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Cost Analysis Research Paper
Introduction
Cost analysis is important before any purchase, especially in the purchase of electronic devices that can get spoilt easily due to issues such as power surge or mishandling. Therefore, many people engage in window shopping before purchasing the required product (Shy, 2014). The purpose of window shopping is to ensure that there is perfect understanding of the market and the variety of products in it (Zhai et al., 2017). However, mainly people do window shopping so that they may determine which deal is the best in their buying endeavours (Zhai et al., 2017). This paper explores my recent involvement in the purchase of a Digital Smart TV from Sony.
The Significant Item Purchased
Recently, I purchased a digital TV from the online market. The TV is manufactured by Sony and it has full HD capacity in terms of its display. For a long time, I had longed for a completely digital smart TV which I could use to access various movie sites such as Netflix and Hulu among other things such as streaming live soccer. That is the reason why I went on a hunt for a digital as well as a smart TV to address my entertainment needs. The TV set itself has a 40-inch screen display. The TV is equipped with super standard features that make it a perfect fit for my viewing needs. It has a stand that can be attached to its bottom thus enhancing its stability when placed on top of a table TV Stand. This stand gives it elegance in its look and makes it have outlook. One of the important of the features of the TV set is the thinness. The TVs width is less than 10 cm and this reduces the space occupied by the TV set in the house. Some of the technical features that make this digital smart TV good for me is that it is equipped with inbuilt surge protector as well as a power adapter that protects the unit from being affected by surges in electric power. This means that I can connect the TV and worry less about it getting short-circuited due to fluctuations in the power voltage. Other protection features include dustproof, lightning protector as well as being able to work in very humid environments such as those experienced during the peaks of the winter season. This TV is a significant item to me because it is a perfect garget for me in my internet connection needs especially in streaming live TV and also providing digital TV signal for local channels without the need to subscribe to cable TV. Therefore, it is significant in the sense that it helps me to save money as well as catering for my viewing needs and a relatively larger screen than the one I previously had which had a display area of 24 inches only. This is, therefore, an upgrade for me and it is very significant to me.
The Seller’s Pricing Approach
I purchased the smart TV from one of the Sony electronic product distributors who was selling the unit on Amazon. I had been looking for this TV for over half a year before I purchased. I always checked from different sellers, time over time. As such, I realized that the marketing strategies that were being used by Sony were perfect for me. Some of the marketing approaches that the seller used included holiday coupons. For example, during the Easter holiday, the TVs price was reduced by 20% to a price of about $500. This was coupled with other gifts such as USB drive for storing media such as video and audio for use with the TV. As Chawla, Khan & Pandey (2015) state it, pricing strategies go a long way in determining whether an online buyer buys the product or not. In short, they determine the sales. Putting the prices close to the image of the TV set was a perfect strategy from the seller. The price was conspicuous enough to be seen by the buyer. Apart from the USB drive, the seller also lured customers by significantly reducing the price of the TV if the set was to be bought together with other Sony products such as Sony home theaters and DVD players. This was evident during holidays such as the Easter holiday as well as the Christmas holiday.
I also realized that the seller sold his products at competitive prices with other TV brands such as Samsung and LG. To ensure that his products were sold at competitive prices, the seller ensured the prices were not outrageously high to the extent of being capable of scaring away potential customers who might want to buy. He priced the products by reducing the amount significantly by changing the prices to appeal to the psychological decision making of the buyers. According to Pappas (2016), a slight reduction in the price helps the buyers to perceive that the product is cheaper than other competing products on the market. A good example that I saw during the recent past Easter holiday, the seller was pricing the products such as the TV I brought by reducing the price to a lower hundredth value that made it look cheaper and yet the difference was almost insignificant. For example, before the Easter holidays, the TV set was going for $580. But during the holiday, the seller priced the product at $570 making the product to look cheaper to the buyers who were shopping for the TV set.
Market Research
Before I purchased the TV from the Sony distributor on Amazon, I had done my research on the TV set. I started by doing a general google search for the cost of a smart TV and the search gave me many massive results. Some of the results of my search came from the Asian continent. Some from the west African sellers such s Jumia. Alibaba was also one marketplace that came up often during my search for the cost of a 40-inch smart TV. Netgear, which is also an online store just like Alibaba as well as Amazon came up and there were price differences between all the online stores that I used to search for the TV. As tie went by, I refined my research specific features. Initially, I used to search for smart TVs, but as time went by, I become interested in the Sony brands. I thought that they had the best designs that fit my desire. I also narrowed down to online stores whose shipping fees were favourable and affordable to me as a buyer. One other aspect that I was keen about in my market research was finding a seller that would deliver a genuine product to me and not fake or a low quality TV set. As such, I settled on Sony brand distributors. Even though I had to part with a slightly higher price compared to other offers from other companies such as Skyworth and LG, I decided to go for the Sony sellers because I believed they provided original and genuine products. Furthermore, the market rating for the Sony products was encouraging. Furthermore, my market research revealed a higher chance of receiving a genuine TV set if I bought a Sony brand.
Identification of the Competition
As usual, there is a lot of competition in the electronic market, especially in the online platforms. This is because many companies are striving to produce electronic products that meet the needs of the users of the products. For example, the technological advancements have necessitated the use of Smart TVs for streaming movies, live TV shows as well as live sports from all over the world (Turban et al., 2017). Therefore, the major players in the TV manufacturing such as Sony, Samsung, Skyworth and Life is Good (LG) are striving to produce TVs that have features most needed by the users. Therefore, in my purchase, I experienced competing brands, especially from Samsung and Skyworth. Samsung equally has high-quality TV products. Honestly, it was not an easy matter deciding between Sony and Samsung. However, I just felt that the strategy used for marketing the Sony TV set especially during the Easter holiday played a bigger role in making me decide to by the Sony smart TV. Skyworth’s competition is mainly in terms of price. Skyworth TVs are generally chapter compared to Sony and Samsung TV sets.
Discussion of the Price Paid.
Cost Analysis Research Paper For the 40-inch smart TV from Sony, I paid $570 but the coupon was bundled together with a free 64GB USB drive that I could use to store media for playing on my smart TV. Furthermore, as part of the holiday coupon, I was given a free DVD player from Sony and this took my entertainment to the next level because I can play any DVDs using the DVD. Determined that this was a reasonable price after critically analyzing the amount of money I would have spent buying the USB drive and the DVD separately. The amount would have been far much higher than what I paid. Furthermore, I was sure that I was getting a high quality product with genuine parts. The 12-month warranty also went a long way in helping me to determine that the price was reasonable for this Smart TV set.
Conclusion
In conclusion, my purchase of the Smart TV was indeed a process that took time and at last, I realized that the research I engaged in helped me to save a lot of money and also helped me to find the right TV set that met my needs for entertainment. Therefore, before purchasing a significant item such as a TV, one needs to concentrate and take time to do market research to find the best deal in terms of quality of the product being bought and reasonable price for the product being bought (Turban et al., 2017). A good place to start is doing a Google Search for the required product and their prices to compare and contrast the products as well as compare the prices and offers from different sellers.
