You can still sign up for Car Tech Demo Days and list your store on a national web site that can help drive consumers to your shop.
To date almost 200 car audio retailers have signed up. The event is free to MERA (Mobile Electronics Retailers Association) members and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) members.
The idea is that suppliers and the CEA will create a media blitz prior to the Demo Days November 9-11 to raise awareness of car audio to get consumers riled up for Black Friday, and then customers will be directed to local stores to see product demonstrations.
Seven car audio suppliers are helping sponsor the event and will be joining a TV promotion on November 7, (see story here), including, Sony, Pioneer, Kenwood, iSimple, Clifford, SiriusXM, and Cobra. Retailers may sign up by contacting Michael Cotter of Revenew at 847-359-9250 x151 or [email protected]
Once signed up, a mini site is created for your store that lists the dates consumers may come to see product demonstrations at your location. Here’s an example of a mini site page for a retailer.
Some retailers are holding full on special events, but others are simply listing their normal store hours on the web site and inviting consumers to stop by for a demo of the latest products.
Columbus Car Audio & Accessories, Columbus, OH is holding a major event with demo cars from Kenwood, plus the Rockford Sound Lab demo van. It will also have on hand a Pioneer demo car featuring AppRadio and the store’s own Rockford demo cars. It is sending press releases to local media and emailing its list of 12,000 addresses to promote the event.
Other stores like SRQ Custom Autosound, a high end boutique store in Sarasota, FL simply invited shoppers to its store during normal business hours.
This is the first year that the CEA is offering the retailer Demo Days for car audio, but similar events for audio and TV have been held for several years.
Suzanne Martin of Revenew, said some of the AV retailers have had success inviting local media to the store to cover their event. Then these stores become local “experts” that the media contact for stories on what to buy for Christmas or Father’s Day. It gives the smaller retailer a chance to get some of the attention usually afforded to bigger stores like Best Buy.
Source: CEoutlook
