Vizio goes from "Who?" to "Top TV brand in US" in one year

Call it a Jack the Giant Killer story.

The Retail Bridge: Vizio Now Top Selling Brand Of HDTVs in The U.S.

"Vizio's rise from the number 15 flat panel TV brand in
Q2'05 to number one in Q2'07 is quite remarkable given the intense competition
in this market and can be attributed to its unique channel strategy," said
DisplaySearch president Ross Young. "Its warehouse club channel focus and lack
of channel conflicts enabled the company to get to disruptive price points which
helped fuel the rapid rise of the warehouse club channel in the U.S. TV market
and caused its shipments to surge.
...
According to the report, Vizio currently claims 12.1
percent of the LCD market and 11.9 percent of overall flat panel HDTV sales (LCD
and plasma). In terms of year-over-year growth, the company jumped 340 percent
in market share since last year. Samsung and Sharp roll out the top three with
11.3 percent and 7.9 percent of the market, respectively.

The lesson here is that brand snobs have sneered at Vizio for being a nobody, but Vizio's disciplined distribution strategy of aggressively catering to the price club and low-end retail channels have allowed them to hopscotch "name" brands for the #1 spot. Contrast that focus with other "name-brand" televisions whose manufacturers want to have their cake and eat it too: who want to see their televisions not only in price clubs and general goods retailers, but also big box CE stores and specialty boutiques! It doesn't work that way: all emphasis equals no emphasis.

Vizio may be a low end television, but as an observer once said about advertising, no one has ever lost out by pandering to the lowest common denominator in America. Vizio knows what they are, and play to their strengths, and the results speak for themselves.

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