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LED manufacturers need to educate distributors on LED technology - survey

Energy Smart Marketers have announced the results of their recent survey of electrical and lighting distributors. According to the company, the survey "demonstrates the importance of the sales channel for LED lighting manufacturers in gaining access to the emerging solid-state lighting market".

Results from the survey include: "Distributors make the recommendation to the end customer about which brand of LED lighting to specify almost 60% of the time; and more than 80% of distributors surveyed sell as many as seven different brands of LED light engines or fixtures. Yet, 78% of the distributors also said they were not receiving enough product and sales training from LED suppliers."

The survey was conducted with 1,100 people from 400 different electrical and lighting distributors.

Other results reported by the surveyors:
  • Nearly all respondents (98%) believe that the overall market for LED lighting will significantly increase in the next three years.
  • More than 89% of the time, the distributor recommends the brand of LED fixture, confirming the critical role that distribution plays in the sale of LED lighting.
  • Most respondents (72%) said that it was very important to know the name of the LED component manufacturer in the fixture.
  • More than 80% of distributors surveyed sell up to seven different brands of LED light engines and fixtures.
  • Although 89% of the respondents currently rely on manufacturers' reps to learn about LED products, the same percentage indicated that they were not satisfied with the level of product training and education they were receiving from the manufacturers.
  • Other concerns identified in the survey included return policies, inventory commitment, product warranties, and distributor pricing.
"LED manufacturers are seeing the value in evaluating and optimizing their distribution channel," said Gordon. "With distributors recommending LED fixtures in almost 90% of the cases, there is ample evidence that manufacturers can influence these recommendations through training, promotions, rebates, special pricing and adoption of distributor-friendly policies."

"The results of the survey make it clear that for widespread adoption of LED lighting technology to occur, there will need to be a focused effort by LED manufacturers to educate their distributors on LED technology to differentiate their company," said David Gordon, principal, Channel Marketing Group. "The survey also confirmed that lighting and electrical distributors are the most important sales channel that LED manufacturers can use to reach the end customer with their product message."
The full survey results are available for $199 from BtB Marketing

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Author Profiles

Gordon Routledge
Gordon Routledge is one of the original pioneers in LED illumination having worked with LEDs in illumination applications since 1996. Currently VP of Illumination at Dialight, Gordon founded Lumidrives in 2001, having previously been managing director at ACDC Lighting Systems. Gordon has a degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from university of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

Alistair Winning
Since graduating in Electronic Systems from the University of Paisley in 1997, Alistair has worked in the electronics design publishing industry. He has held various jobs in both journalism and PR/marketing including editor of Electronic Engineering Design and Embedded Systems Engineering and Account Manager at JDK Marcom. He is now working as Editor for Premier Farnell and recently launched its in-house technical magazine, Technology First.

Ian Bryant
ian bryant.jpgIan Bryant is Business Development Manager LED Division at Carclo Technical Plastics. He has worked on and off at Carclo (Formerly Combined Optical Industrial) since leaving school. He has worked through the company from Toolmaking to starting the company on the road of LED optics business some 6-7 years ago, starting with a standard range and more in line with the business of custom optics. In between all this he has worked in engineering and as a works Director for a hydraulics company but kept getting pulled back to the optics industrial. We are able to offer the full solution from idea to parts so have a very good understanding on what is needed. You will see some posts from our design team also under my name.

Oliver Sowerby
Oliver Sowerby studied Product Design and Technology at Brighton University before starting work for the lighting design consultants SKK Lighting in February 2008. His most recent achievement was being nominated for the Young Designer Award by House and Gardens.

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com published on May 28, 2009 5:13 PM.

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