ELECTRONICS component distributor, Farnell, has re- launched itself with a new name, new corporate branding and a new lease on life.
Now called ‘element14’ (silicon being the 14th element on the periodic table and also the main component in the smallest elec tronic device, the semiconduc tor) the company is part-way through a multi-million dollar transformation aiming to bring it up-to-date with competitors.
With its new identity, ele ment14 will offer Asia Pacific’s manufacturing, OEMS and elec tronic design engineers more than 120,000 products for next- day delivery through a multi-cur rency, multi-language eCommerce engine, global eCommunity of engineers and other support and services.
Traditionally, Farnell has been a UK-based catalogue supplier of electronic design goods, however the business’s executives realised that, with 30% of its sales going online over the past few years, it was time to overhaul the busi ness to keep up with demand.
“We’re known throughout the world for our service, for the product ranges we have and the proposition of our solutions,” said element14 regional director Australia and New Zealand, Peter Davis, at the company’s official branding launch in late October in Sydney.
And the company is by no means small. Element14 current ly employs over 4,000 people in 28 countries, has over two mil lion customers worldwide in 256 industry segments, purchases direct from 3,500 suppliers and has over four million products available online.
The Farnell brand has always been a huge market player sup plying products for electronic design engineers, manufacturers and large OEMs, and mainte nance and repair engineers for 21 years now, and still retains some of its original customers.
The new ‘element14’ identity will re-invigorate the business and also alleviate the need for various legacy brands across Asia Pacific region.
Also joining the new branding is a community website where customers can chat with other engineers and manufacturers, talk in ‘real-time’ to maintenance engineers and also purchase goods. The company is calling this ‘the industry’s only fusion of commerce and community’.
“We recognised that our world is changing, and the needs of our customers are changing. If we stay as a tired, catalogue distrib utor we will struggle to keep pace with that. We’ve done end less amounts of research and canvassed hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide and they’ve told us that we need to be better at keeping pace with our developments,” Davis said.
“They want speed. They want products faster than they’ve ever needed them before. They need more information and they need that information at their finger tips rather than when our cata logues come out. They need new products — though we have lots of products they need more of them. And products that are local in nature too — design engi neering products in China are not the same that are used in New Zealand and Australia.
“They need technical support, customer service and reliability. And they need all this along a channel that they prefer to trans act with.
“It’s created a great opportuni ty for us. We could have done this as the Farnell brand, but companies have a preconceived idea about Farnell. We’re chang ing because we need to stay ahead of the competition and our competition keeps innovat ing and changing.
“Most of all, we need to unite our brands. We have five differ ent names across Asia Pacific. Because we have this diversity of brands, it doesn’t half make things slow. We’re slow.”
The new community website combines business transactions with a website, and will help ele ment14 customers find products more easily, and will also allow the company to keep its buyers up-to-date with the latest move ments in technology.
“This fusion of commerce with community will be amazing. That’s the bit we’re the most excited about. We’ve made massive investments both here and across Asia Pacific in sales and marketing, however our customers want to interact with us, so we’ve bolstered our selves there.”
The community currently has over 30,000 members, with over 300,000 visitors last quarter. Customers can easily research products, interact with peers and connect with suppliers and professionals.
Users will also be able to access any of element14’s breadth of products, including 85,000 in-stock in Sydney for immediate delivery, and another 120,000 available within two days with 140,000 available by the end of 2011.