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A Distributor Quandary: Brand Or No Brand?

August 10th, 2009 |

Author: admin

A Distributor Quandary: Brand Or No Brand?

In most markets customers and suppliers look to branded products because it seems safer and easier to deal with something that is recognised and therefore less of a gamble.

It could be considered nonconformist but our strategy is not to have leading brands. This can give resellers the edge and certainly makes the valueadd tangible.

One of the problems with branded products is that they can be over distributed in the mainstream channel so why go this route if you can carve your own demand?

Dealing with non leading brands offers the potential to make higher margins but there could be a higher cost of sale as the products have less market pull and so have to be pushed harder and need expertise to sell against brands. Non leading brand suppliers are more flexible. It’s more difficult to offer solid value add if you are dealing with brands basically because everyone is doing it and it often comes down to price.

Technology innovations and developments mean that markets are becoming more intertwined and the requirement for overlap in experience and services in these areas is increasing every day. Distributors need to keep abreast of the demand by adding products and services to the portfolio and ensuring professional implementation and a good launch. The pressure is on for those that sell non brand goods because there is always demand for the next best thing. However if you can hold onto the reins there will still be demand for the nonleading brands.

There is the issue with non branded products of getting the products into applications and specified. Branded products are often on any buyer’s list simply because they are known in the market place. Hence more support to the reseller is required to ensure that they ’sell in’ the non branded product successfully.

Both in the short term and the long term resellers can be better off with nonbranded products because they can often be better quality and higher performance as well as beinggivenfar better support.

It is worth branching out by going the nonbrand route if you are prepared to put in the time effort and expertise to sell against the other brands. The rewards and the satisfaction can be great.

Andrea Percival director of distributor Maxa Technologies.

www.maxateceurope.com

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Andrea Percival is managing director of Maxa Technologies. Andreas career with Maxa Technologies started in the early 1990s as marketing manager where she was extensively involved in the successful positioning of DH Technology acquired by Axiohm in 1997 as a major player in the European Bar Code Printing sector .She was promoted to the position of general manager in 1998 where she oversaw the Companys rationalisation into an efficient compact organisation focusing on customer service service and repair and technical support. In 2001 Andrea also became a vice president for ATSI Axiohm Transaction Solutions Inc.

In 2003 Andrea together with Steve Berry vice president of EMEA Sales for ATSI successfully secured a management buyout of Maxa Technologies.

Since the management buyout Maxa Technologies has positioned itself as a major distributor of products for the POS Auto ID and Mobile sectors within the UK Europe Middle East and Africa. The brand Maxatec has become synonymous with value added services and good quality products. Recent developments have included the brand Maxa Solutions providing bespoke solutions to very specific vertical markets and a joint venture with SDP Belgium delivering a labelling kiosk and EPOS solution to the garden centre and nursery sector.

Find out more about POS EPOS Systems at the Maxatec Europe website.