Last week TFCinfo announced the completion of its “Projector Brand Customer Perception and Preference Study 2013.”  This report marks the 12th year that this annual projector brand benchmarking study has been conducted.

This research measures projector brand strength among experienced projector users and purchasers in the five most important market segments in the AV industry: large corporations, small/medium businesses, small office/home users, education and government.

By analyzing brand strength and perceptions across important market segments, a clear picture emerges year over year as to where brands fall short and where they are improving in each of these segments. This year Sony does particularly well in education and government, NEC continues to perform strong in the business oriented segments, Epson is simply dominating in education, and other brands are also solidifying their position and showing consistent improvement in particular segments.

When looking at the three main elements of brand strength: awareness, image and intent, some interesting findings are revealed through historical trend analysis in comparing the yearly results.

Awareness

Most notable are Epson, NEC and Sharp. All three brands post gains in unaided free recall in four of the five market segments surveyed. Epson maintains their top spot in education and government as the most recalled projector brand (unaided) and NEC maintains their top position in large corporations. Unaided free recall is extremely important to ensure that your brand comes to mind to be included in the important pre-purchase research

Some strong increases are also seen this year for brands that have previously suffered from lower overall unaided brand awareness. Unaided awareness for Christie, Eiki, Optoma and Viewsonic is improving greatly.

Image

A clear picture is forming with regard to some of the most important projector purchasing factors and the brands that are being associated with them. The top four most important factors to look at when purchasing a projector are overall picture quality, reliability/maintenance costs, brightness, and price. Experienced projector users and purchasers name Epson, NEC, Panasonic, and Sony as the top brands they consider to be high quality/reliable projector brands. Respondents name Dell, Epson and InFocus as the brands that offer the best price (value), while on the polar end Epson, Panasonic and Sony are named as offering a better investment (higher price/higher quality). This is a great position for Epson to be in as end users are viewing the brand as both a great value and a high quality investment.

Intent

Only five percentage points separate the top brands that are most considered for purchase overall this year.  Epson, NEC, Panasonic, and Sony are the most considered brands for purchase. Some of these brands are being pushed by their dominance in particular market segments. InFocus, Sharp, and even Mitsubishi hold their own on this measure posting some important consideration gains in certain market segments this year.

Many brands were researched in-depth and each show significant strengths and weaknesses in certain areas. Brands that are analyzed in depth include: 3M, Dell, Dukane, Eiki, Epson, Hitachi, InFocus, Mitsubishi, NEC, Optoma, Panasonic, Runco, Sharp and Sony.

This extensive 350 page report reveals detailed customer insights and analysis that will help manufacturers to build and sustain an advantage in the marketplace.

This report analyzes:

 

• Unaided brand awareness
• Aided brand awareness
• Brands used
• Brand consideration set (Is your brand among a select group of brands considered first?)
• Superior brands (Is your brand always considered?)
• Inferior Brands (Is your brand never considered?)
• Buying criteria
• Importance rating of buying criteria
• Brand affinity (How strong is your brand strength on key purchasing attributes?)
• Brand associations (What type of projector use is your brand most associated with?)
• Brand image index (How strong is your brand compared to average and your competitors on important purchasing factors and affinity attributes?)
• Plus: Projector use and purchasing (How are projectors used in each market segment, what benefits are realized from using a projector, what are the downsides, how many hours are projectors being used, where are consumers getting information about projectors and brands, where are they buying most, who are the gatekeepers of purchase, does your brand measure up on the most important purchasing factors?)

This report also includes market trend graphs for each market segment that tracks the movement of top brands from 2006-2013 in important areas such as: unaided and aided awareness and brand consideration.

This detailed study is now available for purchase. For a complete brochure and outline of this report please contact Tanya Lippke, TFCinfo Director of Survey Market Research, at (207) 783-0055 or tmlippke@tfcinfo.net