Nationwide Marketing Group president/director Ed Kelly sat down with TWICE during PrimeTime! to discuss a host of hot-button topics:
On the majap business: “The replacement market has accelerated along with the boom in housing and new construction. The baby boomers today aren’t waiting to replace old or broken appliances — they’re upgrading to better ones. Just look at today’s kitchens: 50 percent of them are stainless steel.”
On the Whirlpool-Maytag merger: “It feels like it’s going to happen and we’re excited about it. We hope it goes through. Maytag can bring a lot of strength to Whirlpool, and together they can better fight the competition from off-shore manufacturers and the foreign governments behind them. It’s good to keep the products here.”
On buying group changes: “MARTA couldn’t play on a powerful base. The smaller groups will struggle to supply their members with services. We became the dominant player by providing training programs and advertising. Now we’re offering high-definition commercials to all our dealers that integrate dealers’ names seamlessly because branding is more than a big umbrella, it’s an individual thing.”
