It’s that time of year once more when IFA kicks off in Berlin which is the largest consumer electronics and electrical goods fair in Europe but, is it worth the hassle?
The past few years we’ve been packing our bags about now and heading off to Berlin to see what new goodies that the various appliance manufacturers had in store for the coming year.
However this year we decided not to bother.
You see normally by around this time of the year we’ve had more than a few press releases on the latest widgets, often meaningless or pointless features, redesigns and so on but this year, virtually nothing. In fact, all of this year thus far there has been very slim pickings on new products or much of anything else in the way of appliance news.
It has been a veritable desert when it comes to new product introductions this year and although there seems not to be any one particular reason that any manufacturer will confess to, we think we know why.
The home appliance market is at a virtual standstill and innovation is almost non-existent.
There are any number of reasons why the industry may be in the doldrums but it is in no small part in response to the general economic climate and the various uncertainties in the financial markets we’d think. The fact is that nobody is willing to spend millions of Euros or Dollars to introduce a new product line when the market is as depressed as it appears to be. It wouldn’t be rational to do so.
Add to this that we seem to have topped out on washing machine and washer dryer load capacities, energy use, spin speeds and the key things that people look for when buying new, they can already get seemingly top specifications from all the major manufacturers, often at prices so low it’s seemingly impossible.
Then there’s the construction and housing industry, which is seemingly on its knees with few people moving or buying a home, which is a major driver when it comes to appliance sales.
Of course we also have seen a huge influx of low cost appliances, especially washing machines and dishwashers, from China and also from Turkey that are sapping value from the marketplace
In large part it would appear that the result of all this is that many appliance sales, especially in the fiercest low end and middle market have become a battle of the lowest priced appliance and many brands appear to be competing in a race to find the bottom.
With devalued products being sold at little more than the cost it leaves little to develop new products or introduce new ones.
Appliances Just Aren’t Sexy Enough
Let’s face it, most people don’t get up in the morning and check to see if there’s a funky new washing machine about to be introduced. People mostly simply don’t care about it. Unless an existing appliance is broken and they need to replace it, they’re buying a new kitchen or home then appliances are of little to no concern whilst they are still working.
This is unlike the likes of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon’s Kindle range and so on, people get enthused about these sorts of products and, increasingly we see companies with this sort of excitement around their products moving away shows like IFA and CES Las Vegas to singular events to promote their wares.
It makes a lot of sense when you think about it.
No huge show stands to pay for and staff, they can launch products on their timetable and not that of some show organiser and best of all, they can broadcast the introduction to the world in any way that they see fit online.
No appliance manufacturer could ever hope to accomplish this sort of following and media interest.
It seems to us that this makes shows like IFA, CES, and so on fairly redundant in this respect as, there simply isn’t the interest from consumers in whitegoods.
Business Sales
Here’s the only thing that we can now understand that brands would want to attend these shows, to do business.
If you wander around the halls of CES, IFA etc you will quickly see that there are closed off areas for VIP guests that are often in the form of a meeting room for the large brands. For smaller ones just look at the name badges and you see that most of the people milling about the stands are often buyers or retailers sniffing about looking for a deal or the possibility of stocking the brand.
For the brands, it gives them the chance to meet these people, show them their products and potentially close a deal with many companies over the course of the few days that the show is running.
Why We Didn’t Go To IFA 2012
It wasn’t worth the cost or hassle.
All that we could see was going to be there in the appliance halls was the same old same old that was there last year and, the year before that and, the year before that. It appeared to be completely pointless other than to visit the fair city of Berlin.
From what we could tell there were almost no new products, not even any real redesigns or ranges and really nothing worth the flight for.
Of course, that may well be the attending brands failure to communicate what they are actually doing at IFA in part as well since there has been, as we said earlier, an almost complete lack of any press information. Neither the trade or press will go chasing down new release information normally and if the sole purpose of the show is to sell to retailers, why not just call it a glorified sales meeting?
Here’s a not so subtle hint to manufacturers and brand owners, if you don’t tell the trade and the media outlets especially you are doing something, we won’t bother to turn up and tell the world about it for you.