TecnoMultimedia Colombia was successfully developed. In this third version, the exhibitors and the 3,491 visitors to the Expo highlighted the growth and support that this space gives to the development of the audiovisual industry in the region.
Richard Santa Sanchez
The greater access to audiovisual technology that Latin American countries have had in recent years has generated that manufacturers and distributors must implement education to customers as part of their sales strategy, so that they know what the benefits and options of the technologies are.
In this process of education and training, fairs such as the third version of TecnoMultimedia InfoComm, which was held last November in Medellín, Colombia, play a fundamental role. This was recognized by exhibitors and visitors to the Commercial Exhibition, such as Alberto Vásquez, manager of Eleven Producciones.
"We are living an organizational and cultural process with end customers to overcome ignorance. In recent years, the technological advances of the AV industry are going very fast and if it is difficult for companies to keep up to date, for end customers much more. That's why we organize showrooms, we participate in fairs, allowing customers to know everything new that we can offer them," he said.
Some of the companies' strategies are based on providing training directly at their headquarters, as TV One does. Pablo Paludi, the company's representative for the region, explained that "as part of customer education we provide free training in our factory, where the customer only pays for the plane ticket and can get to know the full variety of equipment. We do not sell just a box, we provide advice to the client before the project, during the installation of the project, and we also have a 24-hour online after-sales service in Spanish to help him with what he has acquired."
Close relationship
According to what the exhibitors of TecnoMultimedia Colombia said, which represented more than 65 companies in the audiovisual industry, currently the sales process must form a closer relationship with the client, in which they are provided with support in all phases of their project and not just sell them equipment or software.
Juan Tamayo, project director of Almacenes Audiovisuales La Cita and who participated as a speaker at the Congress, indicated that "the client is unfortunately not educated to receive an audiovisual system. He does not know about a video projector, he does not know if a monitor, a television, a professional screen, the type of speakers or speakers is better, but in the design process the client must be involved so that he is educated while the solution is sold, that he learns what benefits it will have. "
One of the products that Sony has been strongly promoting in 2012, are projectors with approaches to the education sector. For the sales process of these equipment are accompanied by training teachers for the use of all applications.
According to Natalia Argaez, marketing director for Colombia, they accompany from the design of the solution to the implementation, and "that accompaniment is very important because if in the end we do not get the client to be very satisfied it will be a problem for us. After implementation we also follow up to support companies to reap the full benefits of industries."
It's not just the cost
One of the benefits to the industry that has brought customer training as one of the main selling strategies is that the cost of implementing the solutions is no longer the main decision factor, as it has traditionally been in our market. Now customers want professional audiovisual solutions, today they pay for a design, they include it in tenders. They are not just looking for equipment, they are looking for solutions, they are looking for quotes more thoroughly.
"On the issue of the price of AV solutions, in the case of La Cita, we have presented budgets with a value 40% above that presented by our competitor, but at the moment that the client understands the benefits of the solutions and technologies he will have, he prefers to pay the highest price. That is why education is very important, a new culture is being created, there is still a long way to go but we are on that path," said Juan Tamayo.
Although not everyone thinks the same. Darío Jiménez, representative of the Chilean company Videocorp, said that "from experience we see that it still continues to lead the price as a decision factor over the solutions and benefits of the applications. That is why we do a job of raising awareness of customers on the subject so that they better understand the solutions. Customers need to educate themselves to understand that what is at stake is not just money but the quality of the end result of their audiovisual investment. The ideal is to get to how you work in Europe and the United States, on that path we are going."
Expectation for FTAs
Although thinking that the customer will concentrate on solutions above cost as such may border on the utopian, it could be a reality if the trend of decreasing the price of equipment and software as has been happening in recent times.
For this, Alberto Vásques has an explanation: "Every time the cost of the systems is more efficient, even the prices themselves have fallen marked by the takeoff of Korean and Chinese products that came to compete with the Americans and Europeans, who until recently were the ones who dominated the market."
But other factors also play a role, such as those mentioned by Juan Tamayo: "the cost of the equipment is very influenced by who the importer is. Obviously, if it is the parent company that imports, or a distributor authorized by it, the cost will be similar to that of the United States. Although we have identified cases in which the cost is lower in Colombia than in North America, because there are distributors of great tradition that manage to have lower prices in order to win new markets in the region. "
But both agree that prices will be able to fall further thanks to the free trade agreements that Latin American countries have signed with traditional technology manufacturers. In the particular case of Colombia, it is expected that the treaties with the United States, the European Union and Korea will soon enter into force, bringing with it the reduction or elimination of tariffs.
Preparing for 2013
To say that this year TecnoMultimedia Colombia was consolidated as a great scenario of convergence of the Latin American audiovisual industry is not an exaggeration, if one takes into account that the 3,491 attendees at the Expo in 2012 doubled the nearly 1,500 who were last year, in addition to having the presence of people from different countries of America, as well as China and Australia, among others.
This was highlighted by those who participated for the first time as exhibitors, among which is Rafael Uribe, president of Sonora Spot. "We are pleasantly surprised by the influx of specialized public at the fair and by the quality of the exhibitors. I've seen people from many countries, which makes it look like it's an important destination for industry and for business."
For his part, Juan Tamayo highlighted the benefits that During these three years TecnoMultimedia has brought to the industry: "When this event was not held in Colombia, it was more difficult for customers to know us, it was like working in a fog in which we did not know where we were. With TecnoMultimedia more work has been done, the client knows more about the solutions and demands the integrators. It has been a positive evolution of the AV industry in Colombia that is marking the rest of Latin America."
We have already started working on the fourth version of TecnoMultimedia Colombia, which will be held on November 7 and eight, 2013 at the Plaza Mayor convention center in Medellín, Colombia, date for which 95% of this year's exhibitors reserved their stand for 2013.
