Recently we’ve spoken and met with some manufacturers about their methods of going to market, and specifically through distribution, and more specifically about how distribution may be constraining their growth.As you can suspect, the views are wide ranging.One company, which […]
A follow-up to last week’s posting on China’s Next Growth Strategy. According to yesterday’s Wall Street Journal entitled “Unionizing Fight Focuses on 3 States” , the Employee Free Choice Act may come down to three senators … Arlen Specter of […]
Many distributors and manufacturers dove of the cliff with the commodity price run up and plunge of 2008. In addition some saw the value of their inventory balloon as well as the number of units stocked were increased. To compound […]
In the words of Electrical Marketing, “Not surprisingly, attendance is (was) down at the conference.” Overall, there were an estimated / registered 420 manufacturer and distributor attendees. About 60 distributors were represented. Observations from attendees was that cost-cutting probably was […]
And customers are asking for it, as this webinar from Purchasing magazine shows. Much is made in the industry about product attributes for data content and distributors discuss the need for content-rich data to power their e-stores as well as […]
The current economic environment is creating challenges for many distributors. The burst in commodity prices has significantly impacted distributor gross margins as they have rushed to move higher cost inventory. The financial effects of selling something for less than you […]
Sorry haven’t been able to post some thoughts for the past couple of weeks. We’ve been traveling to clients and been in the midst of helping them launch 2009 strategies and adjust operations. We’ve picked up a number of “random” […]
Metrics help you analyze your business, set goals and benchmark yourself against others. Many like to consider industry benchmarks to determine their “success”. When you look at your 2008 information, beware. While your numbers may mirror the industry (and why […]
Over the past year, IDEA has used a quote that I wrote in its advertising. The quote was in a research paper Neil Gillespie and I wrote over 3 ½ years ago (May 2005) entitled “A Valuable IDEA”. The report, […]
Last week we touched on some of the challenges that the free-fall decline of copper can have on distributors. And the issue can be just as challenging for wire manufacturers, especially since they probably had to lock in raw material […]
David Gordon
Channel Marketing Group
919-488-8635
