Strategy in TECH...
The Custom Electronics Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) announced today that its Size and Scope Survey is now open for participation by residential systems installation pros. This survey, one of the largest the trade association conducts every year, collects data from participants to provide market level information that is then made available to members to assist them in planning their business.
LG Electronics announced this week that it has devised a plan to dramatically pick up the rate of sale of OLED TVs. In fact, the company says they’ll triple the unit sales of sets based on the technology to more than 900,000 units in 2016 – a goal they’ve already begun to deliver on.
Legrand announced this week that it is launching a cash rebate program for installers on 17 recently launched Nuvo speaker products. This sales incentive program is being offered both to dealers who buy Nuvo direct, and those who purchase Nuvo products through distributors.
We’ve recently learned about a program at McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., in which the company approached select prominent individuals, such as famous musicians or other celebrities, and provided them with McIntosh products directly, without the involvement of its dealers. The program, according to sources, was launched by Linda Passaro, a former Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing for McIntosh when it was part of D&M Holdings. Passaro was terminated in November 2011 by President Charlie Randall, but the program apparently remained in force for some time.
You don’t have to hire an expensive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert to make a meaningful improvement in your website’s ranking on a search engine results page. See the cover story in this month’s issue of Residential Systems Magazine by Ted Green on the five simple steps you can take that will propel your website to the top of the Google (or Bing, or Yahoo, or Ask) results page.
We have learned through multiple sources that McIntosh Labs, the high-end American brand that was thrust into the limelight recently when it came to light that the company was authorizing internet sales of its specialty brand, has experienced a bit of a management shake-up. Specifically, two top executives have resigned their positions at the company in just the last few days.
A long and proud tradition in our industry is the narrative of the individual sales rep or distributor salesperson schlepping through wind and snow to meet with one of their dealers lugging product samples and marketing materials, pitching his lines, getting a purchase order from the dealer, calling the order into his manufacturers and thus earning a sales commission. But data from Forrester Research, Inc. released last year shows that this tradition is rapidly diminishing, with market trends projecting the elimination of as many as 1 million B2B sales jobs – like those held by sales reps and distributor salespeople – by 2020.
After receiving several urgent communications from multiple sources, Strata-gee.com has confirmed that Crestron Electronics – for years the single largest exhibitor at CEDIA’s Expo – has informed the trade association that it will not participate in the upcoming 2016 event. Crestron, a long supporter of both CEDIA and the Expo, has always maintained a huge presence, with an upfront positioning right at the entry, thanks to the many priority points it has earned over the years. Now, CEDIA is fast at work finding a replacement.
TiO, the home automation division of Anuva Automation, announced this week several interesting moves, including a price drop, a new Home Starter Kit, and program changes for both distributors and dealers. The combination of these moves makes the innovative wired and wireless home automation and multi-room entertainment system easier to buy…and easier to sell.
Emotiva Audio Corporation is one of those ideas whose core elements initially seemed incongruous – high-end products…sold on the Internet? When we learned of their launch 12-years ago, we predicted doom and damnation. After all, high-end audio, we posited, was as much about the experience -the audition – as it is about the product. Founder Dan Laufman proved us wrong. This week, Laufman caught our attention again when we recently received information about an impressive roster of new models to be launched at CES.
