As dealers and vendors gather this weekend in Orlando, Fla., for BrandSource’s annual Spring Summit & Expo, the $12 billion CE, appliance and home furnishings buying group announced a pair of new initiatives for its rent-to-own (RTO) and CE specialty members.
For the former, BrandSource has created a new dedicated marketing program for its Trib Group division that will arm members with affordable websites; point-of-purchase collateral; Google and Facebook ads; search engine optimization; social media outreach; TV production; and print and direct mail marketing.
“Trib and the RTO channel are very important to BrandSource,” noted Jim Ristow, the group’s CEO. “We wanted to make sure Trib members have all the tools necessary to make their [businesses] profitable.”
To that end, the new Trib initiative will tailor BrandSource’s marketing infrastructure and assets to the RTO marketplace, and will be spearheaded by industry veteran Kristina Smallwood, a Trib board member with a marketing and design background.
“Having the right marketing message targeted at the right audience is very important,” added Trib Group executive director Dennis Shields. “We are excited that BrandSource has taken the initiative to elevate Trib by hiring a proven rent-to-own marketing individual such as Kristina.”
In other BrandSource news, the group’s ProSource specialty A/V and integration division has launched a member services portal providing vendor purchase and rebate information; vendor programs; promotions; and new product announcements.
In addition, vendors receive a dedicated page on the new site that aggregates, rather than replicates, key information such as sales, training and marketing tools.
The portal also further compliments ProSource’s district management team and member review process, the group said.
“Our strategy is to deliver the information our members require to make informed decisions and tightly manage their [businesses],” noted ProSource president/CEO Dave Workman. “Along with our dedicated regional team we are able to engage each member on a one-on-one basis to maximize their profitability.”
Indeed, these member benefit reviews include one-on-one collaboration a ProSource district manager who can deliver a quantifiable analysis of dollars earned and opportunities to further maximize returns. The exercise goes beyond purchases and rebates, ProSource said, to show members the total profit opportunity received when engaging with vendor brands, including special pricing, terms and freight.
ProSource is the country’s largest CE specialty group for independent dealers, boasting more than 500 A/V retailers and custom integrators and annual sell-through of more than $4 billion.
BrandSource, its Tustin, Calif.-based parent, is a 100-percent member-owned merchandising group with more than $12 billion in annual retail sales, nearly 4,500 independent dealer members in the U.S. and Canada, and close to 3,000 BrandSource-branded showrooms in the U.S.
The group’s Spring Summit & Expo kicks off Sunday, Feb. 28, for a four-day-run at the Marriott Orlando World Center.
