An interesting topic to discuss, Price vs Quality, or Quality vs Price.
One of the interesting things about the market today is that despite relatively high valuations across asset classes globally, within the World market or the US market many of the biggest and the best companies are just not expensive relative to the rest of the market and relative to their own historical valuations.
Being an engineer by qualification myself I have a dilemma. I think many engineers also have the same dilemma. We, Engineers are constantly being asked to achieve two seemingly conflicting goals: assure the high quality of products while keeping costs low. While it may seem futile to try to resolve these two conflicting issues, a structured approach towards cost and quality can help, especially when it comes to passives, electromechanical devices, interconnects and connectors, many of which are commodity products.
According to a survey done in Germany, it says, Price is more important than quality for the majority of Europeans when it comes to grocery shopping. Germany, France and Poland are the most price conscious nations in Europe, while the Italians clearly place a higher value on quality. There are equally as many differences between Europeans when it comes to eating out as opposed to preparing a meal at home. These are some of the findings of GfK’s European Consumer Survey 2004. No doubt that this survey is for food products but the issue is the same which is Price vs Quality.
But as a human being, we certainly believe in this statement, “Is price important, yes it is…but no price is a good price if you don't like the quality! ”
Overall it is all depends on what are you purchase. Some products we need really good quality and in some products price is more critical. But if price is chosen, you should never forgo quality completely. Again as I said earlier, it is all depends on the products that you need to buy.
Looking at today's world market, price is most important. People are buying things based on price. People need to save money in this hard time. First and foremost is the question of price and consumer loyalty. The impression given by such a headline is not that most people are price sensitive (we don't need research to tell us this), but that price is the MOST IMPORTANT factor when deciding which online store to buy from.
Personally, I find this nonsense. It is true that for some people price is the most important factor, but not ALL people. This is simply a matter of segmentation.
What do you think about this? Guys, need some feedback from you on this topic.
Over the past couple years, I’ve made the decision to always choose quality over price. What brought this on? Shoes. Basically, I got tired of spending $200+ a year buying made-in-China shoes that fall apart in no time. I finally gave in and paid $400 on a pair shoes made by a local company with a reputation of quality and durability, using the same techniques they’ve used for the past 80 years. These shoes have a lifetime guarantee (except toe sole, which can be replaced for a reasonable price). Needless to say, it took longer to completely break in these shoes, than some of my other shoes took to compleatly wear out.
To me, quality over price just makes sense because in the long run, you save significantly more money by not continually replacing the item. I look my grandfathers old power tools, some of which were purchased in the 60’s, and are still in perfect working order. These days, those tools would have to be replaced after only a few short years of regular use.
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