Electrical Marketing's LiveWire

It’s fun keeping an eye on advanced research on photovoltaic technologies, because once in awhile something really creative (or wacky) comes along. Case in point for Christmas Day: glitter-sized photovoltaics developed at Sandia National Laboratories. I can’t claim to understand the technology behind it, but the report says it opens new possibilities for problems such as storage at the chip level. See what you think.

Article on PhysOrg.com

The editors of Electrical Marketing and the entire staff of Penton Media’s electrical publications would like to wish everyone in the electrical industry a warm, wonderful and safe holiday weekend.

Existing-home sales rose 7.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.54 million units in November from 6.09 million in October, and are 44.1 percent higher than the 4.54 million-unit pace in November 2008, according to a National Association of Realtors’ report.
Current sales remain at the highest level since February 2007 when they hit 6.55 million. In other encouraging news on the housing front, total housing inventory at the end of November declined 1.3 percent to 3.52 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 6.5-month supply at the current sales pace, down from an 7.0-month supply in October. Raw unsold inventory figures are 15.5 percent below a year ago. The last time there was a lower supply of homes on the market was April 2006 when it was at a 6.1-month supply.

Denison Municipal Utilities, Denison, Iowa, will purchase remote-read water meters and transmitters from Dakota Supply Group’s Burnsville, Minn., branch, according to an article in the Omaha World-Herald. The article said the meters will cost $458,000, and the transmitters will cost $10,000. The 16-location Dakota Supply Group, headquartered in Fargo, N.D., was ranked #48 on Electrical Wholesaling magazine’s most recent listing of the Top 200 Electrical Distributors.

The compensation package for Rockwell Automation Inc.’s President and CEO Keith Nosbusch fell more than 28 percent during the 2009 fiscal year according to a Dec. 18 AP report.

Contractors and other industry professionals weigh factors such as price, reputation and availability when purchasing products for commercial or residential jobs. When all things are relatively equal in the buyer’s mind, an incentive can swing a product purchase decision one way versus another. But buyers report that the incentives have to be worth their while and that obtaining — and keeping — their loyalty can be a tricky balance of offering enough value to tip the scales in their favor.
James Nowakowski, president of Accountability Information Management Inc. a Palatine, Ill., firm that develops and operates various types of incentive programs for manufacturers, says many contractors find that the effort to enroll and qualify products for these programs is worth the trouble as long as the pay-off is substantial and realistic to attain. “Companies need to be committed to their customers on all levels and that includes customer incentive programs,” says Nowakowski. “It’s important to have strong customer relationships, and it all comes down to building loyalty and maintaining trust. Rewarding customers for their faithfulness is part of that relationship.”
The president of a Cincinnati-area commercial contracting firm with more than 100 employees says how he knew nothing about incentive programs until he placed a large order with a manufacturers’ representative several years ago. The salesman informed him that his purchase would qualify for thousands of points in the manufacturer’s loyalty rewards program, and the president discovered how quickly the points added up. “Once I saw the points collecting, I kept doing it,” he says. “It got to be part of a game.”
The contracting firm president says an incentive program itself isn’t enough to warrant purchasing from one manufacturer instead of another; good service and product quality are most important to him. But the incentive program is a “motivator” to specify that manufacturer’s products, as long as the prizes are worthwhile. Trading earned points for money or a catalog item, such as a laptop computer, sports tickets or a home entertainment system, is much more persuasive than promotional trinkets.
Nowakowski says program participants essentially “lock in” their loyalty to win prizes. Research conducted by Accountability found that program members increase their business with a manufacturer that has a loyalty program by more than 25% and that loyalty programs are more influential than rebate offers (see chart below).“This loyalty translates into much greater value for the manufacturer over the long run than simply beating the competition on a single job bid,” he says.
For more information on this study contact Nowakowski at jim@a-i-m.com.

Following its highest mark since August 2008, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) dropped more than three points in November. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine-to-twelve month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects (AIA), Washington, D.C., reported the November ABI rating was 42.8 points, down from 46.1 points in October. This score indicates a continued decline in demand for design services (any score above 50 points indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry score was 58.5 points, the same mark as in October.
“There continues to be a lot of uncertainty in the construction industry that likely will delay new projects in the near future,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker. “Perhaps the President’s plan calling for loans for small business, funding for infrastructure projects and rebates for homeowners making energy efficient improvements will help speed a recovery in the construction industry.”