The quandary of television ...

A young middle aged man found himself in a bit of a quandary. Years ago he had given up his cable television subscription: disillusioned with the content on offer, he made do with streaming the odd hockey game from his computer. His youthful and good looking better half was very content with a subscription to a DVD by mail service and he also found himself enjoying this service as well. The quandary was whether or not to buy a new television set when he didn't actually watch 'television.'

Nonetheless the young middle aged man saw the merit of a bigger picture and decided to run the gauntlet of the television stores. Historically he favoured a particular brand and as it happened they actually had a couple of their own stores not far from where he lived. One day he decided to browse in the lions den of fantastically bigger and bigger televisions: all bright, all loud and all thoroughly confusing. Eventually he did manage to find a small (by comparison to others) set he liked. He also found what appeared to be three different prices. What was the difference?

A smiling salesman approached and listened to the young middle aged man's questions and helpfully explained the different features. He asked what the young middle aged man liked to watch (hockey and DVDs) and described the relevant differences between the models which helped explain the different prices. The young middle aged man left the store feeling happy that he had learned something. While still wondering which of the models he should buy, he was impressed with the salesman.

A few days later he found himself in another part of town with his youthful and good looking better half. They passed by another of the television stores and decided to look together. They found their way to the lions den of fantastically bigger and bigger televisions, all bright, all loud and all thoroughly confusing. Eventually they spotted the size of television they liked. The same set the young middle aged man had seen in the other television store.

A smiling salesman pounced on them and immediately regaled them with stories of the two (not three) models they had on sale for this year. A 'deal' was immediately presented and sounded to the young middle aged man immediately like a 1980s car show room with a salesman like a Canadian version of Arthur Daley. Sadly Arthur's charm was missing. The young middle aged man then learned all about the salesman's house, how many children he had and crucially it would seem, therefore how many televisions he had. The salesman favoured the latest and most expensive model, having now changed tact from the original 'deal.'

At one point the young middle aged man saw a hockey game playing on one of the bigger televisions and asked is he could see it on the smaller TV he was interested in. This would have been very helpful. The request was immediately declined. The salesman did not seem to know the features very well and focussed on being very critical of the idea that you could have a television without 'television,' mixing metaphors along the way. The salesman then went on to share information about an offer from a completely different company, another 'deal,' not only for television, but also telephone and Internet. Confusingly he then explained why he couldn't take the offer up himself at home.

The young middle aged man was confused. He thought this was a television store and given his experience at the first store was very surprised by the contrast in styles of salesmanship. Maybe it was the youthful good looks of his better half, but it did seem the salesman thought his potential customers had been born on the previous day. The young middle aged man's better half did not enjoy the experience of the store (or the salesman) and he was doubly disappointed as it was difficult enough to convince his youthful good looking better half to enter the store in the first place!

The quandary remained but given the experiences so far, the young middle aged man is more likely to buy the cheaper television model and take the time to go back to the first television store he visited.

Then again given his experiences so far, he may just decide not to do anything about it at all!

Comments

[Jim]

TV with no TV - we've been doing that for years! Sounds like part of the quandary has been eliminated, as one store has been eliminated from your possible sources (I have my guesses about where it is, do they also have refrigerators and cell-phones and vacuums there?...are they compensated on the sale or the satisfied customer experience?)

It's one thing to hang around and either find someone who quickly knows what they want, or hope to dupe someone into buying what they don't want or need. It's another thing entirely to understand what it is you are selling, and to be able to assess whether it fits a prospect's needs. Even with a potentially higher price tag, the Sony Store is probably the better value...

[Stewart Marshall]

The remarkable thing is that both stores were the same company and my favoured brand. One on one side of the water the other on the other :-)