Elevating brands one dealer at a time, an interview with Nationwide Marketing Group President Ed Kelly
Elevating brands one dealer at a time, an interview with Nationwide Marketing Group President Ed Kelly
To Nationwide Marketing Group (NMG) President Ed Kelly, customer service is one of the independent retailer’s greatest weapons against chain store competition.
Belonging to the nation’s largest buying group for independent dealers doesn’t hurt either.
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| NMG President Ed Kelly with Paula Kirk on the floor at the recent Primetime! show in Dallas. |
Known as Nationwide’s "idea man", Kelly grew up in the industry — his father’s small retail store was one of the first in the country to sell color televisions in the 1950’s. His father’s passion instilled in Kelley a pride for the independent business owner that drives NMG today.
And with the kind of support, education and good old fashioned bargains evidenced at the RentDirect Nationwide PrimeTime! spring convention and buying show in Dallas this week, Kelly says NMG is helping independent dealers take customer service to a whole new level.
"With our infrastructure — communications, database, central ordering systems, advertising and university courses — the independent dealer can compete with the big boys," Kelly said. "The consumer still doesn’t have a lot of choices when they want good customer service. The independent retailer is the only answer to that."
A growing division of NMG is RentDirect, which supports the rent-to-own industry.
Approximately 270 of the estimated 3,500 PrimeTime! attendees at the conference are rent-to-own venders and dealers. Over 25 RTO specific vendors displayed their wares over 180,000 square feet of floor space at the Anatole Hotel in Dallas March 2-4.
NMG’s decision to incorporate an RTO division into its ranks was a logical step, Kelly said, and represents another retail "channel" poised to take advantage of what NMG has developed.
"RTO is another retail channel, a different form of retail," Kelly said. "Our job is to lower the price and provide the services, but lower the cost to the dealer to help them drive cost out of their business."
NMG does this, Kelly said, through its extensive distribution system with over 40 warehouses across the country, its commercial production studio in Atlanta that offers customized HDTV commercials and advertisements to RentDirect Nationwide members and the buying clout of a 2,800 member organization with $11 billion in annual sales.
As for survival in the current economic slump, Kelly advises hard decision making is in order for independent dealers. Though he believes the recently passed $168 billion economic stimulus package will help retail and RTO dealers, Kelly sharply warned against cutting advertising budgets. Instead he recommends more acute targeting of advertising through specific media outlets.
"We preach all these things in our PrimeTime! University education courses," Kelly said. "We want to give dealers the tools they need to compete. If our members put their hearts into it and pay attention they’ll do fine. We try to motivate people and have fun. Family should always come before business, and faith, hopefully, should come first."
The RentDirect Nationwide PrimeTime! spring member conference and buying show officially concludes March 5.