While businesses are closely planning marketing campaigns to attract huge sales during the forthcoming one-month World Cup 2006, television-set maker LG Mitr Electronics Co Ltd has indicated it will focus more on ways to tackle the expected huge drop in consumer demand after the competition ends.

Alongkorn Chujit, sales director of LG Mitr Electronics, said the conclusion of the World Cup competition would be the end of World Cup fever also, when consumers tended to get back to their normal lives after splurging, making them tighten their budgets.

LG itself has made a plan, but Alongkorn declined to give details.

To tap World Cup fever, LG plans to launch four new plasma models next month with prices ranging from Bt79,900 for a 42-inch model to Bt400,000 for the 60-inch, and five new liquid-crystal-display (LCD) models from Bt30,000 for the 23-inch to approximately Bt100,000 for the 42-inch.

It is also allocating approximately Bt100 million for a campaign called Love the Game, Love LG, involving prize games. Decorations at all dealers' stores will also be changed temporarily to convey a World Cup atmosphere.

With these campaigns, LG expects the competition to boost its sales in Audio Visual (AV) business by 20 per cent, including LCD and plasma, in May and June. It also estimates growth of the LCD and plasma market itself by 20 per cent.

This estimated market growth is of course lower than the 30 per cent achieved during the previous World Cup. Alongkorn said many existing negative factors in the Thai economy would deter consumers.

LG has this year set an Bt800-million marketing budget for all its business units. Alongkorn, who is responsible for AV and Home Appliance businesses, expects these to achieve Bt12 billion in sales, or 30-per-cent growth.

LG says it is one of the top three brands in the LCD and plasma market and one of the top four in the AV market.