Under the direction of its Canadian Marketing Committee (CMC), Affiliated Distributors hosted its first Canadian Marketing Summit held April 11-12 in Toronto. More than 100 top-level executives, marketing managers and sales managers attended. Feedback from the meeting suggests interest in an annual event.
The highlights of the meeting included two marketing workshops and a presentation by guest speaker Jim Freeman, president of Powerlines Strategic Marketing & Communications.
As a result of the workshops, a new marketing message was developed for A-D Canada: The Strength of Many; The Power of One. In addition, affiliate and supplier attendees named their top three marketing initiatives to implement this year: an A-D identification program, exclusive supplier promotions and a national advertising campaign. The CMC also selected one “new” marketing idea generated in the workshops: an A-D scholarship for contractors' kids. A timeline has been developed to implement these initiatives prior to the 2005 North American Meeting in September.
Comprised of approximately 350 North American distributor companies with more than 2,600 locations doing over $18 billion in sales annually, Affiliated Distributors is headquartered in King of Prussia, Pa.