I just read an interesting piece in Businessweek about how "Marketing Missteps Stalled TV Sales." Cliff Edwards writes that 2010 pretty much sucked for folks selling televisions for a living.
Speaking as a consumer, Cliff's story didn't surprise me. We have 4 TV's at our house. Two are HD, two standard-def. As there's just two of us living here, 4 is more than enough.
I saw a 3DTV Demo last year and while it's cool, it was the dang glasses that had me saying no. At least for now. Priced at $150 a pop and with batteries that need replacing there were too many potholes in that visual road. So, how many pairs should you have? What if 5 people show up to visit instead of 4 for your Super Bowl party? What happens if you forgot to replace the batteries in some of the glasses? Who would be the odd man/woman out? The industry is working on that, but not to the point where I'm going to buy. Or even think about buying.
Oh yeah, there's the whole LACK OF PROGRAMMING too.
Again, Cliff nails it when he talks about the marketers focusing too much on jargon like "LCD," "LED," "Wi-Fi Capable," and "Internet Ready."
Say what? None of them said the darn things were just TV's that had some other features. But ultimately they were just TV's.
Lastly the economy didn't help and isn't helping today. A lot of folks dropped big bucks on flat screens just before the bust. We're not remotely interested in dropping more bucks on something that marketers seem intent on confusing us about.
It's just a TV. When we get home, we want to turn it on and watch programming. That's it. If the TV can do some other things, fine. But don't over complicate one of the most basic forms of entertainment the huge majority of us have known all our lives.
Never has the KISS rule applied more.
Brian Olson
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"
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