Best Buy
I'm leaning toward "brilliant."
Best Buy ... cares?
Best Buy said it will spend $10 million to give people who bought HD-DVD players from it before Feb. 23 each a $50 gift card. Furthermore, Best Buy isn't going to make customers jump through a lot of hoops to get the gift cards; it's going to proactively send the cards to those it can identify as having bought the players through its loyalty program or online. Customers who bought an HD-DVD player from Best Buy and don't receive a gift card can go to stores with proof of purchase and obtain their gift cards.
I was a bit alarmed at first. For starters, $50 wasn't going to cover the price of the Toshiba players that lost out to Sony's
Then again, the more I think about it, the more Best Buy's plan makes sense. I'm pretty sure when Sony lost the VCR wars with its Betamax brand lots of people just got burned, plain and simple, and had to bear the cost of the decision to go with Betamax and start all over again. And I'm sure most people knew the consequences if they picked the wrong horse in this century's format wars. (Indeed, many people have delayed upgrading, since they wanted to know the winner before they plunked down the cash.)
Things sure have changed, seeing how there's a retailer taking the stance that it actually gives a hoot about how such a development affects its customers who made their own choice about which format to go with.
But that's Best Buy for you. The retailer has long been carving a niche for itself in the consumer electronics space, utilizing a customer-centric approach to lure customers from rivals like Circuit City
Last but not least, Best Buy says the gift cards will be in the mail by May 1. Which reminds me that the government's sending out those infamous tax rebate checks in May, too, with the hopes that people will blow some cash. I can't help but wonder if Best Buy's thinking that of those recipients who overlap, perhaps they'll pool the resources and participate in some economic stimulus via Best Buy. Crazier things have happened, right?
The Customer Comes First Club
Of course, this may be an expensive precedent for Best Buy. It may find customers always come to expect a little something to ease the pain of having purchased an obsolete technology. Then again, even if that's the case, it could end up being why customers choose to go there in the first place.
This kind of strategy isn't unprecedented in the retail universe. Some retailers bend over backwards to make their customers happy, even when it seems as though such actions would be a cash drain. Nordstrom
Best Buy's "something" is better than nothing, and the retailer's volunteering to do something it doesn't have to do. That's smart, customer-centric strategy (and makes its rivals look a little less warm and fuzzy, too). That's one of the reasons that, as difficult as the short term may be for Best Buy, given elements like a slowing economy, I still think the stock's a really solid idea for the long haul.
- Fools disagreed on Best Buy in late 2007 -- one thought it would be the Best Stock for 2008, and one thought it would be the Worst Stock for 2008.
- I took a look at Best Buy's bold quarter last December.
- A year ago, I contemplated whether Best Buy could strike back with customer-centric initiatives.