Earlier this week, I relayed a true story about how an electrical contractor, distributor, manufacturer’s rep and manufacturer, while replacing product, completely fumbled the ball and missed an opportunity to reinforce the value of Brand Name products and Customer service. […]
In today’s market conditions the power of Customer Service is often overlooked. It is a trend that is a sign of the times. Everyone is busy trying to survive or claw back into their market. Many say it’s a time […]
While interviewing electrical contractors and distributors for our 2010 Contractor Insight Research Report (just released), we came across a few changes in attitude that might be of interest to manufacturers and distributors. Generally speaking most contractors a few years ago […]
Most everyone in the electrical distribution channel understands that residential sales have fallen through the floor or are in the ditch. To understand currently what is happening, Allen Ray Associates started an“Informal” phone survey to 27 distributors (at this […]
On November 9th we posted some thoughts entitled “Taking Advantage of a Downturn” where we quoted some research that proved that investing in sales and marketing during a downturn can enable a compaany to take share and grow their business. […]
Cleaning out the office and the newsletters we receive and wanted to share some observations: Tedmag.com and Bill Attardi’s EnergyWatch alluded to Philips changing the name of Advance Transformer to Philips Lighting Electronics. We asked a couple of distributors about […]
Last week there was a little reported story that mentioned that Haier, a Chinese appliance company, and Blackstone, a private equity firm that the Chinese government made a 10% investment in last year, were considering/bidding for GE Appliances, which includes […]
For distributors who seek to position themselves as information providers and manufacturers who recognize that contractors and end-users are more frequently turning to websites for more comprehensive information, company websites are becoming more important and more robust. The challenge, unfortunately, […]
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 […]
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 […]
