Thai Samsung Electronics

With a plan to tap into World Cup 2006 fever, Thai Samsung Electronics Co Ltd this year is launching a series of new products in the audio-visual (AV) sector, with a Bt500-million marketing budget. The goal is to achieve the leading position in all segments of the market and achieve sales growth of 20 per cent.

Currently, Samsung is the leader in most AV products, except for Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) television sets, where it lags behind Japanese giant Sony, says Arnut Changtrakul, deputy managing director for consumer electronics and IT operations at Thai Samsung Electronics.

The Bt500-million budget will be used for promotional activities and advertising for its seven AV products through several media channels: television, print, product catalogues, billboards, BTS and online media. Promotions will be arranged by Samsung and its business partner, Visa Thailand.

Part of the budget will also be used to renew product displays at major Samsung dealers nationwide, beginning in Bangkok and other big cities. Suphot Leenanurak, Thai Samsung's manager for AV marketing, said the company would group products together in similar categories instead of in separate displays like before.

It will also improve the quality of the visual system to transmit pictures from its main office to television screens used as samplers in all stores.

New products that were launched yesterday included the R7 LCD television set (three models, priced at Bt59,900, Bt79,900 and Bt119,900), Z40 SlimFit television set (two models, Bt6,990, Bt13,990 and Bt17,990), Q7 plasma television set (two models, Bt109,900 and Bt199,900), HT-XQ100 home theatre (Bt19,900), YP-Z5 MP3 player (two models, Bt7,990 and Bt10,990), VP-DC565WI DVD Camcorder (Bt25,990) and DVD-HR735 Hypervision DVD recorder (Bt18,990).

Arnut said launching new products shortly before the World Cup would entice consumers to replace their AV products with ones of better quality, for greater enjoyment of watching and listening to every movement of the competition.

Samsung predicts sales growth of 300 per cent for flat-panel television sets during the competition, and growth in the overall television-set market of 40 per cent.

Apart from boosting sales, the company also perceives the World Cup as a golden chance to build brand awareness of its high quality products.

The company is focusing on the LCD and FlatSlim television-set markets, predicting that the LCD market will overwhelm the 2-million-unit television market in three to five years, as seen from last year's unprecedented growth in consumer demand in Thailand.

The LCD market grew 20-30 per cent last year, reaching 22,000 units. The company predicts 100,000 units will be sold this year, and increasing to 300,000 units next year as consumers learn the advantages of the product and the price keeps going down. Prices dropped 30 per cent early this year.

Samsung will bring FlatSlim television sets to the market in a three-to-five year transition period.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation