Editor's note: In our continued effort to provide you with different voices and points of view on the Sony Electronics' blog, today I'd like to present Patrick Houston, the chief publisher/SVP media of NetShelter Technology Media in San Francisco.
Sony Electronics Corp. is seeing some twinkling lights at the end of the recessionary tunnel, perhaps, just maybe, that is, and as near as the holiday shopping season.
But there's something worth noting beyond Sony's "cautiously, cautiously" outlook (in the words of EVP Mike Fasulo). Sony is spiriting itself toward those more hopeful rays by a sharpened, awareness, and it's this: Quality and price competitiveness can peacefully co-exist, and one not necessarily at the undue expense of the other.
At least that's the distinct impressions I got after attending, not one but two executive briefings this week – one of them a roundtable of journalists in San Francisco, the other a day-long briefing for market analysts who gathered at the company's brand, spanking new corporate headquarters in San Diego.
Here's where I'm coming from: One of my earliest and most formative experiences as a long-time Sony watcher came nearly a decade ago when I took a trip to Sony Corp. HQ in Tokyo. During the trip, I got a up close-and-personal tour of Sony's high-end Qualia product line, in Sony's showroom in the Ginza district. It was a retail environment closer to a super-exclusive Beverly Hills boutique than your typical Best Buy store. But while Qualia celebrated Sony's grandest and deepest traditions of engineering innovation, it was also telling the rest of the world that price was a distant, secondary consideration.
Price is always a consideration, of course. In fact, for a time, price may have surpassed quality in many a consumer's mind, especially as a number of new electronics rivals played the "value" card against the so-called Sony premium.
But what's new gets old and what's old gets new, and this is why Sony can take some comfort by sticking to its quality story at the same time it's challenging itself to step up to the various and sundry efficiencies that will also allow itself to deliver "value."
I have no scientific survey in hand to prove the point. But part of scientific process is observation. And there are a few things I'm seeing that suggest consumers are beginning to see value less as a rock bottom price and more as a combo of price and the many attributes that comprise the notion of quality. Indeed, the pendulum may be swinging more toward the quality side of the buying decision process.
I'll give you three reasons why a shift may be afoot.
One: The recession hasn't just forced consumers to tighten their belts. It's also made them far more discriminating. If they're going to spend, they're going to spend on something that's going to deliver more bang for their buck – and over time.
Two: Part of the reason consumers are becoming more discriminating – and certainly when it comes to buying electronics – is that they're so much smarter and experienced, and across the demographic spectrum. Gadgets are now an integral part of our lives. Who hasn't had their fill of computers, phones, music players by now? You don't have to be a tech editor, as I was, to know what device is hard to use or what brand just didn't deliver.
Three: We're all becoming tree huggers of one sort or another. Okay, I exaggerate. But you can forcefully argue that the "greening" of the world is making us less and less willing to buy things just to toss them away. I know I'm willing to spend more to have something longer.
Perhaps Sony's own experience attests as much to all this more than my own logic. When I bashfully asked Sony EVP Fasulo whether my ranting about the quality/value equation, he offered up this anecdote: A recent Best Buy circular offer that paired a BRAVIA TV with a PlayStation 3 in a bundle that, while discounted, still fetched a pretty penny – and turned into one of the retailers most successful offers of the summer.