Part 1: Quality
Research
Introduction:
When
you’re looking to buy something, it’s incredibly important to know exactly what you’re buying. Say you’re
looking to buy a new TV for your living room; you don’t just rush over to Best
Buy and ask the employee for advice. While many of the “Blue Shirts” are nice
and knowledgeable people, they unfortunately have a vested interest in what
they are selling and probably have not personally experienced every TV they
have for sale. This is why the Internet
is such a valuable resource, assuming you know where to look. There are tons of review sites and tech
forums where people discuss the advantages and disadvantages of specific
products that are invaluable to the buying process. In this article, I’m going to show you how I
take advantage of them! For those who may think this article sounds too
general, I could probably write an entire article on how to buy a TV based on a
list of desired features, but for this article, it’s probably best to keep it
simple.
Narrowing:
Before
you start researching specific products, you need to narrow down the list of products
you are interested in buying… otherwise you’d be researching for days! For this article we will use the example of
shopping for a new TV. The first thing you should do is to visit an e-commerce
site that carries all of the major brands, for example, Best Buy. Set a
reasonably wide budget range that you want to spend and pick out the TV models
that best match the features you’re looking for. I say wide
range because you might be able to get a TV that is seemingly out of your
budget, but is on sale. We will discuss this more in part 3! Once you have found a couple products that fit
your needs, it’s time to find out what people think about them.
Reviews:
There
are 2 types of product reviews: Personal and Professional. Generally, I like to look at professional reviews
first since they usually explain the features in more detail, but the order is
not necessary.
·
Professional - If the product you are looking
for is reasonably complex (not much value in reviewing a stapler) you might get
lucky and find some professional reviews of the product on the web. I start by Googling “(insert model #) Product
Reviews”. Look at the first five or so
results and be sure to take note of the site name so you can see if it is more
likely to be an accredited reviewer; somebody at TomsCoolBlog.com might not be
the best TV reviewer. Here you’re likely to find a review that discusses
whether or not features of each model work as advertised, so you can get a
clearer idea of whether or not this TV is what you’re looking for.
o
Website Examples: TomsHardware, CNET
·
Personal - This kind of reviews found on most major
websites, is typically written by the everyday consumer who has purchased or
experienced the product. I treat
personal reviews as “red flags.” for example, if a particular model has a
glitch or common problem, you are VERY likely to see people complaining about
it here. However, personal reviews can
also show you if a product really shines.
If you see people saying, “These are the best black levels I’ve ever
seen on a TV, truly remarkable” consistently then the model is probably a good
choice. Keep in mind though that the
everyday consumer is not an expert, so take their opinions of quality with a
grain of salt.
o
Website Examples: Amazon, NewEgg, ConsumerReports, CNET (User
Reviews)
Wrap Up:
Research
on product quality can save you a ton of headaches. I know it’s tempting to buy a major appliance
that you need when you see it on sale but you never know how good it could
be. Just because it’s made by a brand
name doesn’t mean that it will always performs well; brand name manufacturers
make lemons, too. When you’ve done your research and determined what products
you want to buy, it’s time for Merchant Research, which will be the feature of
part 2 of this article series.
Author Erik Johnson is the
promotional manager for SuperheroDen.com and TVMovieDepot.com. Look for part 2 of his series on Sept. 9th. Don't forget to read his personal story about the Art of Slickdealing here.
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