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Study: Consumers Favor Lower Prices over Picture Quality
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Video Calibration
Written by Video Savant
Tuesday, 31 July 2007
An article in today's TV Predictions newsletter reports on an eMarketer study that finds that consumers have an overwhelming preference for low prices when asked to make a choice between price and picture quality.
Sixty-two percent of Americans say they would buy a High-Definition TV if there were "significant price drops." That's according to a new study from eMarketer, as reported by Advertising Age.
In the study, only 21 percent of consumers said they would buy a new HDTV for "improved picture and audio quality."
Unfortunately, this says much about my historical track record for "timing the market." Could there be a better time to be launching a web site focused on promoting the factors that are important to a high quality home viewing experience?
In fact, I think the general trend highlighted by the survey shouldn't be all that surprising. After all, consumers in the US and elsewhere have been conditioned over the past decade to expect prices for all electronic gizmos to go only in one direction over time -- DOWN.
And there's an additional factor here -- roughly 30 million households in the US already have at least one HDTV. So, it's somewhat inevitable that as HDTV purchases loom for the broader market that price would be a bigger factor.
Still, some of the other findings in the study are somewhat startling and not entirely credible. I think we've got a full-blown Attention Deficit Disorder epidemic on our hands if it's really true that a consumer will give up on a product and opt to return it if he or she can't get it working in 20 minutes.
While I agree that setting up an HDTV is too complicated, in my experience it can be achieved by a determined person of average intelligence. Giving up so quickly seems unprecedented and not particularly logical, considering the time spent making the purchase and the additional hassle involved in arranging for a return.
If 20 minutes is some sort of average consumer breaking point, then there must a significant number of consumers out there who believe the TV will unpack itself while they're in the kitchen making the popcorn.
Again, I don't doubt the general trend here, but this smacks of eMarketer trying to create sexy talking points for its survey.
Video Savant 
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