Over the past few months as we\'ve sat in strategy development meetings with distributors, reviewed distributor purchasing information and talked to manufacturer reps and contractors we\'ve seen a purchasing trend that is roiling the industry. The trend, which mirrors what is happening in lighting with \"unfamiliar brands\" is accelerated growth, and acceptance, of less … [Read more...] about What\’s the Value of a Manufacturer’s Brand?
Growth Strategies
Grainger Turning a Corner?
Continuing our Q3 earnings observations, next up is Grainger which is a traditionally a good barometer for the industrial MRO space and lately has been a case study in value proposition, price and fear of Amazon Business. From the earnings call and their slides: Overall \"a solid quarter and there were some positive signs\". Seeing growth coming from their price reduction … [Read more...] about Grainger Turning a Corner?
Acquisitions – Pieces of a Puzzle …Border States and Womack
Monday marked the day that Amazon closed on its Whole Foods acquisition and that Border States closed on its Kriz Davis acquisition. Both provided the acquirer strategic opportunities to increase their footprint and become pieces of a puzzle to become national. As many recall, last month Border States announced it was going to acquire the $200M Kriz Davis business while … [Read more...] about Acquisitions – Pieces of a Puzzle …Border States and Womack
2018 Planning Countdown
Electrical industry tradeshows start in 4 weeks with AD\'s North American Meeting, quickly followed by the IMARK Annual Meeting and the NAED Eastern, and not counting national meetings for national chains. And with the meetings comes talk regarding 2018 joint planning. In fact, Electrical Wholesaling\'s August issue was titled \"Marketing Planning.\" The 2018 planning season … [Read more...] about 2018 Planning Countdown
Home Depot Q2 – Pro Insights
Home Depot shared its Q2 results yesterday and, while the company continues to perform well as indicated with over $28B in sales, its Pro business, defined as contractors and its Interline business, outperformed the core business. NAED\'s TED Magazine, through its re-publishing relationship with The Associated Press, shared a credible overview of the company\'s financial … [Read more...] about Home Depot Q2 – Pro Insights
Distributors Need to Evolve from Being Product Companies
Distributors traditionally fought for market share via relationship, service and price. The company with the best people, best service and competitive pricing that could provide their customers with access to credit typically won more business in a market. Since a customer couldn\'t buy everything from one company (due to product lines or credit reasons), they shared business … [Read more...] about Distributors Need to Evolve from Being Product Companies
Service Agreements / Extended Warranties – Revenue Generator & Potential Differentiator
Distributors have been seeking opportunities to generate, or increase, their service revenue. While traditionally a complementary service for industrially-oriented distributors, construction-oriented distributors are also seeing opportunities. Some distributors have defined revenue goals, others look at this opportunistically (or give the service away to capture the product … [Read more...] about Service Agreements / Extended Warranties – Revenue Generator & Potential Differentiator
Channel Marketing and Funding … but for eCommerce Initiatives?
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 are co-marketing, and hence co-funding, initiatives. At times this is co-op, perhaps MDF or other … [Read more...] about Channel Marketing and Funding … but for eCommerce Initiatives?
GM Leader Drives Cultural Change, Innovation and Results
General Motors (GM) historically has been known as a \"staid\" company and the prototypical \"old boys\" company. And its had its share of \"challenges\" ranging from uninspiring design to consumers feeling there was \"built in obsolescence\"; from being extremely difficult to sell to due to its purchasing philosophy to the ultimate disaster ... being the face of the automotive … [Read more...] about GM Leader Drives Cultural Change, Innovation and Results
Innovation through Intellectual Curiosity
Much is talked about \"innovation\". It\'s a term that is loosely tossed around and requires a commitment, or perhaps a better term is \"mentality\", that is infused into individuals and a culture. It\'s a desire to \"excel\" and, perhaps more importantly, to bring idea generation to challenges and a willingness to \"do differently.\" To be \"innovative\" infers that a … [Read more...] about Innovation through Intellectual Curiosity
