Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM SEPTEMBER 2017 54 N ationwide Marketing Group, North America's largest buying and marketing organization for independents, kicked off an industry-first, group-exclusive promotional event in July and August to assist their thousands of member companies in taking additional market share in the sales period between Independence Day and Labor Day. The event, held July 26th through August 12th, marketed to consumers as Get the Best for Less, and leveraged the consumer benefits of shopping independent, along with top brands' exclusive promotional offers that consumers can only find at Nationwide member companies. The concept for the event took root when Nationwide identified a unique market opportunity for their members, utilizing intelligence from the group's PriMetrix consumer and market data initiative and Nationwide's proprietary confidential POS aggregating tool. Nationwide's Derek Mattila, who directs appliance merchandising for the group, shared his insights, "This marked Nationwide's largest summer event ever, and we believe the opportunity represented in this promotion was powerful for our members. We know that in the appliance industry, the business done between July 4th and Labor Day is as big as the business during those two promotional periods combined. We also realize that the traditional holiday promotional windows have become very price-driven and are creating a very crowded promotional marketplace with national ads screaming for the customer's attention. This event gave our members an additional promotional holiday for the year, and included exclusive promotional offers." Nationwide is leveraging the group's substantial marketing capabilities to help participating members get the message out to consumers. Senior Marketing Exec Frank Sandtner, elaborated, "Nationwide has provided our members best-in-class marketing assets for digital, television, and print for years, and for this event, we pulled out all the stops. We executed across multiple channels to reach today's consumers in the most cost-effective channels, at each stage of the search and buying process. The messaging was based on our ongoing research efforts, and provided via a variety of media options that include traditional vehicles like circulars and direct mail, as well as broadcast television commercials, digital video, banner and display ads, and much more." Because Nationwide members sometimes share markets, two unique identities for the event had been provided to prevent any market conflicts. In addition to Get the Best for Less, the group also produced messaging themed as Billion Dollar Buying Power. Steve Bryant, who operates the group's PrimeMedia production facility, shared, "Independents have a clear advantage over the big boxes in the form of superior product assortment, not to mention their knowledgeable and customer-focused sales and delivery teams. However, many consumers aren't aware that they can access all these advantages without spending more. Each of these messages was provided with parallel versions of television commercials, digital video ads, in-store digital signage, website video, and text-driven versions for social media usage. This consistency of messaging across all channels helps members break through in their marketplaces." This Get the Best for Less event along with its companion events, Billion Dollar Buying Power and PrimeTime Market Buy Down, ran through mid-August and all have been enthusiastically received by Nationwide's membership. As a result, plans are already in the works for future events in 2018. Nationwide's Sandtner adds, "We're believe that there is no better place for consumers to find a superior shopping experience than in our members' stores. Over the past two years, as Nationwide's "Prepare for Share" program has matured, our dealers are leading the way in positioning their businesses to capture market share abandoned by some of the industry's disappearing and struggling national retailers. Nationwide's commitment to providing these opportunities will only increase in coming months and years." NATIONWIDE LAUNCHES GROUP-EXCLUSIVE "GET THE BEST FOR LESS" PROMOTION Exclusive promotional opportunity highlights benefits of shopping independent B U Y I N G G R O U P N E W S RO

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