Kogan cuts cut-off date for 'œcut the cable con' campaign

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 30 March 2011 18:30

Your IT - Home IT

Ruslan Kogan, the e-tail entrepreneur building his own brand on the back of value and cunning stunts, could have chosen a man called Con to cut the cable but didn't, continuing to cut the 'cable con' on his own.

Always on the look-out to stay in the public eye and garner some free publicity and traffic to his sites, some of which presumably translates into sales, Ruslan Kogan is continuing his war on expensive HDMI cables.

Kogan is doing this by selling a 3 metre HDMI 1.4 cable for $3, although if you buy the cable on its own, you'll also pay a $5.70 delivery fee. Still, at $8.70, that's still much cheaper than Jaycar ($19.95) or other stores (no HDMI cable less than $37.99 that I could find at JB Hi-Fi online) if you want a single 3 metre cable.

Mr Kogan is also continuing his campaign to give buyers of TV's from JB Hi-Fi one of his 3 metre HDMI cables free of charge - if they email a copy of their JB Hi-Fi proof of purchase to " This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ".

It's a clever way to gain insight into JB Hi-Fi's customer list and advertise to it if those who receive a free $3 cable also subscribe to Kogan's email newsletter or agree to be added to it.

Ultimately though JB Hi-Fi's customer base is everyday Australia, and Kogan presumably benefits far more from press coverage which results in website traffic than any customer details collected to send out a free HDMI cable to.

After all, the online market is wide open, and the more people that know about your company and brand, the more people that are likely to be receptive to new product ranges - especially if they are at competitive prices and are products of a good quality.

While I've read criticism of some of Kogan's products, I've read criticism of everyone's products. While I don't own any Kogan products, the ones that I have seen in use performed their advertised functions admirably.

Naturally, before buying anything, whether from Kogan or otherwise, you should always do your research, checking out prices and value online, and actual user reviews where possible so you know the experiences of others. Information is power after all - saving dozens or even hundreds of dollars on an HDMI cable is definitely powerful information that eases the load on your wallet, too.

With so many good deals and varied brands out there, competition is definitely vibrant in the consumer electronics space.

With the iPad 2 frenzy in full gear, leading to emptied stocks, there'll no doubt be a Honeycomb 3.0-powered Kogan tablet just as soon as Google finishes polishing it and can help manufacturers get prices right down to compete with the iPad while enforcing a certain level of quality to stop the cheap Chinese tablet cheapies from churning out a chaotic cornucopia of sub-par iClones.

But that's all in Kogan's future. Today, he missed out on having a guy called Con cut a cable in honour of the Kogan 'Cut the Cable Con' campaing continuing - indefinitely. 

Ruslan Kogan's comments on page on page two, please read on!