Nationwide Planning Full Promo Calendar For Majaps

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 3/22/2010

LAS VEGAS — Encouraged by the consumer response to its Black Friday promotions, Nationwide Marketing Group (NMG) has laid in a full calendar of major appliance sales events through the end of the year.

The promotions, provided jointly by the buying group and manufacturers, were designed to stimulate sales and help Nationwide’s independent dealers counter aggressive discounting by national chains.

“Our strategy is aligned to holiday events,” said Adam Thomas, Nationwide’s appliance merchandising senior VP. “We will provide extraordinary value to drive unusual consumer behavior during narrow windows of time. Holidays like Memor ial Day and the Fourth of July will be as big as Black Friday.”

Thomas acknowledged that margins would be squeezed during the special sales events, but he said the group is “working very closely with manufacturers for offsets, and we’re comfortable that we can provide resources so that margins don’t get impacted as badly.”

The promotions will help dealers compete with publicly held big-box chains like Lowe’s, The Home Depot, Sears and Best Buy, which “need to drive top-line revenue velocity with big-ticket items,” he told TWICE during Nationwide’s PrimeTime! buying show and convention here earlier this month.

Nationwide members are also enjoying a lift from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) state-based appliance stimulus program, which kicks into high gear this month and next. Local dealers are experienced at navigating the maze of vendor, utility and DOE discounts, Thomas said, and can outexecute national chains that must juggle 50 different sets of rules and timetables.

“The program is very fragmented,” he noted. “Lowe’s, for example, said it didn’t see a big upside from the stimulus, but the results for us have been good. Our guys are synonymous with Energy Star [see story, this page], and they’re getting a fantastic response from midnight events. Our guys are winning this thing.”