CES 2008: Brad Anderson - Best Buy CEO in CES Forum

Best Buy CEO, Brad Anderson, participated in the International Retail Power Panel at the Hilton Las Vegas alongside leaders from other large consumer electronics retailers from around the world.

When Brad Anderson talks people listen.

He stated that 2007 was a good year for Best Buy, but it was a tough one.

Anderson said Best Buy saw extraordinary growth in GPS devices and notebooks.

Asked about the impact the overall economy has on consumer electronics, Anderson stated,"We definitely can feel it."

Anderson suggested that Best Buy's growth and differentiation comes from customer intelligence. "We're trying to deepen our understanding of the customers who shop our stores."

The web is changing how people shop for consumer electronics. However, Anderson pointed out that it also provides increased employee expertise.

Asked about the importance of brands, Anderson explained that he has seen a surge in value oriented brands, which are taking a piece of the flat panel business. He's also seeing growth in Best Buy's private label brands. Large brands need to differentiate to be competitive with lower cost sets.

Asked about Warner's decision to exclusively support BluRay formatted high definition content, Anderson said it, "increased the likelihood of getting to one format." Internally, he says, "Employees are frustrated by the difficulty in guiding consumers to appropriate products today." On a 1-5 scale, he puts resolving this issue for consumers a 4 to 5.

The move to digital TV is, "One of the biggest risks our industry has." Anderson explained Best Buy's roll in the change, stating, "We're trying to diminish that risk."

Don't 90% of consumers already have cable or satellite? Anderson said he polled some his own employees in a recent meeting, asking, "How many have a set in your house that is dependent on an analog feed? Almost all raised their hands."

Best Buy polled their HDTV buying customers and found some interesting results when asked about hooking up HDTV sets to non-HD sources. "We were surprised to find that people who hooked up their HDTVs to non-HDTV sources were aware of it. They said that they were future-proofing their sets."

How important is it that the industry goes green? Anderson gives it a 5 out of 5 for importance.

Making products easy for consumers to understand also comes in at 5 out of 5 for importance for Anderson.

CES 2008: Brad Anderson - Best Buy CEO in CES Forum
Originally uploaded by technologyevangelistcom.

great coverage, Ed and Ben! we forgive you your typos blogging from that crazy zoo out there... :-)

as someone who was involved in the launch of BestBuy.com, I have great respect for Brad and his company, and I really appreciate getting coverage like this right from the scene

Thanks Graeme. I typed this post on my Treo and posted it via email through Flickr, so I didn't have the luxury of spell-check. Apparently, that makes a difference, eh?

In a portion of this article pasted below. It states "When Brad Anderson talks people listen." What I would like to know is when people talk does Brad Anderson listen? I just ended a call as a disatified customer. I was given 888-237-8289 to call to voice my complaint and request a refund I felt was due. I was told my complaint would be documented to better the stores way of doing things and I would not receive a refund nor any further communciation from Best Buy. I lost $61.00 and the time to make the phone call so the Daytona Beach Best Buy can better themselves?
The 888 # individual was polite. I asked who was next in line to talk to? I was told that I reached the top of the line. I asked for the CEO's name so I could write a letter to him. I was told she couldn't give his name over the phone and I could write a letter asking for his name? Buracracy at it's worse? I got angry and said I would google his name. This is when I found your website within 4 secs of hanging up. My Best Buy Case # is 54327024. I ask you the Technology Evangelist perhaps you can get someone "important" to listen? Regards CL

Best Buy CEO, Brad Anderson, participated in the International Retail Power Panel at the Hilton Las Vegas alongside leaders from other large consumer electronics retailers from around the world.

This is to C.laClaire, I also just googled ceo of best buy and came to this, my daughter is having a similar problem with best buy and is getting the biggest runaround, from one manager to another, I plan to write a letter to Brad Anderson in the hopes he reads it, we tried everything first, there seems to be no one higher up then their general manager and they do not want to tell you who is above that. My daughter has a lemon of a tv, she paid over a thousand for tv and then with installation another 500.00, has bought so many things there and never a problem till now, was promised that they would use the lemon law and give her a voucher in the amount of her tv and she would be able to pick out a new one, surprise surprise, next day geek squad called and said they were told to just fix it with the refurbished parts that cost more then the tv itself and they decided no she was not getting a new tv afterall, and this is when all the managers had just approved her getting a new one, she was so upset, she works hard and overtime to make just a decent salary, keeps her credit outstanding, and now they have totally lied to her on everything , she has tried to talk to whoever and they are all avoiding her, all she gets from the operator is call the customer service dept, the same number you are talking about, its your classical case of PASSING THE BUCK. I just figured out that they do not want to take this loss at XMAS time, because they would have to write it off, and the girl that had approved it is now nowhere to be found, but my daughter documented everything, names and all, but we are shocked that a big company as best buy would treat customers like this , and one who has bought a computers, and other small items, and she was getting ready to buy me a new computer for XMAS, hope you get to read this or someone does that by chance could help us, now I feel so bad for her, they had treated her very disrespectful and what makes me even more mad is the lying from these managers, and I say to all do not ever buy an LG TV, she has only had it a year and a half, and they it went out and they replace the parts with used parts which cost over two thousand dollars, you can see why we are worried this tv will go out when warranyty is up, imagine if she had not bought the extended warranty which cost a fortune, she would have been out, this is outrageous. I thought best buy was better then that. good luck to you

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