The Bundle Crowns Panasonic As Cordless King

New York — Consumers instantly recognized the value of a cordless bundle from the category's marquee brand, pushing Panasonic's KXTG2382 out of retail shelves with alacrity, dealers said.

"It was extremely successful," said Adam Davis, buyer for R.C. Willey of Salt Lake City.

"It was their first model with a bundled handset and, especially for our market in Utah, our consumers are very price-conscious" and appreciate the value of the additional handset, Davis noted.

Best Buy's senior buyer John Messina concurred, adding that the model "offered a lot of value for the $129 retail price, such as two handsets, caller ID and answering machine."

Staples, which sold the product through its e-tail site, reported strong sales and brought its successor model in-store, said Chris DiOrio, Staples' senior product manager for business machines. "People are looking to pack features into their product, and this offered a good value to our small, home office customers," DiOrio said.

"Expandability has been phenomenal for us and for the home office customer," DiOrio noted, adding that Panasonic's brand strength has been amplified by the exit of other CE brands from the phone market, notably Sony and Toshiba.

Retailers noted that the advertising push from Panasonic on the unit was minor, and the heavy lifting varied among dealers. R.C. Willey promoted the product heavily to get customers in stores, Davis said, while Best Buy "periodically" featured it in its sales inserts, Messina said.

While the KXTG2382 could add a third handset, most retailers said consumers were satisfied with what they took home in the box. "Customers are basically happy" with what they get in the box, Davis said.

"This unit was unusual for us in that we only made the expansion handset available on our dot com site," said Best Buy's Messina. "It was one of our better dot-com sellers … In our brick-and-mortar stores. I think there was a fairly high level of satisfaction with the dual handset package."