Masaaki Hayashi, managing director of the Japanese-based company, said yesterday the marketing budget was pushed up from last year's Bt400 million. The money will be used both to boost overall market share and to drive sales of all Hitachi products into the top three.

Most Hitachi products already rank among the top three. One exception is the company's air-conditioners, which recorded only a 6-per-cent market share last year.

Company products already among the top three in Thailand include two-door refrigerators, which it plans to increase from a market share of 14 per cent last year to 18 per cent this year. And washing machines, which came in at 14 per cent last year and should reach 16 per cent this year.

Hayashi said to promote its air-conditioners, the company would launch a variety of new hi-tech units. The long-term goal is to increase that category's market share to 15 per cent by 2009.

"We will be a home-appliance producer that provides a high-value product to our customers under our triple core concepts of 'technology-cleanliness-comfort'. This will boost sales in terms of value and create a new image for our products in the market," he said.

With this market strategy, Hitachi will focus on high-ticket items whose sales, which accounted for 30 per cent of the company's total last year, will reach 50 per cent this year.

Marketing manager Boonchai Putakotirat said prices of high-value items would be 10-30 per cent above those for lower-end products on average, which would help the company reach this year's sales target of Bt3.5 billion.

Last year's sales in Thailand reached Bt3 billion, up 6 per cent from 2004. Of that, 80 per cent came from home appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, air-conditioners, air purifiers and vacuum cleaners, while 20 per cent came from audio-visual products, particularly flat-screen television sets.

Somluck Srimalee

The Nation