2018 may go down as the year of tariffs. Earlier in the year tariffs were implemented on steel and aluminum. In July the first round of tariffs targeting Chinese products found its way into the industry while there have been […]
That’s one of the questions we’ve had a number of distributors, and some manufacturers, ask this week “What’s the story / what have you heard about this story regarding Schneider, Legrand, Rexel and Sonepar coming out of France?” and the […]
Corporate success, for many, is typically defined as sales success as sales revenue is an easily identifiable, and discussed / shared, metric. But in a quest to grow sales, and due to competitive pressures, gross margins for many distributors have […]
Every year hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested / spent by manufacturers to solicit preference from distributors. In fact, about 10 years ago we estimated over $500M was spent in rebate funding. (Today we estimate over $1 billion!) […]
Grainger shared its 2018 Q2 performance earlier this week and, given their industrial MRO focus, highlighted continued strength in this customer segment. And while they are not focused in the electrical space, they are about a $1B electrical player as […]
Last week NAED held its Western Regional conference in Phoenix. While unfortunately I couldn’t attend due to previously scheduled client commitments outside the Western Region, we had a number of distributors and manufacturers share feedback and then others ask if we […]
Recent news of Prysmian winning the General Cable sweepstakes brings a close to the auction of the business that was started this summer as both have benefited from higher copper prices … and hopefully that helped General Cable optimize its […]
Earnings season continued and since we’ve covered lighting, switchgear but only a couple of infrastructure companies, we thought we’d touch on a few more: ABB (T&B) From the earnings call with a focus on ABB Electrification, T&B and the US […]
The essence of “channel marketing” infers that members within a channel (manufacturer, rep and distributor) are working together to market products, services and applications to generate demand from customers. The term doesn’t infer whom funds the initiative but frequently there […]
Much has been researched, written and talked about the emergence of alternate (alt) channels. Amazon Business is regularly mentioned and Grainger’s eCommerce initiatives are lauded. Now comes Zoro Tools, which many may recall Grainger purchased and has been promoting here […]
David Gordon
Channel Marketing Group
919-488-8635
