reps. We’ve recently written a couple of articles on some of the challenges. An upcoming article will […]
Welcome to the unofficial start of summer and to the official start of $4/gallon gas! Over the past month we conducted a survey asking distributors how they are addressing this rising cost which threatens many distributors’ bottom lines. Over 250 […]
