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MORIKAZU SANO
Vice President, BUFFALO TECHNOLOGY
Buffalo Technology, the No.1 peripheral manufacturer in Japan,
entered the U.S market and beat all our competitors to market
with the first 802.11g wireless networking product in December
2002. Shortly after the U.S. launch, we knew we had taken the
right risk. Sell-through data showed that the new market was
growing as expected.
Market intelligence is key. Indeed, NPD data let us review not
only adoption rates but also category sales and average selling-point
trends within the new category of 802.11g. And insight into
the strength of the U.S. market on a SKU and category level,
which NPD provides by channel, helps us to understand how to
prioritize our product road map as an emerging U.S. vendor.
Buffalo’s experience in Japan with a broad range of products,
including wired and wireless networking, memory and storage
categories, benefits the U.S. division. But we can’t simply
do in America what we did in Japan. The two markets are different,
particularly due to the fact that consumers in Japan have access
to much greater broadband bandwidths than do consumers in the
U.S.
After reviewing sales statistics for print servers in the U.S.,
for example, we decided not to introduce a wireless version
but instead launched a wired print server. We realized a wireless
product would carry too high a price and wouldn’t sell
well.
The importance of market intelligence has only increased in
recent years, thanks to crowded retail shelf space and the cost
to launch products in the U.S. retail market. For a business
to be successful, one must look to market data when making very
selective decisions about which products will perform.
Armed with retail sales data – the most critically important
information for us and a specialty of NPD – we can suggest to
our retailers which SKUs are the best for them to carry and
generate sales. After all, if our products don’t sell-through,
retailers won’t make money and they won’t want to
carry them. |
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