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Innovation in Consumer Electronics

Posted by on 02 January 2009
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With the holiday season coming to an end, we can expect a lot of returns in consumer electronics this January. The Wall Street Journal reported in May 2008 that 11%-20% of all consumer electronics are returned. This becomes increasingly important since there is a decrease in spending in electronics this year. Sohrab Vossoughi of BusinessWeek has listed four ways the industry can fix this problem in this article.

Know Your Customer
The first recommendation is know your customer. Sohrab gives an example of how even soccer moms own iPhones and GPS systems, and so these products are no longer innovative. Tech geeks are looking for a more satisfying experience with consumer electronics.

Create a 360-Degree Experience
Marketing, packaging, and design must all mesh together to help explain to customers the product benefits. Sohrab once again gives an example of Apple because they do an excellent job with the 360 experience. Their design is sleek, the packaging is elegant, and they send a unified message.

Speak in Layman's Terms
Most consumers are not tech experts, and so they might even leave stores like Circuit City and BestBuy without making a purchase because of the daunting task of listening to tech buzzwords. The consumer electronic industry needs to speak in terms the average Joe can understand. Ex: '120GB= 30,000 songs'

Tell the Truth
If your product consists of hour long setup, lots of wires, and a ton of techspeak, don't label it as 'easy to use' or 'simple'.

If the CE industry follows these recommendations we might just see a surge in consumer spending.

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