Nationwide Marketing Group Prepares for 50th PrimeTime Event in New Orleans

Furniture World News Desk on 3/13/2017

As Nationwide Marketing Group prepares for this week’s March PrimeTime event in New Orleans they will be celebrating their 50th such member conference and buying show. Top on the show’s agenda will be reports to members on the successes of the group’s Prepare for Share initiative launched some 3 years ago. According to Nationwide’s Jeff Knock, “Some years ago the Nationwide organization began preparing our members to take their disproportionate share of the business that we believed would become available as the national chains exited markets and lost consumers. The recent filings from hhgregg and Radio Shack, along with the continued decline of the Sears footprint, should continue to fuel the program’s success. In 2016 alone, members who were engaged in the Prepare for Share strategy saw more than double the year-over-year growth of those who did not.”

The starting point for Nationwide’s Prepare for Share initiative is proprietary market-by-market data that allows each member to understand their current market share and compare it to the share that would be available upon the exit of their national competitors. Twice each year that data is refined so that any dealer, regardless of size, can monitor their results and make informed merchandising, marketing and financial decisions. Dave Bilas states, “Previous data showed that when Circuit City closed, Independents captured a very low portion of that share. Our plan was to proactively prepare our members so they could take advantage of the next big market opportunity to maximize revenue and profits. It’s a comprehensive approach and the results have been very satisfying.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be PrimeTime without the serious show specials and on-the-spot cash rebates that will result in billions of dollars in orders and millions in cash rebates to members before their products even ship. According to Tom Hickman, “Nationwide’s merchandising team has been working closely with our vendor-partners for months to offer some of the strongest programs and deepest deals of the year. We’ve also continued to expand our category offerings and brand options in an effort to maximize members’ go-to-market opportunities. Of course, my passion is CE, so I’m particularly jazzed with Nationwide’s hard launch of the industry’s first ever full 4K UHD digital signage platform, known as MemberNet TV Ultra. Our members tend to over perform in the top tier CE technologies, so the ability to effectively demonstrate UHD on their TV walls with their choice of hundreds of movie trailers, sports clips, vendor demo videos, music videos and marketing messages will provide them with a huge competitive advantage.”

Nationwide’s PrimeMedia production facilities will also be premiering all new traffic-building advertising assets for every media channel, supporting every product category, featuring every Nationwide-supported brand and customized for every member’s store. The library features a full year’s worth of high impact, national quality promotions for holidays and off-holidays, plus a library of branding and informational materials. Steve Bryant of Nationwide’s PrimeMedia production studio explains, “Today, consumers are accessing advertising through the widest variety of media channels ever. As a result, our members’ demand for media support has mushroomed and we’ve responded with a groundbreaking new initiative that will be unveiled at this PrimeTime show. From this point forward every Nationwide consumer message will be automatically produced in formats that support every media channel available.”

Nationwide has always provided members with the industry’s most comprehensive educational programs and Nationwide’s Learning Academy is one of PrimeTime’s most highly attended events. With over 80 sessions offered, featuring premier vendors and industry authorities, topics include marketing, merchandising, succession planning, financial services, and much more. Frank Sandtner sums it up this way, “With just days remaining before the show begins, we couldn’t be happier to see that member registration for the show is up 23% from the last March PrimeTime and Learning Academy registration is up 73% from last year’s record-breaking numbers. Everything is in place for a great week of saving, learning, sharing and networking. We look forward to implementing the next step in our Prepare for Share strategy and to a great week with our Members and Vendor-Partners.”

The Nationwide Marketing Group’s PrimeTime Member Conference will be held March 19-22 in New Orleans, Louisiana. More information about Nationwide PrimeTime is available at http://www.nationwideprimetime.com. To learn more about Nationwide Marketing Group, visit http://www.nationwidegroup.org.