I’m a Sony guy. If I see the name Sony on an electronic product I’m predisposed toward purchase. Quality, fidelity, and craftsmanship are a couple of the qualities I assign to Sony products. I’ve even written here about Sony’s lead in TV, and how its TVs are superior.
Well lo and behold, Sony’s flat panel LCD TV business is unprofitable with a market share lead in the US that is fractional. Who is nipping at its heals? Visio. Who? Visio.
Ever shop at Sam’s Club or Costco or a similar warehouse store? If so, then you’ve probably passed some Visio TVs. More likely than not you’ve passed them in carts rolling out the door. These flat panel TVs are about half the price of the big brands like Sony and Samsung and people are buying them with their 50-packs of toilet paper.
Contract manufactured in Asia, with spectacular targeted marketing, companies like Visio and Olevia are biting off some serious share.
If you market where the price shoppers are – and today, who isn’t a price shopper – and offer a product that is half the traditional price, you are likely to gain consideration. Perhaps not the first time, you walk past the TV on the way to find your groceries, but the 4th or 5th time. So long as that TV is still pounding out brilliant pixels, it is wending its way into your heart. Sony better get with the price program.
