Styles change; Style doesn't
Background Noise: Trees
Last Visited:i don't like them, i won't link to them.
Random Thought: Sorry guys, there will be no partial credit on this exam
Mood: stuffy
This is the TV i own: it's a 27'' Philips Stereo TV with Component Video Inputs and Side A/V Jacks. You can buy it where i did, Best Buy, for much less than i did; congratulations. I bought it the afternoon of September 11, 2001. Yes, that September 11th. I made my new yorker boyfriend drive me all over town and beyond to find one in stock - we finally found it in Novi of all places.
I had seen it at best buy a few weeks before, needed a larger tv that actually had input jacks for my dvd player. Everything was done except actually spending the $250. I was loathe to spend that much on a tv, but again: my dvds. I bought it that afternoon because i needed (and needed to create) a distraction. My boyfriend was thrilled at my response to a national crisis - how insightful of me, he claimed, understanding that the what our country needed right now was a sustained economy.
But really, i didn't choose this televsion because of any economic need - i chose it to fulfill a practical one: i needed input jacks, a larger screen, good color contrast, high clarity, a decent remote, and i didn't want to spend an ungodly amount of money. I also wanted it to look nice.
That's right boys and girls: i played the style card. My tv had to be decent to look at since i was going to be spending my time... you know... looking at it.
There have been several studies comparing the shopping habits of men and women, especially when it comes to electronics. Generally these studies have found that men will save their money to buy large ticket items with a high coolness factor (ie, 42'' Flat Panel HDTVs for $3500), while women prefer to spend only what is necessary when necessary and spend the rest of the money on other things (entertainment, social events, shoes). As generalities go, this isn't a bad one: i would certainly rather spend my money on something that is practical, cheap, with a decent aestetic than on the biggest badest toy out there.
Now, i'll admit, i'd love a widescreen flat panel TV. I want one i can mount on a wall or put on a track and move around my apartment. But at the moment there's no way in hell i can or will justify spending that much money on just a tv. If i had an extra $4k lying around i'd go on vacation... and shopping. I might pick up a new tv for my bedroom, but it wouldn't be anything more than $500. i just can't justify the expense.
Why am i rambling about TVs? Because Sony recently launched a new brand of flat panel HDTVs that they are going to actively market to women. They've discovered (shock) that they mainly market to men and have been "ignoring" women. Woe is us. They're pitching their new gizmoes with a full on advertising assault on Style.com, Vogue, and W.
Here's my problem with Sony's newly discovered market: while they've accurately identified that women are responsible for the majority of household spending and accurately determined that women enjoy a stylish piece of electronics instead of an ugly one, they haven't actually produced a product that women would want to buy.
That's right: the new BRAVIA line fails to fulfill (at least my) needs for a television: it's too expensive, impractical, and let's face it, pretty ugly.
So i'm sorry, Sony: again you just don't get it.
Saying you have style is the fastest way to prove you don't. Properly identifying a problem with your marketing schemes isn't enough to actually fix that problem. There is no partial credit on this particular exam: you just come across as a pandering father-knows-best type who wants the little girls in the room to fall at your feet for admitting they exist.
As a market, we're just not that easy.
Expression:
Last Visited:i don't like them, i won't link to them.
Random Thought: Sorry guys, there will be no partial credit on this exam
Mood: stuffy
This is the TV i own: it's a 27'' Philips Stereo TV with Component Video Inputs and Side A/V Jacks. You can buy it where i did, Best Buy, for much less than i did; congratulations. I bought it the afternoon of September 11, 2001. Yes, that September 11th. I made my new yorker boyfriend drive me all over town and beyond to find one in stock - we finally found it in Novi of all places.
I had seen it at best buy a few weeks before, needed a larger tv that actually had input jacks for my dvd player. Everything was done except actually spending the $250. I was loathe to spend that much on a tv, but again: my dvds. I bought it that afternoon because i needed (and needed to create) a distraction. My boyfriend was thrilled at my response to a national crisis - how insightful of me, he claimed, understanding that the what our country needed right now was a sustained economy.
But really, i didn't choose this televsion because of any economic need - i chose it to fulfill a practical one: i needed input jacks, a larger screen, good color contrast, high clarity, a decent remote, and i didn't want to spend an ungodly amount of money. I also wanted it to look nice.
That's right boys and girls: i played the style card. My tv had to be decent to look at since i was going to be spending my time... you know... looking at it.
There have been several studies comparing the shopping habits of men and women, especially when it comes to electronics. Generally these studies have found that men will save their money to buy large ticket items with a high coolness factor (ie, 42'' Flat Panel HDTVs for $3500), while women prefer to spend only what is necessary when necessary and spend the rest of the money on other things (entertainment, social events, shoes). As generalities go, this isn't a bad one: i would certainly rather spend my money on something that is practical, cheap, with a decent aestetic than on the biggest badest toy out there.
Now, i'll admit, i'd love a widescreen flat panel TV. I want one i can mount on a wall or put on a track and move around my apartment. But at the moment there's no way in hell i can or will justify spending that much money on just a tv. If i had an extra $4k lying around i'd go on vacation... and shopping. I might pick up a new tv for my bedroom, but it wouldn't be anything more than $500. i just can't justify the expense.
Why am i rambling about TVs? Because Sony recently launched a new brand of flat panel HDTVs that they are going to actively market to women. They've discovered (shock) that they mainly market to men and have been "ignoring" women. Woe is us. They're pitching their new gizmoes with a full on advertising assault on Style.com, Vogue, and W.
Here's my problem with Sony's newly discovered market: while they've accurately identified that women are responsible for the majority of household spending and accurately determined that women enjoy a stylish piece of electronics instead of an ugly one, they haven't actually produced a product that women would want to buy.
That's right: the new BRAVIA line fails to fulfill (at least my) needs for a television: it's too expensive, impractical, and let's face it, pretty ugly.
So i'm sorry, Sony: again you just don't get it.
Saying you have style is the fastest way to prove you don't. Properly identifying a problem with your marketing schemes isn't enough to actually fix that problem. There is no partial credit on this particular exam: you just come across as a pandering father-knows-best type who wants the little girls in the room to fall at your feet for admitting they exist.
As a market, we're just not that easy.
Expression:
posted by Jane at 2:22:00 PM
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1 Comments:
Well, my TV is a 13-year-old 20" RCA. There's nothing flat about it except maybe its color palette, and nothing wide about it except maybe its power consumption.
Which tells you about how much television I watch.
I usually am relentlessly practical in what I buy, which is why I haven't bought a gosh-wow TV. (Heck, I just replaced my beige G3 Power Mac a year ago.)
But a lot of that is because I'm a collector, so my money tends to go into the things I collect: Books, comic books, CDs, humor books.
For spiffy toys I usually wait until they become cheap commodity devices. For instance, it may be just about time for me to replace one of my VCRs with a TiVo...