Dennis, Best post I've read on SI.
I think we shareholders can do a lot more to assist in Zenith's recovery (with a bit of help from Zenith).
First, I'd like Zenith to include interested shareholders on their distribution list to receive, either via e-mail or coded website "Zenith Today", their newsletter to Zenith employees. This would keep us up-to-date on Zenith and help to bring us in the loop.
Next, as interested and knowledgeable minority owners of Zenith, we'd spread the word about Zenith's exciting new products to our friends/neighbors/stock brokers/dentists/doctors/lawyers/accountants, etc.
We'd visit the showrooms of the CE dealers in our area to check on which Zenith/Inteq products the dealers are carrying on their floors, the products' postionings, the salespersons' knowledge and perceptions of Zenith/Inteq and identify any problems the dealers have with Zenith products. We could use a simple survey form and send the info back to Glenview via e-mail. Each survey would take about 10 minutes.
With over 12,000 ZE shareholders, assuming that only 1% perform dealer suveys each quarter, we could cover most of the US and serve as a vital source of information to both the dealers and to Zenith.
This may sound elementary to some but my read is this is how Iomega got an early tremendous marketing lift. There were hundreds of Iomega shareowners (primarily from AOL's Motley Fool site) who visited their local computer dealers checking on the avialability, pricing, positioning and progress of Zip and other IOM sales. Their excitment and commitment helped drive IOM to become a 10 bagger in less than a year.
Both Rick and I have surveyed the Zenith dealers in our respective areas. I brought up the fact, at Zenith's Annual Meeting, last May, that some dealers (BrandsMart in Deerfield Beach, FL, for one) were placing Zenith's projection TVs in the worst possible positioning and were pushing the Japanese brands over Zenith. Pete Willmott promised to follow up but the same problem exists in my area.
Like to know what others think of this suggestion... |
