There is a fast emerging market for a class of products will allow consumers to access a broad range of digital media assets that they currently have on their home PC’s and enjoy these assets in their living room and elsewhere in the house through their CE components such as televisions, stereo systems and home theatres. These products bridge the current gap between the classic consumer electronics world of TV, and stereos with personal computers and Internet accessibility.
Category Management is a term familiar to food, drug and mass market retailers and suppliers. It’s been evolving for the past 25 years in that industry, but it’s virtually unknown in the consumer electronics and technology space. With the high level of customer and transaction data available to sophisticated retailers and suppliers in consumer and technology products, and the current demands Wal-Mart is placing on suppliers in all category, Category Management is ripe for our industry. Those who jump in early will reap long term benefits. Those who wait can be left in the competitive dust. The purpose of this white paper synopsis is to introduce the principals of category management and provide a basis for considering your category management options. While at HP I pioneered category management for our consumer business, and developed the retail relationships, infrastructure, skills and processes that propelled HP into the leadership position not only in the printer and printing supplies categories, but established HP as the leader in category management for the entire industry. (more…)
Consumers, on average, take about eight seconds to make a purchase decision. That’s eight seconds you have at point-of-purchase to form an emotional bond with them. Eight seconds for them to form an impression of your brand and product, not only in the midst of all the other competitive offerings, but with all the other distractions in their lives as well.
According to a recent study, implementing website usability enhancements can increase your online ROI by 83%*.
Consider a few examples:
Let’s face it, companies invest significant resources into developing, maintaining and promoting their websites – and for good reason. A company website is often the first place potential customers go to learn more about your firm and determine if they want to take the next step – turning interest into action.
But is your company maximizing its online ROI? When new visitors come to your site, is it what they expected? Can they find the information they’re looking for or accomplish what they intended to do? Is it better and more intuitive than competitor websites? Do you really know if it’s working and what prospects think?
Many companies do not.
Thus, the invaluable role that a usability assessment can provide. Usability refers to how intuitive and user friendly your website is to the target audience and encompasses everything from site design to content, navigation, categorization, and functionality. The beauty of usability reviews is that it is extremely flexible and can be accomplished in many different ways for any type of website or online tool. And, it can be incorporated at any point of the development process.
Perhaps the most effective and enlightening approach is a usability testing study in which people are observed navigating your website and verbalize their thoughts as they go along. Many studies will also compare your website to the competition, providing even greater insight into how well your website fares against others and what you should be doing differently. Let’s face it, you don’t really know how effective your website is until your hear it from your target market firsthand. This type of study is invaluable in identifying where problems exist and how to solve them. And, they can be conducted in a lab environment, on site or even remotely.
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