Last night I had dinner with a senior group of managers from the
consumer electronics business. Earlier in the day they had been showing
off some of their about to be released products.

The interesting thing was this: The engineers had created products that
were based on extremely detailed research into the American and
Japanese consumer. This research into how people live in their homes
and which member of the household makes decisions such as where the
furniture is placed, was fascinating. And the product that was
demonstrated to me was great.

Problem. They had found that the marketers in the US part of the
company were not so impressed. It seems that the marketers in the US
are still not dealing with thinking about what the end user wants and
needs. They are only concerned with how to influence the buyers at the
big retail chains – like Circuit City and Frys. The marketers
apparently don't think that these volume sellers are particularly
interested in the consumer!

What is this going to mean in the US? It seems like there will be some
tectonic shifts ahead in the US retail consumer electronics business as
companies, particularly etailers establish trusted relationships with
consumers and trade into the detailed research that will be made
available to them as these very human-centric products are released.

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Posted in Main Page by Chris Gilbey No Comments Yet