2004 Consumer Electronic Show excerpts

Click for opening keynote address excerpt (Ohtsubo/ Panasonic)

Click for CE shopping from a female perspective panel excerpt

Click for CEO panel excerpt (Product returns)

Click for CEO panel excerpt (Excited about what at CES?)

Opening Keynote Address - CES '04 Jan. 8, 2004

"What our research is showing us, that consumers think about these products very differently than we do . . . it's about their time, and how to maximize it. It's about their precious memories, and how to save them. And most important, it's about making it easy; easy to understand, easy to set up, and easy to use."

Fumio Ohtsubo
President, Panasonic AVC Networks Company
Senior Managing Director, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Shopping Consumer Electronics, Understanding the Female Perspective - CES '04 SuperSession Jan. 9, 2004

Dave Williams, Vice President, Enterprise Research & Analysis
Best Buy, Inc.:

will pay huge dividends, and back to Susan’s point, usability research: Really understand what it takes to get this stuff put together. Because let’s remember, males dominate the engineering part of our industry, which means they typically write the manuals, which means they’re about “yo” thick, and very complicated to understand. Let’s just start getting--with my manufacturing partners--more joint usability research, and more of a commonsense female perspective on “this goes with that,” and “these are the hidden tips and tricks throughout the experience.”

Susan Stoev, Worldwide Business Research Director
Eastman Kodak Company, Digital & Film Imaging Systems:

We did some very interesting what we call “out of box” research. And, we gave both men and women a digital camera, and we said “go ahead set it up,” and then we watched what they did.

Did they go to the manual? We had it set up so that you could phone a friend, you could phone a technical service, and we timed what they were doing, and where they were having problems.

And it led to a mass redesign of how we put our products together.

So, now the first thing that you get when you open up a Kodak camera box is a Quick Start Guide. And, so that Quick Start Guide, shows you 1, 2, 3, 4--what steps you need to do. And, it not only dramatically reduced the set-up time, but it also cut the cost to our service center by a significant amount because we made it easy, and they could follow through step-by-step.

So it goes back to usability, and really watching what people are doing.

Denise Yohn, Vice President, Corporate Strategic Marketing
Sony Electronics Inc.:

David touched on something that Sony has emphasized quite a bit recently when you talked about displaying TVs and home theater systems together. We know that a core value, or core need, for women is simplicity. With all the stresses in their lives they are looking for products, services, packages . . . anything that will make their lives easier.

Retail Power Panel - CES '04 SuperSession Jan. 9, 2004

Gary Shapiro, President and CEO
Consumer Electronics Association (CEA):

The favorite subject, which we come back to every couple of years, the issue of "product returns." Any changes in the last two years in Product Returns? Are you seeing more, seeing less? Have we gotten any great secrets to get smarter about them . . . to reduce them? . . .

Leonard Roberts, Chairman & CEO
RadioShack Corporation:

With us they're down. I think similar to what we just we talked about; they're down because technology is better. And, second we have a more educated consumer, whether we do it, or they get educated by the internet. Or the product is getting simpler to use.

Because most of the returns we have gotten over the years is because the consumer basically did not understand how to work the product--that's getting better . . .

Alan McCollough, Chairman, President & CEO
Circuit City Stores, Inc.:

I think, Len.... One of the things Len touched on is the real key. You're selling a wide range products: It's “How difficult are they to work?"...because we know that a lot of it isn’t really broken, even though the customer thinks it is. The challenge in returns is always making sure the product is workable by an average person—most of the time. When that’s not the case, you see returns; when it is, people are pretty happy. I don’t think anybody...or the vast majority don’t buy things with the intent of bringing them back.

Retail Power Panel - CES '04 SuperSession Jan. 9, 2004

Gary Shapiro, President and CEO
Consumer Electronics Association (CEA):

What one device or technology is here at the CES that excited you the most on a personal level?. . .

Alan McCollough, Chairman, President & CEO
Circuit City Stores, Inc.:

I think that I get excited when I see products that are "user-friendly," and weren’t designed by engineers, for engineers. Ah, that too often we have great technology, that the challenge exceeds the customer’s capability. And there’s such, there’s such wonderful things that we can enable, if we think as often and as much about how the customer’s going to use it in their house, intuitively, understanding that no one’s going to get the manual out of the box…That would be real exciting!