Rumors of Control4 at Best Buy are Greatly Exaggerated

“Control4 home automation won’t be blister-packed and sold through Best Buy anytime soon, contrary to industry rumors, according to president Glen Mella.”

Or….

“Any trials we’ve done with Best Buy have been within the Magnolia Home Theater (MHT) section of the store,” he says.”

It wont be sold thru Best Buy but it will be sold thru the MHT sections of the store? Was Mella sober when she made these contradicting statements?

The fear being experienced by C4 dealers is that if Best Buy starts offering “Assisted Sales” of C4, they will become obsolete. Not in the sense that Best Buy can do it better but who will ever know about “franks AV” when best buy is listed as a local dealer on the C4 website?

As far as MHT having the same training.. I sure hope its better than their URC programming. They throw every command on the remote with zero macros or customization. They are basically selling a $1000+ worth of remote and giving the client the same functionality they could have gotten with a $20 universal remote.

Crestron looking any better to you C4 guys now?

Julie, “greatly exaggerated”?  You just said that they are currently selling in 12 Magnolia stores.  Where are these Magnolia stores located? In Best Buy, and who installs products for Best Buy and Magnolia? Geek Squad.  So it doesn’t sound very exaggerated to say that Best Buy is selling Control 4 because that is exactly what is happening.  What does sound exaggerated is that they “don’t stock inventory at the store”.  With the millions in inventory they keep on hand at each location your saying that this is such a coveted product that they won’t stock a couple $700 boxes for a next day install?  This coming from a company (Best Buy) who just invested Millions into Control 4? So if a customer walks in to buy a $5,000 set up Martin Logans with some nice AV gear they don’t have to set up a “consultation” with the Geek Squad for $100, but if they want to buy a $700 Control 4 System then they do? Sounds a bit exaggerated.

In regards to the comments “no current plans for DIY”, “never say never”, and “we continue to evolve” all supports the Home Depot strategy they deployed a year ago and their focus to take home automaton to the masses.  By the way they are in The Great Indoors which is owned by Sears, however The Great Indoors is not inside of Sears, and the floor clerks don’t walk customers over to TGI when someone asks for help like they do at Best Buy with Magnolia.

I’m not saying that any of this is a negative, but let’s not pretend that poor Control 4 is wrapped in controversy.  They are clearly following their plan and anything contrary to that would be “greatly exaggerated”.

39, you don’t think Crestron would leap at the chance to have Prodigy sold through MHT? They were awfully interested in Tweeter.

I would ask any C4 dealer in Atlanta, Chicago and Raleigh: Has C4’s presence in Magnolia there hurt your business?

Greg, I think that the “don’t stock products” comment is more about—they don’t stock them on their shelves.

Control 4’s business model is all about volume and reaching the masses.  A lot of that is good for our industry , a but there are definetly some downsides when it comes to a dealer margins, quality of installations etc. 

It should have been clear when they signed up every dealer with any interest where they wanted to go. I know that every home show around here had like 3-4 CI firms booths showing the same C4 stuff, is there any doubt that some of them were beat down as they were force to compete on price with an already lower margin product?

I have no doubt in my mind that the CI channel while important is going to be less and less a part of their future. Their future plans and hopes regarding new markets, product development, being sold and or going public etc.

I applaud Mella for being honest about it (while he did carefully couch his words for this audience)

Best Buy/MHT/Geek Squad has been selling and installing Control4 for YEARS at this point.  The program has expanded since its launch (and will continue to do so), but its certainly not new.  And as many have said before, Control4 has never made there long term retail plans a secret.

“They would come out and do a professional consultation,” says Mella, “not unlike a consultation from other custom integrators.”

——-Based on my customers feedback on thier opinion of this “Consultation”, it is not anything like a real CUSTOM integrator..

“Mella says Magnolia reps have the same training as any other custom installation professional.”

——-Oh yeah? thats rich!

39 Cent Stamp hit it right on the head.

Dealers are mainly concerned because “Frank’s AV store” won’t even be a consideration.  A homeowner will walk into Best Buy and get what they think they need, end of story.

So funny that their dealings have been in the MHT “Section”.  Where else would a custom-install home automation product belong?  In Car Audio?

And, I agree, this is no “Great exaggeration”.
The graphic REALLY bothers me, because Control4=Best Buy @ 12 locations.

Greg, Best Buy’s financing division is a completely different company than the retail segment.  Granted, I’m sure they talk to each other on occassion.  =)

On a related note, every C4 press release deserves a story apparently.

Control 4 wants the volume, and Best Buy wants to sell something “advanced” to compete with higher end integrators.  I still have not witnessed a Best Buy Control 4 install, but I can’t see it being much better than their other installations I’ve ran into. 

This is one major reason why I don’t sell Control 4.  Best Buy/MHT is going to tarnish the brand.  Systems like Control 4 need service and support after the sale.

Anonymous, do you really think C4 sent out a press release on this?!

Dealers were telling me that C4 was going to be in all the Best Buy stores and I followed up.

There’s a big difference between selling C4 (Martin Logan, Integra, whatever) in Magnolia vs. plopping it on a shelf next to Insignia TVs and discounting it to the max.

If I were a C4 dealer, I would welcome MHT spending gobs of money promoting the system. I’d check it out on C4.com, look for other installers in my area…

That a kick in the nuts. Yep, read between the lines folks. It’s all about the mighty dollar. Look what Bose did. Are they really better off ? I about puked when I heard you can by them from Sam’s club now. Soon Walmart will have them and everyone will have the greatest audio system on the market. It’s tough being a small retailer but this is why I love Paradigm. I would challenge any of my tech’s againts a geek. No way do you get training in a class room. Alot of info but the real training is in the field. Good luck deek’s.  Well, in the future I just might have to go back to the drawing board. Dang it.

Of course they didn’t send out a PR on this!

Care to follow up on the exaggerated graphic?

Better yet, at the bottom of the graphic, can you add an asterisk that reads “except the 12 stores they’re currently in, and (I quote) certain feasibility that Best Buy would consider some expansion”

I’m not saying I don’t agree with what they’re doing and that it won’t be beneficial for the home automation industry in general, but to think that C4 dealers specifically would be HAPPY about Best Buy (or MHT or however you want to dice it up) taking potential jobs from them is ridiculous.
How about some real down and dirty journalism?  Interview a few of those dealers!  Dig!  Dig!

Will MHT be promoting C4?  Yes.  But they certainly won’t be promoting any of the little businesses that helped C4 become what it is today.  The customers who see the ads will be going to Best Buy.  (The masses don’t see a Pioneer setup in Best Buy’s mailer and go to Fred’s AV Shop to check his prices, unfortunately…)
 
Not to mention, Best Buy (MHT) can move their overhead costs around a little more to always be the lowest bid, regardless of whether the equipment itself is priced @ MSRP.  (As of right now, this stuff still has to be installed and serviced.)

One real problem is consumers don’t see anything wrong with buying ANYTHING and everything at big box stores, despite the hurt they put on their local economy.  Another problem is dealers often mark-up equipment at extraordinary rates, when they could be charging a little more on the installation/service/knowledge side instead.  So strategies will need to be adjusted to survive, that’s just business.

It’s a consumer driven market and the best thing for C4 to do is get in front of the most people, it just will probably upset a lot of people in the process.  Will it shutter their businesses?  Probably not.  But some will look elsewhere.

I agree, the graphic and headline are both ridiculous lies. Control4 IS at Best Buy and will be at more Best Buy stores as soon as they find a way.

“39, you don’t think Crestron would leap at the chance to have Prodigy sold through MHT? They were awfully interested in Tweeter.”

Of course C4 and maybe even Crestron wants to be able to move more boxes. If i owned either company i would want to increase sales. But if i ran one of the companies and decided to put my product on the shelves at Best Buy i would admit it.

When i was kid there was an expensive high end sporting goods product named “STARTER”. Anyone with a team hat, jersey or jacket had their logo on them. Today that brand is sold at walmart and its not expensive or highend. Ask a kid today what STARTER is and see if they know. My nephews (who spend apx 3k each on sporting goods per year, each!) do not know the brand.

Thats because someone got the bright idea to move more boxes by putting the product in walmart. Once the product was moved to walmart the price had to come down. Once the price came down the quality suffered. Once the quality suffered the appeal faded and in the mean time all of their high end dealers dried up.

Great post 39, I really do think that if Crestron wanted to be in Best Buy they probably would be, but it isn’t who they are and what made them successful (at least in the past) maybe prodigy is different, but I can say that anyone who has gone through the dealer approval process with Crestron and Control 4 can tell you that there is an enormous difference in the approach and attitudes they take about who they are and what they are about. 

If Porsche wanted to be in every other Garage they probably could be by opening a lot of dealerships and producing cheaper cars but then what? This is the very reason companies like Honda don’t try to make a high end car instead they have a whole different company called Acura.

C4 isn’t bad for wanting to be in every home in america but it might be bad for the CI business model.

I remember years ago when Krispy Kreme was a privately held company.  Every late Friday night it was a destination and something special.  After they went public they rolled out Krispy Kreme donuts in every gas station, grocery store, and anywhere else there was shelf space.  What happened?  It tarnished the brand.  There was nothing special about the brand anymore.  What was “hot and fresh” became “stale and available everywhere”.  Their idea to take Krispy Kreme to the masses wherever they are, turned into masses of unsatisfied customers. 

It may be a stretch to relate this to Control4 going to other retail outlets, but they will have to be very careful moving forward into other markets and achieving the same experience of their current dealer base. A mass of unsatisfied customers and faulty systems could have an adverse affect on the brand.

I do believe that dealers can still benefit from the thousands of dollars the big box stores will spend in advertisements.  Our biggest issue is that no one has even heard of most of the brands we carry.  One thing is for sure, you won’t see a geek making strategic relationships at homebuilder meetings, country clubs, or civic clubs.  They won’t establish themselves as a referral business, a market leader, or a partner to any of the other disciplines that are tied to the building industry.  It will still be up to individual business owners to go out and make those contacts and get that business. 

I have to suggest as both a Control4 dealer and a Crestron dealer - if the guy is shopping at Best Buy, is he really your customer?  If you believe they’re the ideal customer, just go hang out in the TV’s for a while and listen to the conversations that take place…it will make you want to pull your hair out.  It’s always a refreshing reminder for me when I do this.