Twitter is an application that was developed by the Tweeter Etc to communicate about their price competitiveness. It was intended to assure customers that they were buying quality electronics at the best price ever (Bichard & Parmelee, 2012). So the application (APP) was meant to check on the prices competitors of twitter posted in the newspapers and if they had posted a price lower than what tweeter had sold to a customer an electronic within 30-60 days, they were refunded the difference within 60 days (John Gouwille, 1997).
The buyer behavior gradually changed from having a taste for higher quality stereo components in 1963 to considering the price first for whatever electronic one wanted to buy in the late 1980s to early 1990s (M.Burkeley, 1993).This behavior was contributed by three factors;
- entrance of new competitive retailers e.g. Michigan based chains in mid 1980s,
- penetration of colored televisions and VCRs in late 1980s,
- Collapse of U.S. economy in 1987-1988 which affected England’s most.
- Increase in price promotion by competitors.(CEpro, 2014)
In order to be in line with this change of behavior, tweeter Etc came up with APP to exactly fit with the kind of the trend of behavior buyers were exhibiting. Fit because the APP addressed the issue of price. An employee could Check the newspaper for price advertisement of electronics by the competitors, enter the details (price and model number of the product) into the APPs database for it to cross-match against the tweeter sales, then generate difference of price and refund the buyer if he bought the electronic at higher price (John Gouwille, 1997).
The APP to some extent led to an increase in sales from 1993 to 1996.The notion means that, it attracted most buyers to tweeter who eventually after being convinced bought electronics. However, it was not effective in retaining these customers (CEpro, 2014). Take for example, tweeter was claiming to be providing the best or quality electronics (no doubt) but at the cheapest price than the competitors. The question is; why then were they mailing back the difference in price back to the buyers? It means that, another competitor is offering at cheaper prices and so buyers would consider, instead of buying an electronic then wait for refund of excess, it was better to just buy at the cheapest outlet and have your money remain with you for other purposes. Another thing was that there was continuous increase in the entrance of bigger competitors like The Wiz who were enjoying the economies of scales hence lowering the price lower each time and making competition tougher (Sailatha, 2012). Hence, in the long run, buyers went back to the competitors! This led to their fall in June, 2008 (Reidy, 2008).
Maybe Tweeter could consider some slight changes on the APP to make more effective in order to maximize on sales and still retain the buyers. For example, reduce the number of days they are supposed to check the difference of in a week time interval. The concept will ensure that there will be no or less number of competitors who would have lowered the prices, or make it frequently, say at the end of the month only. They should also consider other factors like increasing the variety of electronics they have to suit all the types of buyers as illustrated by (Hatten, 2011). The notion will make sure that all potential buyers are reached to thereby increasing their chances to buy. The other thing could be to carry out effective mass awareness program about Tweeter, who they are and their concern about their customers. The mentioned notion would try changing their perspective by the buyers that they are ever expensive. They could also consider other strategies e.g. merging with the bigger competitors like Wiz.
References
(2014, November 6). Retrieved from CEpro: www.cepro.com/article/rise_and_fall_of_tweeter.
Bichard, S. L., & Parmelee, J. H. (2012). Politics and the Twitter Revolution: How Tweets Influence the Relationship Between Political Leaders and the Public. Maryland: Lexington Books.
Hatten, T. S. (2011). Small Business Management: Entrepreneurship and Beyond. (5, Ed.) Massachusetts: Cengage Learning.
John Gouwille, G. W. (1997). Harvad business school. For exclusive use of C.carson , 1-24.
M.Burkeley, w. (1993). tweeters customers told'your check is in the mail'. wallstreet , p.B36.
Reidy, C. (2008). bankruptcy trustee. tweeter stores won't re-open , 20-26.
Sailatha, K. (2012). Business Entreprenuership. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing.
