TFCinfo today announced the completion of its “Projector Brand Customer Perception and Preference Study 2015.” This is the 13th year that this annual projector brand benchmarking study has been conducted to measure projector brand strength among experienced projector users and purchasers across the five most important market segments in the AV industry: large corporations, small/medium businesses, small office/home users, education and government.

In this year’s installment, Epson makes the biggest overall impression. The brand posts positive gains (driven by improvements in many segments, especially SOHU) in awareness levels, purchase consideration and their overall brand image. The results of this research mirror their unit market share dominance and the brand has solidified their position at the top. Other brands such as Dell, Hitachi, NEC, Optoma, Panasonic, Sharp and Sony also show strength and improvements in other key areas and market segments.

Awareness, Image and Intent are three main elements of brand strength that continuously need to be monitored. In this research, TFCinfo shows how individual brands perform on each of these important measures and in comparison to other brands. This allows readers to form a complete picture of where their brand is, and where their brand needs to go to stay competitive.

Awareness: Epson, InFocus, NEC, Panasonic and Sony are the most recognized projector brands in the industry.  While other brands may not have ranked among the top, they post some of the strongest improvements and definitely cannot be overlooked. Optoma and Hitachi both post significant gains across the board in both unaided free recall and aided brand recognition this year.

Some strong increases are also seen this year for brands that have previously suffered from lower overall unaided brand awareness. Unaided awareness for Barco, Dell, Eiki and Viewsonic improve this year, which is extremely important to ensure that your brand comes to mind to be included in the important pre-purchase research.

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. Some of the most important factors to look at when purchasing a projector are overall image quality, reliability/build quality, and price. Experienced projector users and purchasers name Epson, Panasonic, and Sony as the top brands they associate most with having an excellent image quality.

These same brands, along with NEC and Hitachi, are also named as brands that represent projectors that offer superior reliability and build quality.  Respondents name InFocus, Epson and Dell 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). Epson is in an excellent position as end users are viewing the brand as both a great value and a high quality investment.

Intent: Epson, NEC, Panasonic, and Sony are the brands being considered for purchase most overall.  Some of these brands are being pushed by their dominance in particular market segments. InFocus, Sharp and even Hitachi hold their own on this measure posting some important consideration gains in certain market segments this year.

“Many brands post great scores this year,” states Tanya Lippke, “In order for brands to turn this consideration into an actual purchase, consumers must have a clear understanding as to what your brand offers in correlation to the purchasing factors that are most important to them. This report reveals what messages the major brands are delivering and how these perceptions are affecting them in the marketplace.”

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, NEC, Optoma, Panasonic, Runco, Sharp and Sony.

This extensive 360 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?)

Get it here.