Philips to hike ad spend to boost brand
zdii.com
January 28, 1998 10:23am
Reuters
EINDHOVEN, Netherlands (Reuters) - Philips Electronics NV Wednesday said it was planning an aggressive marketing drive aimed at making its brand name as internationally famous as Coca Cola, Kodak or Nike.
''We want a 10 percent market share and to be one of the top three brands, hopefully top two, in every market in which we are present,'' senior marketing director Gerard Dufour told Philips' in-house magazine 'Mondial' in an interview.
To this end Philips will rethink its marketing strategy and increase its advertising and communications budget, Dufour said.
''Benchmarking has shown that we spend less than our competitors (on advertising) so we are going to put ourselves at a competitive level ... a level where advertising investment is commensurate with the size of the company and the scope of our ambitions,'' he said.
The company's high-selling, high-profile consumer products will be used to spearhead the brand promotion, Dufour said.
Philips' problem, he said, was that it covered so diverse a range of products and that many were frequently ''pushed'' to consumers in promotional campaigns.
''Companies like Coca Cola, Kodak, Nike have a very precise definition of their business. Philips spreads in many directions and we need to develop a clearer focus to anchor our brands in the mind of the consumer,'' he said.
For this reason attention would focus on Philips' high-profile consumer electronics products and ''pull'' consumers to Philips through its advertising.
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''We will promote products that carry Philips' image forward: things like Flat TV, DVD (digital video discs), Velo, Genie,'' he said, adding technologies such as speech recognition would also be emphasized.
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Dufour said the company should view advertising as a year-round strategic investment. Later this year, Philips aims to revive its 'Let's make things better' slogan in a new global campaign.
Source: Reuters |
