The general session of the winter 2022 Nationwide Primetime event Sunday morning conveyed the electronics, furniture, and appliance buying group’s strong commitment to helping its retailers succeed through the past year’s adversity and challenges. Keeping with this message, the choice of the keynote speaker was a perfect fit.
Keynote Speaker
The moment adventurist Erik Weihenmayer walked onto the stage, he captured the room. Humorous, emotional, and motivating, Weihenmayer spoke to the group for an hour about overcoming life’s adversities. Members of the audience put down their phones and connected.
After losing vision at age 14 due to an extremely rare eye disease, Weihenmayer chose to deal with this new obstacle by facing it head on. In the years since, he has conquered every physical challenge possible. With the support of his trusted team, he was able to hike the Seven Summits, kayak down Lava Falls, and rock climb all over the globe. His talk combined his own storytelling along with pictures and videos of these accomplishments. Comparing his journey to life adversities, he spoke about personal growth and the distinct types of personalities on the mountain.
“There are quitters, campers, and climbers; which one do you want to be?” he asked. With the audience in the palm of his hand, Weihenmayer showed the Nationwide members that living a no barriers lifestyle is the only way to grow. “You have to keep climbing,” said Weihenmayer as he concluded his talk to a standing ovation.
General Session
Although Weihenmayer was a tough act to follow, the Nationwide Marketing Group team was able to continue to command the room. “Nationwide is your team” said President and Chief Member Advocate Tom Hickman as he talked about the challenges of the past couple of years. The pandemic, supply chain, and shipping issues, along with lack of skilled workers, has been heavy on independent retailers.
Executive Vice President of Membership Patrick Maloney and Chief Digital and Technology Officer Aaron Bundschuh then took the stage to detail how Nationwide is going to continue to provide business services to the members. Bundschuh advised everyone to lean into the resources that Nationwide provides, which echoed what Hickman had said in his keynote just minutes earlier: “We need to stay connected because we are in this together; the connectivity is business intelligence and data.”
After an overview of how data is collected and utilized by Nationwide, the discussion turned to PriMetrix and point-of-sale systems and how this enables members to compete with the big box stores. Bundschuh encouraged members to make better use of marketing funds by investing in marketing technology: Real-time data on websites, maintaining fast site speed, and personalizing the online shopping experience all to help save time and money and make better profits.
New Partnership Announce
In the midst of the excitement of PrimeTime, Nationwide Marketing Group announced it has expanded its luxury portfolio by partnering with iconic luxury appliance manufacturer Thermador. The exclusive program for Nationwide’s network of luxury appliance retailers aims to enhance the customer experience throughout the entire shopping journey.
“We are thrilled to add Thermador to our growing portfolio of strategic luxury vendor partners,” says John O’Halloran, senior merchant for luxury appliances at Nationwide. “The Thermador brand is synonymous with success in the luxury space, and we look forward to leveraging the strengths of Nationwide’s luxury strategy, combined with Thermador’s innovative products, to ensure our members continue to lead in this high-touch, experience-driven category.”
The program will evolve over the next few years and will continually focus on improving the partnership between Thermador and Nationwide and continually build value and incentives for retailers. “We are so excited to be entering into an enhanced partnership with Nationwide Marketing Group,” says Matt Cols, director of the retail channel and training for Thermador. “This new connection between Thermador and Nationwide’s luxury-focused independent retailers allows our entities to address our very important luxury consumer and offer them a personalized experience through our programs and branded retail activities.
