Flagship Store

[wappinghigh]

There is of course the flip side to all this... the shear headache of the ongoing marketing... which kinda comes around to the dealer model I guess, the details of this and how it operates and is supported into the future... I'm not stupid. I get that...

Come to think of it (playing the devils advocate here), maybe a flagship store would be a dumb idea...?? The company would sure need to iron out it's basic philosophy first....

You'd get all the young and groovy coming in to the brand new 5th Avenue launch and it would be like "we like all this cool new stuff - how it does video to the app on the iphone" and "integrates with Alexa" and how "JAP just works ironing out HDCP headaches" and all and it would be "like OK we get we need a dealer to put in the more complicated network and rack and pull wires and install it"..but then what???  

 

[msgreenf]

There are thousands of control4 showrooms and they work fine

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[wappinghigh]

38 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

There are thousands of control4 showrooms and they work fine

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 

Cool. Thanks for that. Thousands. Whatever you say.  Cheers. 

[msgreenf]

Cool. Thanks for that. Thousands. Whatever you say.  Cheers. 

Have you been to any? There are 5-6 with in a 10 Mile radius of me

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[carl01]

Interesting concept, although i have not thought through the ins & outs. In comparison do any of the other big CI companys have flagship stores, what about sonos do they have any stores anywhere! Cant say as i have seen or heard of one.

[sonic30101]

2 minutes ago, carl01 said:

Interesting concept, although i have not thought through the ins & outs. In comparison do any of the other big CI companys have flagship stores, what about sonos do they have any stores anywhere! Cant say as i have seen or heard of one.

Sonos could and it would be much easier to implement since they do music, a sound bar, and that is about it. Not much of a CI kinda thing with them

[carl01]

2 minutes ago, carl01 said:

Interesting concept, although i have not thought through the ins & outs. In comparison do any of the other big CI companys have flagship stores, what about sonos do they have any stores anywhere! Cant say as i have seen or heard of one.

Bose have them

[carl01]

3 minutes ago, carl01 said:

Bose have them

I guess the issue is not being able to walk out of said store with a product in hand, however the more i think about it does that really matter if it draws attention to the brand. 

Example, tesla has/ had a small store in our local shopping mall, with one car on display and brochures. You would not be able to purchase there but given a brochure and advice on purchasing. I know its a different industry but got me thinking as the model would be the same.

[StroTek LLC]

7 hours ago, wappinghigh said:

Cool. Thanks for that. Thousands. Whatever you say.  Cheers. 

We have a showroom thats by appointment only.. that shows off Control4, Lutron, just add power and more

[C4tune]

The showrooms in my “hood” leave so much more to be wanted. They have theaters, but no kitchen/bathroom examples. They have keypads labeled garage but no garage door to see and feel it’s reliability. I see a “flagship” store as cool way they could show off an entire home decked out in c4.

Could possibly team up with a luxury home builder or luxury furnisher. 

People still travel to inspect items before purchase. My family went to Istanbul for rugs a few years ago. People visit quarries to inspect granite. Best clothes are found in stores.  Etc...

I love the idea. Especially the racks behind glass idea. 

[Home Theater Advisors]

This is a great suggestion. Here in NYC, there are dedicated showrooms/design centers owned by Crestron, Lutron, Savant and Sonos. I know Crestron and Savant do not sell anything there, they are completely outfitted spaces showing the latest and greatest from the manufacturer, with a dedicated showroom manager to show clients the experience and bring them into the world of automation. Dealers make appointments and can either accompany their client to the showroom or let them go on their own for a lower pressure environment.

There was a great blog in resi systems a few weeks ago extolling the virtues of dedicated showrooms. Manufacturers have much bigger budgets and can spread the cost of a showroom and updating equipment over an entire region’s sales base; much more so than one dealer can do.

I’ve been bringing this idea up to our RSM here in NYC as well as Brad Hintze. No luck so far.

[eggzlot]

39 minutes ago, Home Theater Advisors said:

This is a great suggestion. Here in NYC, there are dedicated showrooms/design centers owned by Crestron, Lutron, Savant and Sonos. I know Crestron and Savant do not sell anything there, they are completely outfitted spaces showing the latest and greatest from the manufacturer, with a dedicated showroom manager to show clients the experience and bring them into the world of automation. Dealers make appointments and can either accompany their client to the showroom or let them go on their own for a lower pressure environment.

There was a great blog in resi systems a few weeks ago extolling the virtues of dedicated showrooms. Manufacturers have much bigger budgets and can spread the cost of a showroom and updating equipment over an entire region’s sales base; much more so than one dealer can do.

I’ve been bringing this idea up to our RSM here in NYC as well as Brad Hintze. No luck so far.

I’ve been to the lutron store.  Fun to press things.  They only wanted to show me voice interaction.  I asked about radio ra va caseta vs 1-2 other lines - seemed basic, and they just said this one is a quieter motor.   4 lines and the difference in 1 of the 4 is a motor and that was all the info they had to share.  When I mentioned c4 integration they had no information   They thought I needed a “pro bridge” but didn’t expand further (which I think is correct but they were not confident)

great concept, poor execution. 

Id like to see a c4 store but as others said the full c4 experience is like 80% non c4 branded gear.  Lutron showroom as 95% lutron and 5% Amazon Alexa demo.  I guess various 3rd parties could pay for space in the c4 store.  

[ecschnei]

I'd rather see control4 "give" dealers the equipment to put up a showroom rather than have a dedicated space.  Each market is different and the dealers who work their respective territories have built their business, more than likely, out of more than control4.  Provide dealers with a set amount to attend the home shows put on next to builders and homeowners.  Get everyone in the same room and watch the dollars start rolling.

A) builders will have to bend to the will of the consumer when said consumer knows what is possible and has a general budget in mind

B ) consumers will have a more realistic idea of what they can expect and what is possible.

C) c4 dealers will get exposure to many opportunities/revenue streams

D)  I could go on forever on the possibilities....mainly because I'm long winded 

[Cyknight]

On 3/30/2018 at 7:32 PM, msgreenf said:

Stick to your profession then. Your time value in one aspect doesn't translate into another area at the same Dollar level. It's like if I wash my car I Don't consider I spent $100 to wash my car. Man cooking and laundry are so expensive

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Every lunch I make is now the cost of a Michelin start rated restaurant lunch or more.

[C4tune]

https://ce-pro.eu/news/control4-unveils-certified-showrooms-in-140-locations-worldwide/

 

looks like theyre listening!

[Pounce]

This looks like they are still leaning on the dealers. If I read this right they are simply providing a certification for a showroom. This will act to steer customers to the larger dealers or dealers that want to spend the money and jump through the hoops.

 

Quote

Control4 Certified Showrooms will open in more a total of 25 markets around the world and all reflect a significant investment by Control4 Dealers, but the company promises the rewards of enhanced marketing support, full POS and lead creation will be more than worth getting involved with the programme. 

 

[C4tune]

50 minutes ago, Pounce said:

This looks like they are still leaning on the dealers. If I read this right they are simply providing a certification for a showroom. This will act to steer customers to the larger dealers or dealers that want to spend the money and jump through the hoops.

 

 

I didn’t even read the article before posting.... You read correctly. Poor old Western New York dealers will likely not get one.

[lippavisual]

2 hours ago, Pounce said:

This looks like they are still leaning on the dealers. If I read this right they are simply providing a certification for a showroom. This will act to steer customers to the larger dealers or dealers that want to spend the money and jump through the hoops.

 

 

Bingo!  I don't know if this is going to benefit or hurt the C4 name.  Just because someone has a showroom doesn't mean they know what they're doing.  Some of the big guys need a lesson in customer service and quality of workmanship.

[Pounce]

I was turned off my my local large dealer. They have several high end rooms and would probably be a company that would want to be a showroom. I went in person and was sat down at a table and interviewed. They told me they don't take over existing systems (I bought a house with system that was built in 2012). They proceeded to tell me that if they were going to accept the work they would need to remove everything including all the cable runs and rerun everything. I'd also have to put down a retainer of maybe 30k before they would start work. Perhaps this is how it works for some jobs. I'm not that type of customer... and really not that sort of business person. I think this dealer would need to adjust it's approach a little if they got more walk in traffic driven by a certified showroom. I could be wrong.

[ecschnei]

Bingo!  I don't know if this is going to benefit or hurt the C4 name.  Just because someone has a showroom doesn't mean they know what they're doing.  Some of the big guys need a lesson in customer service and quality of workmanship.

Maybe somebody should start a separate thread for a survey and everybody can visit a store that's close to him and then rate the experience.

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[Cyknight]

52 minutes ago, Pounce said:

I was turned off my my local large dealer. They have several high end rooms and would probably be a company that would want to be a showroom. I went in person and was sat down at a table and interviewed. They told me they don't take over existing systems (I bought a house with system that was built in 2012). They proceeded to tell me that if they were going to accept the work they would need to remove everything including all the cable runs and rerun everything. I'd also have to put down a retainer of maybe 30k before they would start work. Perhaps this is how it works for some jobs. I'm not that type of customer... and really not that sort of business person. I think this dealer would need to adjust it's approach a little if they got more walk in traffic driven by a certified showroom. I could be wrong.

Wait what, remove and rerun all cables site unseen? I mean, it's possibly a requirement to re-run cables - at least I can understand though not agree with the concept of 'only working in a certain way' vs providing true custom solutions, so you only want to work with cat cable, not hdmi runs or coax runs - but there's a lot of assumption there.

[Pounce]

3 minutes ago, Cyknight said:

Wait what, remove and rerun all cables site unseen? I mean, it's possibly a requirement to re-run cables - at least I can understand though not agree with the concept of 'only working in a certain way' vs providing true custom solutions, so you only want to work with cat cable, not hdmi runs or coax runs - but there's a lot of assumption there.

Yes. Without seeing the house and wiring and without asking me what was in place they told me they always remove everything and rerun. Perhaps this works for a certain tier of customer. Perhaps what he was trying to impart on me was they are full service and better than anyone else. If it wasn't installed by them it is absolutely inferior and must be eliminated. 

I don't want to bash them really, but they clearly misread me as a customer. This is a dealer that would probably dismiss any job that is less than 100k. Is that the market for a showroom? Maybe. Showroom by appointment.

[Crustyloafer]

I can understand why you would be put off, but equally as a C4 installer/dealer myself I can equally understand why a dealer that is in the position where they only need to take on the largest of jobs they would want to have completed quality control over every aspect including the quality of the cabling, which routes it takes through a property, it's proximity to mains voltage electrical lines etc. I have experienced several takeover jobs where we did not do the wiring and for one reason or another various aspect of the system were unreliable or unstable and it could only be put down to damaged/low grade wiring and/or bad cable routing too close to electrical wiring runs.

[Pounce]

6 hours ago, Crustyloafer said:

I can understand why you would be put off, but equally as a C4 installer/dealer myself I can equally understand why a dealer that is in the position where they only need to take on the largest of jobs they would want to have completed quality control over every aspect including the quality of the cabling, which routes it takes through a property, it's proximity to mains voltage electrical lines etc. I have experienced several takeover jobs where we did not do the wiring and for one reason or another various aspect of the system were unreliable or unstable and it could only be put down to damaged/low grade wiring and/or bad cable routing too close to electrical wiring runs.

I think we see this the same way. If there is an issue (or likely an issue) with wiring its reasonable to address it. He didn't even know the wiring was installed by another platinum dealer at the time of construction because he didn't ask. Blindly spending money, time and being wasteful is not what I want in a dealer. There are plenty of dealers that work smart.

I'm curious if their target customer would find value in a showroom. I'm not sure. It's an interesting marketing question. What does that bell curve look like? If you are a dealer than can afford getting showroom certified what sort of customer/business does that generate and is that different in different markets?  

[eggzlot]

2 hours ago, Pounce said:

I think we see this the same way. If there is an issue (or likely an issue) with wiring its reasonable to address it. He didn't even know the wiring was installed by another platinum dealer at the time of construction because he didn't ask. Blindly spending money, time and being wasteful is not what I want in a dealer. There are plenty of dealers that work smart.

I'm curious if their target customer would find value in a showroom. I'm not sure. It's an interesting marketing question. What does that bell curve look like? If you are a dealer than can afford getting showroom certified what sort of customer/business does that generate and is that different in different markets?  

I know a few neighbors of mine were curious in automation and they all said "because I couldn't go to a showroom I did not bother doing more about it".  They were impressed that I took a blind leap of faith without a proper showroom.   I see technology different as do people on this forum, but for the masses, if a dealer is quoting you $50,000 for wiring and a full C4 install, I can see why some customers would balk and want to see a showroom.  If its a "Toll Brothers" type thing the developer has a staged house they can show you so its not a showroom but you can see it in action.  But if you are just buying a single home in the middle of America and want to add automation and someone walks around your house, asks you some questions and drops a $50k proposal on you, yeah I can see people being slow to pull the trigger.  My original dealer had a "suitcase" with a c4 install as a traveling demo - had a touch screen, sr250, hc250, a keypad, a speaker and maybe 1-2 other small things.  all set up on a peg board.  He would press a button on the keypad and music would play, or another button and a small tap light looking thing would turn on.  Small stuff like that.  It was enough I could see the pieces but I also knew a lot just because of my interest in technology and reading forums, publications, etc.