Buying Power: Buying Groups End Summer With a Bang

The end of the summer saw a flurry of activity from two buying groups—Nationwide Marketing Group and BrandSource—as they hosted their biannual dealer and vendor partner conventions. You can find full reports and slideshows from all buying group events, as they happen, at Dealerscope.com. Here are some of the highlights of the last two.

At its PrimeTime event in Orlando, Fla., Nationwide pressed its dealers with a focus on appliance sales to target Sears as its primary competitor.?"We declared a common enemy...and the common enemy in our world is going to be Sears," said Adam Thomas, Nationwide's senior vice president of appliance marketing. "We're going to do everything in our power to attract the consumer to help our members take the share they need to survive."?The call-to-arms represents a slight shift in strategy for many Nationwide members. During the last several years, Thomas said, Nationwide appliance dealers focused on competing against The Home Depot and Lowe's because many people thought Sears would go out of business.?"They're not going to go away," Thomas said. "Sears has taken a point or so of share in the last year, and that's gigantic for the biggest guy to take a bit of share back." ?Nationwide encouraged its members to upgrade their stores to highlight the latest and greatest products, increase their use of MemberNet TV digital signage systems for in-store education, marketing and merchandising, and, of course, offer the best value possible.

Out on the show floor, Nationwide's appliance dealers got the first glimpse of Maytag's new Fresh Hold Option with Dynamic Venting Technology, a feature that helps prevent clothes that sit in a damp washing machine from smelling like mildew.