Dealers Need To Invest In DTV

At a recent pre-CES meeting with the press, Toshiba A/V Products Marketing Vice President Steve Nickerson hammered at the need for consumer electronics retailers to invest in DTV. While acknowledging the investment commitment thus far shown by product manufacturers and broadcasters to bring DTV and HDTV to the American public, Nickerson chastised retailers who have not been investing the monies necessary to present the benefits of DTV to consumers. Noting that ìdollars in and of themeselves will not make it happen,î he said dealers must improve their ìcredibilityî by hiring qualified sales help, re-focus advertising to be educational rather than price driven in order to ìteachî consumers about the new technology, better serve a new generation of self-educated consumers who are too often more knowledgable about the technology and products than the retailer selling the product, and demonstrate the picture quality and discrete 5.1 sonic attibutes of the full DTV/HDTV experience.Nickerson said that ìour world is changing, and the generally accepted practice that consumers walking into a store knows nothing and can be shaped and moved to whatever products the retailer feels they want to sell is a bad way of doing business going forward.îNickerson said that retailers should begin to establish a name in the DTV category and warned that ìat some point, analog TV sales will fall off faster than DTV can pick up dollars.î That time is approaching rapidly and ìonce it happens, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for retailers to make investments in changing the way their stores look, act and feel.î Nickerson though acknowledged that 1999 will likely continue to see DTV serve as ìa catalyst for sales of NTSC product and other digital source products such as DVD and DBS, as opposed to being a driver of digital sets, in and of themselves.î