Best Buy - Listen Up: LLLLETS Get Ready To DEMO!

Jim here. Big box electronics retailers heed warning: No more just standing around citing specifications and pointing at flat screens! You are going to need to do more than always say "This is the set I have at home and it is great".

With the advent of S3DHD televisions you are going to have to demo it, or not have access to them! So says Panasonic. When the VT25 lineup of S3DHD plasmas come on stream in May, retail employees will have to be well versed in the technology and be able to effectively demo what the consumer will be buying.

Said Bob Perry, SVP Marketing at Panasonic: "To us, all of our retailers are really important, but if a retailer cannot properly display it we will not allow them to sell it."

From Twice.com: Panasonic sees 3D as a key differentiator for plasma technology, since it has an inherently rapid switching capability that is necessary to deliver the rapidly alternating full 1080p images to each eye of viewers equipped with special active shutter glasses.

"We believe that when they go into retail and see our 3D plasmas, the average consumer will say, "That looks better" he said. "We aren't going to trash LCD, but are going to make sure the consumer knows that if they want the best 3D experience so far, it is going to be available from Panasonic plasma."

3D TV will be a central part of Panasonic's focus in its previously announced upcoming 15-city "mini-CES" showcase that will use three touring "show booths" with a wide range of products, to hit each of the East, West and Central regions of the country, hitting heavily trafficked venues in the nation's top designated market areas.

...the tour is part of an intensive advertising and promotional blitz for 2010, estimated at around $100 million, that will see Panasonic spend twice as much on advertising some product categories, over the previous year, he said.

I am so glad that Panasonic is putting its foot down on this. Customer service at some of these retailers can be abysmal; I had a guy telling me a few days ago at one of these stores that 3DTVs will be around NEXT YEAR sometime. I hope other manufacturers follow suit. Consumers deserve the best information possible on what they are buying. S3D deserves it too.