Discount electronics online-only company Kogan is releasing a Collingwood branded TV. The limited edition run of 50/60Hz Full HD LED TVs will be available in a single size, 42” and be branded with Collingwood logos. The logos will appear in place of the standard Kogan branding on the front of the TV and remote.
The boot loader has also been modified to display the Collingwood Football Club logo during startup. These tweaks do however seem pretty tame when you think of the possibilities of a black and white striped bezel, base and remote. Those fanatical Collingwood fans amongst you, will need to fork over $449.00 for the special set.
The interesting part of this announcement isn’t the TV itself, nor the price, but rather the decision process in launching this product. Kogan founder and CEO Ruslan Kogan has said that product development is done in a calculated manner based off consumer demand. Using Google Trends to determine raises in consumer interest, Kogan then launch products to capture that demand.
This strategy has worked incredibly well for Kogan often beating larger entrenched companies while they wait for test market data to emerge before responding to trends. The big difference with today’s announcement of the Collingwood TV is that it shows a new direction for product development at Kogan.
Given this is the first branding of its kind on a TV, there was no consumer demand for this product, but rather a gamble from Kogan. At the end of the day this shows a maturation of Kogan as a company, now capable of taking a risk, albeit on a limit run. One thing is certain, that if this proves to be effective, additional branding partnerships will emerge at Kogan. Given Ruslan is a big fan, I’d suggest Nike will be getting a call shortly.
What we don’t know of course is if this relationship also has a financial component, or is it simply a rights deal to use Collingwood branding.
I bought a Kogan Collingwood TV and it is still going strong – like Collingwood