Lately we’ve been having conversations with a number of manufacturers, and some distributors, about reconnecting with customers and better understanding their markets. Why? In an effort to either affect demand creation; to promote their brand; and to support new product development. One […]
You’ve probably heard, ad nauseum, that the lighting arena, also portrayed as energy efficiency, is one of the few bright spots in the electrical industry. And yes, it is and is expected to be one of the strongest, if not […]
We apologize for not having written in the past week and a half, however, client travel sometimes creates timing issues (and you probably don’t want me writing real late at night!) But was listening to CNBC this afternoon. They had […]
While we know the construction market is down, here’s more confirmation that distributors that are heavily skewed to construction markets are having a hard time. The last two days have reinforced the residential market troubles. New Housing starts down 12.4% […]
Confused and widely divergent by market segment, geographically and by distributor size. Not the answer you were expecting, but sorry, averages can be deceiving. First the averages as reported by electrical distributors and electrical manufacturers on our first half sales […]
It’s been a busy two weeks but we haven’t forgotten our ET friends. We’re working on a couple of “juicy” postings for the next couple of weeks but wanted to share some online insights that we’ve been tracking. Companies mentioned in […]
Many electrical distributors promote that they are “full service” electrical distributors, inferring that they offer a range of electrical products. Many successful distributors have expanded the definition of “full service” to mean: they sell electrical products that are applicable for […]
Over the past couple of weeks Eaton has made a couple of moves that should be of interest to electrical distributors. One was M&A oriented, the other was a marketing strategy to support one of their customers / channels. Both […]
As many know, lighting represents 25-30% of a distributor’s sales. Lighting is typically defined as lamps, ballast, and fixtures (and some people add in lighting controls). It is an important part of a distributor’s business albeit lighting projects are frequently low […]
When you see this ad, what do you think? Grainger and GE Lighting ran this ad in the March issue of Purchasing. Some things to ponder … What are you doing to reach your end-customer (the one who writes the check […]
