Best Buy Is 'Market Maker' in 4K, Says Marketing Executive at Investor Day
Best Buy is the "the market maker in 4K television," said Mike Mohan, chief merchandising and marketing officer, during its investor day Tuesday. Its buying team has worked with TV vendors to make sure connectivity and compatibility features of vendors'…
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TVs match "our standards," Mohan said, "not the vendors' technical standards, because we knew what would happen if it was done incorrectly." If vendors wanted to be in Best Buy four years ago, "you had to go through a gauntlet that our merchant team put together," he said. "Those are now the de facto standards in the industry for all 4K televisions." The retailer's buying teams understand the importance of "panel costing and availability," said Mohan, which enabled it to increase demand and "bring larger screens to market sooner," because it understands "the balances between those who make panels and those who assemble the sets." Bsest Buy complemented its work with vendors with marketing efforts to tell consumers who had recently upgraded to HDTV "why 4K TV was better even if you didn't have a 4K signal," he said. Thursday, meanwhile, Best Buy sent an email blast to customers spotlighting a $359 starting price for big-screen 4K TVs. The $359 leader, a 49-inch TCL Roku TV, was followed by a 50-inch Sharp 4K smart TV at $399, for savings of $100. The lowest 4K TV price went to Sharp for a midsize 43-inch model at $329, and Best Buy shaved $70 from the price of its private-label Insignia 50-inch 4K TV, bringing it to $379. Tier one TVs showed discounts, too. Best Buy chopped the price of an LG 49-inch 4K smart TV by $250, bringing it to a cart price of $449, below LG’s minimum advertised price.