About advertising the site through retailers

[jaymer]

just talked with Jason, the GM at Brandon Costco:
Bottom line is:
We are all busy just running the business with what we have;
The season is upon us and to make some change or introduce some program thats not the norm is not good timing;
HDTV will continue to grow and more and more TVs will be sold next year - perhaps something could be in place after the holidays; (but, see # 1 below)


Before we got to the bottom line, the objections were:
Costco doesn't promote vendors/businesses or outside information other than what is directly related to Costco;
I haven't been to the website, and if you asked me to go there today, I can't because I'm too busy;
My sales reps, could, on their own choose to pass on info about it - nah, I'd rather them not get involved - they are busy enough;


He was nice enough and was probably caught off guard which is why the objections kind overlapped or somewhat contradictory.

He has a HDTV, a present from his wife, but does not have any HD signal on it.

When I asked "If I go to corporate and ask them about this - and they say Jason can do whatever he wants - then do you see any value in giving this information to your customers?" His answer was "I'd have to see the site first", and then as he said, nothing would happen during the season.

So, strike 1 down for Info the the Masses!

Pick up the phone and call your local electronics retailer manager - your mileage may vary.

jaymer...

[dprice]

Give it time. Jason will get bored/curious/annoyed by having an HD unit and no HD signal. God forbid that his wife ask why this is so. He'll be here within 48 hours.

Don

[Viremia]

Don't get down too soon into the fight. You just have to convince them that providing a direction to this site will benefit THEM. It will take some of the load off them, especially in this oh-so-busy retail season. It could reduce uneeded service calls or returns. By informing new users what to expect and what's correct or wrong, we'd be helping these retailers out.

The site's not selling anything. It shouldn't be pro retailer X and anti retailer Y. The info provided here is as unbiased and informed as you will ever find. That's what you've got to get the retailers to believe. It's a good neutral site for information on HDTV.

A sample flyer wouldn't be a bad idea to show to some of the local retailers/sales reps. It wouldn't be a bad idea to somehow indicate that this is a separate site, not affiliated with the retailer and therefore the info contained and disseminated is not endorsed by or binding for the retailer.

It's still my belief that this site could provide a wealth of information and prove to be a boon to all new and not-so-new HD buyers. And getting them while they're still excited about their new or impending purchase is the best chance of educating them and continuing and improving this excellent site. Getting some deal with the retailers (official or unofficial) is probably the best way of doing that.