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The Television as a Product in Nigeria
PRODUCT UNDER REVIEW: The Television set in Nigeria
SITUATION REPORT: Nigeria is full of television sets, of all technologies (CRT, Plasma, LED LCD, 3D, SMART and now, OLED), and makes and sizes, like the Hisense TV here below and the Samsung TV beside it.
Hisense 65″ Inches Smart Satellite UHD 4K TV + Wall Bracket
Samsung 43 Inch Crystal UHD Ultra Slim Smart 4K TV
The television has been in Nigerian households since its invention. With a population of about 200 million, we guess the country should have more than a hundred million television sets, among households and offices and shops and hotels and public places.
BRANDS: The brands are many: Originally – when the technology was the big and bulky Cathode Ray Tube – National and Phillips, as TV brands, were the principal household names in Nigeria. Then, there were the good old German Blaupunkt and Telefunken. There were no used television sets imported in Nigeria until around 1988, shortly after the national currency devaluation of 1986 made the majority of Nigerians so poor, they could not – and still cannot – afford brand new goods, including television sets: and that marked the beginning of the importation into the country of all types of second-hand goods, including television sets. Between 1988 and now, many more TV brands have been imported into Nigeria from different parts of the world, like the good old German Blaupunkt and Telefunken. The big and bulky Cathode Ray Tube has disappeared, but not completely, because one can still find it in a few places, especially, households who have the technical experts who know where to find the spare parts and have the know-how to maintain it.
Presently, the brand-new TV market in Nigeria is dominated by new school makes, notably Samsung and LG and, more recently, names like Skyrun and Scanfrost, Polystar, Itec, Infinix (Android Smart TV), Bruhm, Amani, Ailyon and Uka. About eight years ago, when I first wrote this article, Nigerians bought more of the first two than any other brands, mainly, I am sure, because they were cheaper, the quality was not bad and those two had made, and are still making very aggressive marketing. But Samsung and LG have become expensive, compared with the latest entrants into the market.
Everything in Nigeria has become expensive in the face of unending devaluation of the country’s currency since 1986. There are also the more expensive TV makes, like Sony, Sharp and Phillips, but I have not seen these ones in any sales outlet in years except Sony. Nigerian importers know how to shift focus from one brand of the same product to another, driven by customer behaviour. If big time importers have stopped importing Sony and Sharp and Phillips television sets into Nigeria, it is because Nigerians have stopped buying them due to their prohibitive prices. Same thing goes for all categories of consumer products.
The determining factor is the price, not only in Nigeria but, indeed, all over the world, because 99% of the world population is poor and manufacturers and sellers, especially from the so-called developed world, are not taking that truth into consideration, but China is. That is why China is selling more all over the world and the West cannot keep up, because the West has failed or refused to make their products affordable to the poor people of the world, yet they go into trade wars and blame China for their woes. The poor man is not interested in politics and trade wars. The poor man is interested in buying what he needs and what he wants with the little money world leaders allow him to have, and I think China’s vision and mission are satisfying the earnings of the poor man, for now.
PRICES: Take a look at the prices of TV sets in Nigeria.
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A Good TV Needs A Beautiful TV Stand
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