Emerson stays no. 1 on managers' hit parade - sales of consumer electronics at discount stores - Top Brands, Part 1: Store Manager Survey

Discount Store News, Oct 16, 1989

Emerson Stays No. 1 on Managers' Hit Parade

For the third consecutive year, Emerson emerged as the top ranked brand in consumer electronics, according to responses to DSN's Top Brands Survey.

Emerson's hold on the No. 1 spot was weakened, however.

Second-place General Electric edged up a little, closing to within four percentage points of Emerson. Last year, eight percentage points separated the top two brands.

Until three years ago, GE was the top ranked brand in the CE among discount store managers.

Over the past few years, GE's grip has weakened as Emerson gained momentum.

Overall, most CE labels received slightly fewer responses as top performers this year than last, a result of a growing category and introduction of more brands.

This year, 32 CE labels were mentioned as top performing brands, and 10 percent of the respondents named a wide assortment of other labels that became the "other" category. If "other" were merged into the Top Brands list, it would tie Magnavox as the No. 7 brand.

Table : Consumer Electronics How Industry's Top 5 Fare at Chains

Brand       K mart    Wal-Mart    Ames/Zayre    Target
Emerson      15%        74%          41%         39%
GE           27         16           32          33
Panasonic    13         18           18          17
Sony          8         13            7          25
Sharp        30          5            -           8

Fierce competition among the brands is likely to shake up the category in upcoming years, especially as the home office category heats up and thrusts office machine brands into the forefront of fast-turning, higher-margin products.

New product introductions will also add fuel to the competition.

By the end of next year RCA will be in the audio business, the company just announced.

Currently, CE sales at discount stores are driven by TV's, VCR's, radios and telephones, etc.

Leading the list again this year is Emerson, due, in large part, to the brand's standing at Wal-Mart.

Store managers for the Bentonville, Ark.-based discounter named Emerson as the top performing brand nearly five times as often as the No. 2 brand - Panasonic.

In fact, three-fourths of all Wal-Mart managers surveyed said Emerson was their top performing brand in the CE department. Panasonic and RCA were tied for second, followed closely by GE and Sony. Last year, RCA was the clear No. 2 finisher at Wal-Mart.

After Wal-Mart, Emerson's best performance was at Ames/Zayre. Four out of 10 store managers therenamed Emerson as a top performing brand, down substantially from last year when more than half the managers named Emerson as a top performer in CE. After Emerson, GE and Soundesign were tied for second place, and Panasonic and GoldStar were tied for fourth place.

Target store managers named Emerson slightly less often than Ames/Zayre managers. After Emerson, Target managers cited GE, Sony and Panasonic as top performers.

Sharp Is Tops at K mart

K mart managers gave Emerson the fewest mentions as a top performing brand.

In fact, at K mart, the top performing CE label was Sharp, according to survey results. This is probably due to Sharp's technological advancements, which have translated into improved quality in televisions, VCR's, camcorders, projection TVs, plus its entry into home office. In addition, in January, Sharp will be introducing a full-line of telephones including cordless and business models.

Three out of 10 K mart managers named Sharp products as best performers, compared with one-quarter of the managers who named GE, which came in second.

Last year, GE-brand CE products were ranked as the top performer at K mart.

After Emerson, K mart managers said the top performing brands in CE were General Electric, RCA, Nintendo and GoldStar.

In all, Emerson was named the top performing brand in the CE department by more than one-fourth of the surveyed managers, down slightly from a year ago.

In fact, Emerson's standing as the No. 1 performer in CE declined in almost every area, particularly among upscale discounters, in the South, and at Ames/Zayre stores.

Emerson is still the No. 1 CE label at Ames/Zayre, though its edge was diminished somewhat. GE, still in second place at Ames/Zayre, rose 11 percentage points from the 1988 survey.

Emerson's best showing this year was at Target. Four out of 10 Target managers named Emerson as a top performer, compared with one-fourth a year ago.

Because of Emerson's increased popularity among Target store managers, GE became the No. 2 CE label at Target.

Sony, which enhanced its standing on the current survey, was named as a best performer by Target store managers more often than at any other discounter.

One-fourth of all Target managers surveyed said Sony was a best performing brand.

Sony's rise in the discount industry is attributed to greater shipments to discount store chains and the company's well-known name.

After Emerson and GE in the one and two positions in the Top Brands Survey, the list is as follows: Panasonic, Sony and Sharp in a three-way tie for third; RCA, sixth; Magnavox, seventh; GoldStar, eighth; Nintendo, ninth; and Soundesign, 10th.