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Perfect Path Says It’s on the Growth Path at CE Week

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CE Week logoAs we walked the halls of CE Week, we kept running into old friends and well-known industry personalities. We met both at once when we ran into Eric Bodley of  PPC/Perfect Path who was at the show to support various partners of the company. PPC was recently purchased by cable giant Belden, Inc. and we’ve been anxiously awaiting more details on how this consolidation would be implemented.

Bodley wasn’t in a position to comment on that quite yet, but we took advantage of the meeting to ask him about a couple of other recent issues.

See Bodley’s comments on competition heating up & the Belden/PPC connection… [Read more…] about Perfect Path Says It’s on the Growth Path at CE Week

Sharp Says: This is Our Sharpest Set Yet

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Sharp LogoThe next phase of the TV wars has begun in earnest now in the wake of Sharp’s (and Toshiba’s) CE Week Day 1 roll-out of 4K Ultra HD television. In a presentation full of bluster and gusto, Sharp threw down the gauntlet with its 70-inch, top of the line Aquos UHDTV selling for a cool $8,000.

Learn more about this flagship set below – and see what Sharp’s VP told us about which retailers will participate in the rapidly approaching roll-out for this new technology.

Is Sharp’s 4K sharp enough?… [Read more…] about Sharp Says: This is Our Sharpest Set Yet

New Survey Verifies Your Suspicion: Retailers Stop Buying from Brands that Sell Direct

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Cover of Retailer Survey ResultsResults from a new survey released today verify what you may already know – or at least suspected – retailers will either stop or dramatically cut back on purchases from brands that choose to compete with them by selling directly to consumers on the Internet. And a lot of retailers feel this way…71% said they would stop or reduce spending with brands that chose to do so.

See more about this survey, including other interesting retailer insights… [Read more…] about New Survey Verifies Your Suspicion: Retailers Stop Buying from Brands that Sell Direct

Gibson and Onkyo Go Wireless

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WiSA logoThe Wireless Speaker and Audio Association (WiSA) announced on Tuesday that it has signed up several new members and a couple caught our eye – Gibson Guitar Corp. (now Gibson Brands) and Onkyo Corporation. Also joining the organization are loudspeaker manufacturer Dali and Australian distributor Amber Technology who markets a line of speakers called Accent Digital.

Who is the WiSA and why would Onkyo and Gibson join? See more below… [Read more…] about Gibson and Onkyo Go Wireless

Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater

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Photo of baby in bathtub.As a marketing strategist, I am often asked to help clients come up with promotional ideas. Consumer electronics can be a very promotion-driven business, so this is a common task for tech marketers. There are no “hard and fast” rules and often I will brainstorm with the client, his/her team, or outside contractors I often work with.

But no matter what kind of idea we come up with, I try very hard to avoid something that is a bit of a common practice in the technology business – promotions that “throw the baby out with the bathwater!”

What does this mean? See an example of how marketers throw the baby out with the bathwater… [Read more…] about Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater

ESPN Will Stop All 3D Productions

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ESPN 3D logoIn a move that technology blogger Gizmodo says marks the official death of 3D, it has learned that sports network ESPN will cease all 3D productions by the end of this year. ESPN 3D, which started in 2010 on largely a test basis, never really got off the ground – and as Gizmodo wryly noted, “won’t be broadcast in any dimension soon.”

See more on what Gizmodo calls this “huge news”… [Read more…] about ESPN Will Stop All 3D Productions

Gibson Guitar Announces Name Change

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Gibson_Bus_Fleet-1Gibson Guitar announced on Tuesday that – in a bid to better reflect its growing family of products outside of the guitar category – it will be changing its corporate name from Gibson Guitar Corp. to Gibson Brands. While the move looks logical, there will likely be many who will bemoan the fact that the new name loses its ability to honor the company’s stringed-instrument heritage and still-important namesake product.

See more on why the company says this is the right move… [Read more…] about Gibson Guitar Announces Name Change

ProSource Holds E-Commerce Training for Members in Chicago

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ProSource LogoPerhaps another sign of the times, ProSource – the retail buying group that represents the combination of both Home Entertainment Source (HES) and PRO Group – held a meeting earlier this month centered on the topic of e-commerce. These meetings, held June 3-4 in Chicago, were to share trends and best practices in e-commerce for their members.

See more on this news from ProSource… [Read more…] about ProSource Holds E-Commerce Training for Members in Chicago

Core Brands Completes Downsizing of National Sales Force

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BREAKING NEWS

Nortek's Core Brands LogoStrata-gee.com heard this week from multiple sources that Core Brands had completed the analysis phase of its sales force consolidation, and was now executing the termination of the losing reps – and the reassigning of brands to the winning reps. Core Brands, a division of Nortek, Inc., had announced the downsizing process in a conference call with their entire sale representative network on April 19th – laying out a process for which the desired result was to create a smaller network of fewer authorized sales representative companies presenting most, if not all, of the company’s ten brands.

But there is some question as to how successful the process was, given continuing multi-rep territories… [Read more…] about Core Brands Completes Downsizing of National Sales Force

To Skeptical Crowd, Apple’s Tim Cook Promises ‘Game Changers’ are Coming

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Apple, Inc. LogoWall Street analysts are getting increasingly concerned about the ability of Apple, Inc. to sustain its historic run of innovation. Some are suggesting the company’s best days may in fact be behind it. Exacerbating the growing drumbeat of discontent…it has been eight months – since October 2012 – when Apple last announced new products. And even they were more iterative than innovative. Clearly feeling the pressure, over the last couple of months Apple CEO Tim Cook has told anyone who was willing to listen to hang on, great things are coming.

Are ‘game changers’ really coming? Or is the innovation just a figment of Cook’s imagination?… [Read more…] about To Skeptical Crowd, Apple’s Tim Cook Promises ‘Game Changers’ are Coming