Thanks to its top scores on six of the 25 aspects of marketing support, products, and after-sale support related to resellers’ sales of professional front data/video projectors, Mitsubishi came out on top in the overall composite rating for the second year in a row in the annual survey conducted by Pacific Media Associates (PMA), the Menlo Park, CA market research firm that tracks the large-screen display market. PMA’s Annual Reseller Survey is widely recognized as the authoritative source of independent, unbiased ratings of large-screen displays manufacturers by resellers throughout North America.
“Because of the extremely competitive nature of the professional front data/video projector market, manufacturers strive mightily to offer sales and marketing programs that are attractive to resellers to assure that resellers give their brands high priority,” says PMA’s president, William Coggshall, “Although these three brands topped the list of our composite of the 25 different aspects, actually 15 different brands were tops in one or more of the individual aspects, indicating an overall high level of satisfaction by the resellers.”
The survey also ranked the aspects according to their importance, so manufacturers scoring highly on the more important aspects boosted their overall composite score more than those who scored well on less important aspects. Since the report includes numerical ratings for each manufacturer for each aspect, manufacturers can learn if they are doing well on those aspects to which they have dedicated the most effort, and to see where they are lagging. The individual top-rated companies for the most important eight aspects are given below:
Product Quality/Reliability NEC
Product Price/Performance Hitachi
Knowledgeable After-Sale Support Persons Sharp
After-Sale Return/Repair Programs NEC
(Marketing Support) Capable Dealer Reps Mitsubishi
On-Time Product Delivery Eiki, Sanyo (tie)
Responsive After-Sale Support Persons Sharp
Product Availability Hitachi
The 2002 survey covers a broad range of facts, figures, and opinions from the 221 participating resellers, many of whom are among the largest in North America. Although the number of responses for any particular pair of brands might not be large enough to make strong statements about the true statistical difference if the ratings figures are close, the difference between the highest and lowest rated brands for any given aspect is clearly statistically significant.
Pacific Media Associates is a market research and publishing firm that specializes in the large-screen displays business, covering all technologies that can produce a 25-inch (diagonal) or larger picture on a wall or screen from an electronic (video or computer) signal. Their Large-Screen Displays Industry Service currently provides detailed worldwide quarterly updates on front projectors and large-format flat panel markets, newsletters on new product announcements and other key industry developments, and an annual survey of North American resellers. Their monthly Large-Screen Displays Reseller Tracking Service offers timely tactical data on unit sales, prices, and inventories of front data/video projectors and large-format flat panels sold by leading North American resellers. And their two separate annual Large-Screen Displays End-User Surveys--of organizations and of individual consumers--explore the behavior of owners and shoppers.
Pacific Media Associates is headquartered at 1060 Siskiyou Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025 Tel. 650-561-9020 .Fax 650-561-9019. www.pacificmediaassociates.com.