According to the Consumer Electronics Association, accessories are the most profitable product category in retail. This starts with all the A/V cables and hardware necessary to distribute the signals. Those of us in the wholesale consumer electronics industry are all very fortunate. While sales of practically everything else have slowed dramatically, more and more Americans are staying home trying to save a buck in this economy and looking for ways to stay entertained while they're doing it. Nielsen Media Research just said people are watching more television than ever before and buying HDTVs, which are cheaper than ever thanks to manufacturers' price cuts. Audio and Video Cables: Does Quality Matter? The opportunity available to installers and integrators is to make their customers realize that any home theater set-up is only as good as the signal distribution products used to distribute the digital information. At 6 feet or under, some say a cable is a cable. But not all cables are designed or manufactured the same, nor do they perform the same or deliver the true digital experience possible with the home theater systems of today. In a recent article entitled "Audio and Video Cables: Does Quality Matter?", Ralph Graves, one of the blog editors for Crutchfield, recently wrote, "Whether you're a hardcore gearhead or you just bought your first home theater system, you want to get the most out of your audio/video equipment. Poorly made cables can allow noise and interference to compromise the signals coming from your source components, resulting in a subpar listening or viewing experience." Considering the expense incurred by your customers in the purchase of their home theater equipment, shouldn't you encourage them to take advantage of the full picture and sound quality available by upgrading those supplied signal distribution products or selling HDMI or Optical cable where none was supplied by the manufacturer? You have seen the quality of the cables that come FREE with home entertainment equipment. It's dictated by manufacturer's price considerations and is obviously not the highest quality. Some of this equipment comes with standard 20 year old cable technology. Your opportunity is to replace or upgrade those standard cables with ones that deliver the full impact and HD experience of what your customer's home entertainment equipment can deliver to televisions, computer monitors, digital games and home audio systems. And when it comes to selling A/V cables, the education of your installers and sales personnel and/or your customer is paramount. It is very difficult for sales people to accept the concept that someone would pay 2 or 4 times as much for a cable, not realizing that a large volume of the public will pay more for quality and performance in a cable in a "big box store" such as Best Buy. They simply do not understand that all cables are not manufactured the same or perform the same. Your sales people will ask you when they see the prices for quality wholesale cables, "Why would anyone pay this much for a cable?" Ask them to unscrew the connectors on your present cable lines or manufacturer supplied cables. When they see the way the quality cables are manufactured compared to the "cheaper" cables supplied by the component manufacturers, they forget about the flashy outside cover and understand the value difference. Why should distributors, retail dealers, installers, builders, integrators and general electronics dealers be interested in quality cable lines? By adding to and/or expanding your present business product offerings in the home theater signal distribution accessory category, you become a more competitive player in one of the few retail categories still alive, well and very profitable. And installers and integrators should carry quality cables and upgraded antennas on their trucks. Much of the expense in installing cable, satellite and Off-Air antennas is in the truck roll, so while you're on-site, maximize your profits by selling upgraded cables or missing HDMI cables, Optical cable and RF Passives and Hardware and installing them to supplement your new cable, satellite or home theater installations revenue.
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