Toshiba changes tack in bid for No-3 spot
Toshiba Thailand is overhauling its marketing strategy this year after missing its 2005 target of gaining a 10-per-cent market share. The company had hoped to become the third-largest seller in Thailand's laptop computer market last year.
The company will run separate marketing strategies for each of four sub-brands instead of using one advertisement for all, said Takon Niyomthai, country manager for the IT business division.If the 10-per-cent share is achieved, Toshiba will displace IBM as the third-largest player by the end of the year, he said. The company now has 6 to 7 per cent of the market. Its four laptop brands are the Qosmio, Portege, and Satellite for end-users, and the Tecra for corporate customers. Toshiba believes its old strategy did not work because some of its sub-brands remain low-profile. "One advertisement could not communicate the character and features of all four brands, so people still don't know much about some sub-brands," said Takon. Separating marketing strategies - including tailor-made activities and advertisements - requires a larger budget, almost 20 per cent more than that on marketing last year, up to about Bt100 million. The company has been applying the strategy since early this year and is satisfied so far, believing that wider awareness has been achieved for all four brands. He said the strategy had been used in Japan for some years. The Thai laptop computer market last year represented about 390,000 units, with Acer the market leader. Launching new products is part of Toshiba's strategy to build awareness of all its sub-brands and yesterday, 11 new laptop models under the sub-brands were introduced. All include Intel Duo Core processors. Nitida Asawanipont The Nation
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