Monday, September 7, 2009









Panasonic vs. LG: Who Delivered the Sharper Image in Media?
Optimedia's Antony Young on Who Was Better Prepped for Digital TV Switch
by Antony Young Published: June 11, 2009

TV's equivalent to Y2K, will see broadcasters throughout the country switch off their analog TV transmitters to broadcast entirely in digital. In the past year, households have had to get themselves digital-ready -- one bright spark for a consumer-electronics industry hammered by the recession. Unit sales in 2009 of digital TV sets will reach nearly 35 million, up about 8% from 2008. The category is flooded by a multitude of Japanese, Korean, European and Chinese brands. While consumers are all too ready to compare side-by-side price, technology and design, we like to think that marketing and promotion still helps influence brand choice. Panasonic and LG, two brands battling to pull out in front of the pack and compete with established market leaders Sony and Samsung, employed different media strategies. Let's see how they did.";

Antony YoungJune 12, 2009, TV's equivalent to Y2K, will see broadcasters throughout the country switch off their analog TV transmitters to broadcast entirely in digital. In the past year, households have had to get themselves digital-ready -- one bright spark for a consumer-electronics industry hammered by the recession. Unit sales of digital TV sets in 2009 will reach nearly 35 million, up about 8% from 2008. The category is flooded by a multitude of Japanese, Korean, European and Chinese brands. While consumers are all too ready to compare side-by-side prices, technology and design, we like to think that marketing and promotion still helps influence brand choice. Panasonic and LG, two brands battling to pull out in front of the pack and compete with established market leaders Sony and Samsung, employed different media strategies. Let's see how they did.

Communication strategies
The two consumer-electronics marketers had similar advertising budgets but didn't deploy them the same way.
Panasonic promoted its HDTV line Viera through a branded "Living in High Definition" marketing campaign that used TV, newspapers and online social media. It also capitalized on its global status as official consumer-electronics sponsor of the 2008 Summer Olympics and, domestically, of Major League Soccer. Its media mix in the past 12 months heavily skewed toward national newspapers (44%, according to TNS Media Intelligence), cable TV (17%) and online display (14%).
LG's advertising strategy is developed globally and then localized for domestic markets. For many years "Life's good" has dominated LG's messaging for all its various product offerings. In January 2009, LG partnered with Conde Nast Media Group and introduced a slightly different catchphrase -- "Life looks good" -- into the creative global messaging of LG's TV line. Its media mix in the U.S. skewed more heavily to magazines (49%) and national TV (35%).

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