Top CE Websites Compared

LG has won the title for best consumer website according to some research from Forrester which pitches the top-20 brand websites in the US in categories including consumer electronics and automotive to find which is the best at conveying the brand’s message and identity.

The philosophy behind the research said that top brands should live up to their reputations not just in the shop-front but also online. With the increasing number of consumers researching and shopping online, brands can’t afford to let them down in the digital stakes.

The top-rated brand websites were those that communicated value in an emotionally engaging way and delivered value by offering useful, usable content and function, according to Forrester.

Top electrical brands Sony, Samsung, Philips, Panasonic and LG were up against one another in the consumer electronics category, with LG coming up trumps with Panasonic next in line followed by Samsung, Philips and Sony at the bottom of the pack.

Among the results for LG, Forrester found that the website www.us.lge.com had essential content available where needed, was easy to navigate and the category and subcategory names were clear and mutually exclusive.

Sony lost some serious points because of the technical language used on the website www.sony.com which Forrester believes was not as simple for consumers to understand as other websites in the category.

None of the five websites offered ‘legible text’ according to Forrester.

LG was the only website in the category which ‘performed well’, according to the research, while the Philips www.philipsusa.com and Samsung www.samsung.com websites were the only two that featured ‘easily-recognisable interactive elements’.

The research was divided into two parts: ‘brand action’ and ‘brand image’. None of the consumer electronics websites passed the brand action test while the only consumer electronics website to pass the brand image test was Panasonic.

“Panasonic brings its ideas to life. The name Panasonic is, ‘A commitment to quality, value, and innovation, bringing you ideas for life.’ The site is replete with content and function that reinforces this promise, like the ‘Why buy Panasonic?’ section that describes how the company develops leading-edge products that last. Additionally, there is an innovative function that allows a potential TV buyer to choose a picture of a room, then drag and drop a TV into it to see how the set might look at home. Even better, shoppers can upload pictures of their own rooms and use them with the tool,” said the report.

The websites were pitched against those of brands such as Rolex, Porsche, Chanel, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Audi.