Plasma's Bright Future

Consumer-electronics companies will now have to market their products in a completely different way. Gateway and Best Buy are planning flat-panel promotions for Mother's Day and will increase their advertising in women's magazines. Capitalizing on the home-makeover television craze, Gateway tried a "technology makeover" offer at its retail outlets, providing customers with advice in the store or at home. Best Buy plans to retrain its sales staff. "We need to change," Simonson says. "We need to appeal to women. We want the female customer to want the TV instead of just being the approver." The Dutch electronics giant Philips is taking a more subtle approach to marketing its flat-TV line, with ads pitching a sleek, refined design aesthetic rather than low prices or picture quality. To make that point, the company featured its product on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

By associating flat-screens with hip home remodeling, the consumer-electronics industry hopes to convince Americans that they need a television in every room. Once hot video recorders and DVD players each provided a sales surge for the industry, but most households made do with one device. Getting Americans to watch not just more TV but more TVs would be a vastly superior growth model for electronics companies. When the TVs are as thin and light as the latest flat-screens, they argue, why not?