Hey There Big Spender

While digging into the results of Parks Associates latest survey, The Changing Consumer Electronics Purchase Process, I discovered some interesting data points I wanted to share. The survey analyzed purchasing decisions as well as the amount spent. To nobody's surprise, we found the overwhelming majority of all respondents[1] (86%) had purchased a consumer electronics product with the past 12 months—nearly two thirds had purchased two or more. The total amount spent by broadband HHs on CE products was impressive. Over-one half of all HHs surveyed had spent more than $500—one-quarter had spent more than $2,000.

Once you factor the amount spent against the number of spenders (within each category) an interesting pattern emerges. Approximately 75% of all expenditure is accounted for by just 25% of the respondents (see figure). The market for consumer electronics products, it would seem, is thus concentrated among a handful of households. The "long tail" concept applies to DVD players as well as DVDs. Interesting indeed...

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[1] The survey sample was representative of broadband heads-of-household age 18 and over.