[EHX] CEA, EH Launch SoCal Custom Electronics Consumer Awareness Campaign

The custom electronics industry lacks consumer awareness. It's not news; it's a common complaint. Another common complaint is that the industry lacks an umbrella organization to launch a campaign aimed at educating consumers on the benefits of custom integration.

CEA TechHome and PARA Divisions, along with EH Publishing, is attempting to do something about that – at least in Southern California. (EH Publishing is the parent company of CEPro.com and CE Pro magazine.)

At EHX, the Southern California Project was officially announced to manufacturers and integrators. David Hanchette and John Galante of EH Publishing discussed a 2007 yearlong promotional effort that will focus on educating consumers and builders in the greater Los Angeles area. It's actually a compilation of several spread-out markets in the L.A. area (designated by postal code SCFs 900-918 and 923-930), explained Galante.

The idea, said Galante, is to generate a surge in custom installations similar to those yielded by past consumer education initiatives. He cited the "Wiring America's Homes" initiative aimed at educating consumers and builders about the need for structured wiring in homes. From 1998 to 2000, that program rose the penetration rate of structured wiring from 1 percent to 20 percent, he said.

Expressing a desire to do the same thing for the custom installation industry, Galante said, "Why not take a great big metro market like Los Angeles and focus on creating a clear connection to the dealer [integrator] as the centerpiece of the campaign?"

One Southern California-based dealer in attendance, Matthew McKenna of Semaphonic Smart Homes, is on board with the idea. "It can't hurt," he said. "I think that as a CEA member, you've got to take advantage of whatever info and data they can provide"

Goals and benefits of the Souther California Project include:

- Promote consumer and builder value for greater Los Angeles integrators.
- Provide a dedicated Web-based directory of integrators and promote it to builders and consumers with a target of 10,000 unique visitors by November 2007.
- Land at least 30 news and feature stories in L.A. area magazines and newspapers.
- Be featured on at least 10 news or feature stories broadcast on L.A. area TV shows.
- Host successful L.A. media event at 2007 Fall EHX with over 30 L.A. area media members.

The goal of this initiative to educate builders is particularly appealing to McKenna. "As hard as builders are to deal with they are our No. 1 clients," he said. "The connection with builders is key because they are still skeptical of integrators. They've had bad experiences with subcontractors in the past [and they associate integrators with that]. This will help in terms of validation."

One of the reason the L.A. area was chosen is because it's an areas with lots of integration companies. Many of those companies have been fueled by the area's booming construction market. That market has stalled. (See chart below.) Many integrators, McKenna included, are responding by focusing on retrofit customers.

"We've gone after retrofit clients [with marketing campaigns] but it hasn't worked as well as we'd like," he said. "That's why we need something like this. We can't afford to do a marketing campaign the way [CEA PARA and TechHome and EH] will do it."

The program is available for CEA TecHome and PARA members. Interested members should email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)