MESA, the Mobile Electronics Specialists of America buying/marketing group has joined the AVB/Brandsource buying group, which boasts close to $20 billion in buying power.
MESA, with $300 million in buying muscle, can now take advantage of AVB retail tools in areas such as digital marketing and financing programs.
The first result of joining AVB is that MESA is now offering its members an upgraded financing program that is able to fund higher ticket purchases. The new BrandSource plan, supported by Citibank, regularly funds purchases of $4,000 to $5,000 but can go as high as “tens of thousands” of dollars, said MESA Executive Director Ryan Gunter.
The new AVB finance program also has lower fees for retailers and allows members to physically name their finance program so it might be called “Columbus Car Audio Finance,” for example.
By joining AVB, “It changes the scale of the assets we can share including website building resources and HR resources,” said Gunter. MESA is currently exploring other opportunities with AVB, he added.
AVB represents over 4,500 storefronts, and is “North America’s biggest, best-in-class, not-for-profit, member-owned and managed organization,” it claims.
The announcement was made at the MESA Summit near Denver, which serves as venue for members to prepare for the holiday selling season, and where suppliers offer Black Friday special deals.
The number of Black Friday specials offered by vendors this year was double that of last year, said Gunter.
A key focus of the Summit was also on digital marketing. MESA announced it has partnered with WordStream to allow dealers a convenient way to manage Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat ads and other digital marketing. Its software guide allows retailers to conduct their digital marketing with a time investment of only 20 minutes a week.
Gunter addressed members at the Summit noting that with close to 200 million US consumers shopping on smartphones or tablets, it’s more important that ever for retailers to boost their digital advertising and messaging.
Photo: AVB General Manager, Michael Posa (center) with MESA members (left to right) John Coleman, Mehdi Narimanian, Kevin Clark and MESA Executive Director Ryan Gunter.
