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We talk to M2M Marketing Director Hitesh Kothary about the distributor’s breadth of memory products and the challenges PC retailers face today.
PCR: What products and services will you be promoting at Boot Camp this year?
Hitesh Kothary: This Boot Camp, aside of the fantastic products from our manufacturer partners, we want the channel to really understand the whole M2M proposition. As a boutique distributor, we remain real specialists in terms of market and product knowledge of our whole product range.
We want the channel to see the breadth of our memory modules range and why customers work with us exclusively on memory. The same again with SSDs – the fact that it is a semi-conductor based storage product brings great synergy to our memory module portfolio.
In addition to those categories where we already highly respected and will showcase the breadth of products and options from the likes of Crucial, Samsung, G-Skill, Plextor, and Hynix amongst others, this Boot Camp we are also looking to show the breadth of our external hard drive range from Seagate, speakers and headphones from Wavemaster, and mobile accessories from Patriot.
What do you see being the biggest challenge facing PC retailers at the moment?
The challenge of displaying the value of the retail experience. This is certainly easier with certain product sets where demos and the touchy feely experience is engaging. However, there is still nothing stopping consumers after using the retail experience, looking for the lowest price online on that product. This is a challenge for the manufacturer community to prove that they value the retail ‘value add’ and they still need to continue to find a better holistic solution to the challenge.
In your opinion, what’s the most important thing for retailers and resellers to bear in mind when dealing with customers?
To always try to make the customer feel amazing!
What gadget can’t you live without?
My smartphone (how sad)!
What do you think will be the next big thing in tech?
At CES I was looking at the different trends and developments, but rather than the ‘next big thing’ it was an overriding sense of everything being connected to everything else. Its not a new concept, but I think that connectivity is just becoming better, slicker and impacting more and more diverse everyday lifestyle products.
If you could wave a magic wand, what would you change about the channel?
I would slow down the speed at which new technologies and products are commoditised. Commoditisation leads to products being treated as a sku’ rather than something that needs positioning to help the consumer or business experience. This would help encourage distributors and resellers to invest in taking products to market properly again and adding value to the ‘end user’ proposition.
What is your proudest moment as a company?
I cant pick one out! M2M has grown exceptionally well year on year and have hit important landmarks each year that we are very proud of. The consistent compliments we receive from our customer and manufacturer partners for being a distributor that continues to add value to their proposition with our knowledge, supply chain management expertise, relevant info sharing and accuracy on what we promise, brings continuous pride.
What distinguishes you from your competitors?
Product knowledge. Market knowledge. Respect in the way we work with customers and manufacturers. Personal touch in the way that we work. Our drive to be the best at what we do.
What are your key brands/lines you carry?
Traditionally our key expertise has been with memory and storage products. Crucial, Samsung, and Seagate have been very important partners for the manufacturers and ourselves. We have strived to be the best with all three vendors across memory modules, SSDs, hard drives and optical drives. We also have very strong brand partnerships with Hynix and G-Skill that continue to thrive and grow in the UK. Lastly, we have new partnerships with Plextor, Patriot, Wavemaster and Lable to Cable that are looking really exciting that we hope to showcase and help take to market at Boot Camp!
What are you most looking forward to at PCR Boot Camp?
The interaction with the fantastic people and businesses that make up the UK channel.
PCR Boot Camp 2014 takes place on May 21st at The Brewery in London. If you’re a dealer or buyer and would like to attend PCR Boot Camp 2014, you can sign up here.
If you’re a vendor or distributor interested in exhibiting at Boot Camp, contact pcr-online-staff@transfer.pcr-online.biz.
