CE Pro 100: Brand Name Dropping

What do CE Pro 100 companies look for when selecting brands? Reliability? Service? Companies that will answer the phone?

By Jason Unger
June 01, 2005

CE Pro 100 companies tend to favor big name brands consumers know and products known to be reliable. How do we know this?

We meticulously counted the brands the CE Pro 100 use for audio, video, security, wiring and more -- and narrowed it down to the most used in each category.

Is your company using the same products as these integrators? Are you focusing on similar characteristics when selecting which brands to offer?

We asked the CE Pro 100 to give us the top two brands for categories ranging from multiroom audio servers to window covering controls, and then we asked why they choose those products.

Some of the categories provided diverse answers, such as "satellite systems," which gave us a variety of brands, services and programming. But there was almost no variety in the brand used by integrators for telephone systems, with an overwhelming majority using Panasonic systems.

Why are the CE Pro 100 using these particular brands? We can tell you what they had to say, but you'll have to figure out if your priorities are at all like these integrators.

Profit Margin Isn't Everything

Margin may be one of the determining factors for dealers, but is it the most important thing to consider? Not for Gary Hall, who believes ease of use and reliability are more important.

"It does not matter how much margin you make if the product fails or if you have service issues," says Hall, the vice president of Palm Desert, Calif.-based CS Security & Sound.

Jason Barth, the owner and CEO of Carmel, Ind.-based Premier Custom Audio & Video agrees. "[We] make our decisions based mostly upon the reliability and ease of integration issue, as our reputation for excellence is the most important," he says.

"Because our clients are reliant on our design and installation ability, it is very important that the products can be easily and reliably integrated into each project as a whole," adds Barth.

Few of the brand categories had overwhelming majorities, but the companies that did must be doing something right. Here's a recap of the product brands we asked for in the CE Pro 100 qualification form:

The video categories, such as front projectors, rear projection, direct view and flat-panel televisions, are laden with big name brands, such as Sony, Runco, Panasonic and Fujitsu. Consumers are less likely to shell out money for a product that they are not familiar with, especially when it is something like a television that is a focal point of a media room.

"If the name carries good recognition, that's attractive," says Bruce Fordyce, creative director for Laguna Niguel, Calif.-based Audio/Video Entertainment. "Selecting a brand is much more subjective than selecting a product. A product is tangible whereas brand is emotional," says Shawn Smith, the vice president of Oldsmar, Fla.-based S&S Electric Co., Inc.

But the recognizable names are not the only reason these brands ranked highly -- a lot of them are protected distribution products, which many of the CE Pro 100 value.

"There is nothing worse than manufacturers that make no effort to protect and control the distribution of their product," says Dave Hartfelder, president of Yorba Linda, Calif.-based Diamond Case Designs, Inc. "Un-policed Internet sales and excessive superstore/warehouse store distribution devalues product and erodes margin."

Smith believes that as a product's distribution and popularity increase, its quality decreases. "When big manufacturers gain a large market share, they often get complacent and stop being innovative," he says.

Panasonic leads the telecommunications market among the CE Pro 100, appearing 79 times in our survey, compared to five times for Elan, the closest competitor.

But the market for shelf speakers is much more diverse, with 51 different brands making the list and the most used (Triad) tallying only 17 companies.

Beyond the Hardware

What kind of attitude are the top integrators looking for when selecting a manufacturer? Many of them say that a company's customer service plays a huge role.

"One of the potential turnoffs from a product or brand is the level of customer service provided by the manufacturer or manufacturer's representative," says Brian Lipscomb, executive director of Los Angeles-based RIMI Systems Integration.
Manufacturers who excel in one category seem to be spilling over into related product categories, showing a loyalty among integrators. Lutron, who dominates the lighting brands, also makes the most used window covering system. Crestron, the most-used multiroom amp brand, has extended from its strength in control systems.

Reliable and consistent manufacturers seem to win over integrators, and those that are not seem to lose business.

"We recently had a manufacturer," recounts John Gilmore, president of Montclair, Calif.-based Elite Custom Audio Video, "where 90 percent of the product we received was either defective as a D.O.A. or after a month or two, the product would finally fail. We had to make so many service calls that it wasn't profitable to even sell the product, so we threw it out of our store."

So the CE Pro 100 use brands that they can count on to be reliable as well as big names that consumers recognize and will feel comfortable spending money on. Is this your company's philosophy?

If you aren't in the CE Pro 100 this year, get ready for next year. If the Boston Red Sox proved anything, it's that next year might be your year.

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CE Pro 100: Brand Name Dropping

What do CE Pro 100 companies look for when selecting brands? Reliability? Service? Companies that will answer the phone?

Profit Margin Isn't Everything

CE Pro 100 Product Categories

Beyond the Hardware