On beating Internet competition: Q: How do you get “lookie-loos” to purchase in-store rather than going home to buy on the Internet? A: You have to give them a reason to buy from you right now. This is something manufacturers can work on
as well. Manufacturers can come up with ways to incentivize for customers to buy immediately. It could be a mail-in rebate or a percentage rebate if they add on speakers so they are not just buying one piece. Talk about the extended service plan. That customer is coming into that shop for a reason. Everyone knows you can go online. Why is that customer in your store? They’re expecting to get a demonstration. They wonder how things work. This is the greatest opportunity for
dealers to converge on a customer who’s just as comfortable buying an appliance … and price is important of course, but retailers need to embrace what makes them special. All these things need to be on display and they need to be experts at it. Q: As a manufacturer, would you give brick-and-mortar retailers an incentive you wouldn’t give to an online
site? A: The answer is qualified yes. By yes, we would give the store something different. What takes place in stores is obviously different than what happens online. In-store it could be an installation rebate.
On future opportunities
for retailers: Q: Is there growth potential for 12-volt spe- cialists? If so, where will it come from? A: I definitely see potential for resurgence. In the U.S. — and this is of 2009, so now it’s probably more — there’s about a quarter of a billion registered passenger vehicles. And 150 million of them are nine years old or old- er. This means you have 150 million potential vehicles out there that don’t have Pandora, don’t have HD Radio, aren’t iPod compatible, don’t have Bluetooth or have all these cool technologies that we take for granted. The re- placement market is out there, it’s hiding from us in plain sight. I think specialty retailers can get their hands wrapped around the market and figure out ways to sell to them.
On consumer perception of specialists: Q: CEA’s statistics show that the consumer thinks larger retailers offer better products and have more knowledge and expertise than specialists. What does this mean for us? A: That’s not surprising. If you think about it, it ob-
viously illuminates the problem, but we talked about that. We have that enthusiast market, that we know it’s a small niche market that knows what we do, that knows what the industry’s about. Then there’s the cus- tomer who is non-savvy, but they’re not just savvy of our technology. They know about smartphones, but they’re non-enthusiasts. It’s that broader universe of consum- ers out there, that when they think of electronics, they think of Best Buy. The issue there is that specialists are not reaching the customer.
On industry awareness: Q: Do we need a nationwide, all-industry initiative or should we empower retailers to promote them- selves? A: Yes, the latter. I think we’ve proven that not only are we not incapable of a broad-based initiative, but it probably won’t work. I mean, everybody holds up the “Got Milk?” campaign to be this great initiative, and it certainly moved the meter, but it landed itself to self-parody after a while. And I’m not sure if the dairy farmers board were able to step in the tide of the soy industry. Q: Would you say it’s Kenwood’s goal to empower its dealers to promote themselves? A: That’s a very good way to put it. Yes, dealer empowerment. I think we’re all going to be learning to- gether on this. Nobody’s an expert. We’re all going to make the same mistakes over and over again, and we’ll eventually get on something that works.
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