Panasonic aims to be Thailand market leader

Panasonic aims to be Thailand market leader

Bangkok Post (5 Oct 2007)

Hopes to increase market share to 40%PITSINEE JITPLEECHEEP
The Panasonic Group of Thailand has implemented a new programme called the GP3 business plan in an effort to become the market leader in its flagship products by 2009.
Daizo Ito, chief executive officer of Panasonic Group in Thailand, said that Panasonic planned to become the leader in four main product segments: plasma televisions, digital still cameras, air-conditioners and refrigerators. Currently, he said, the group was number one in several market segments, such as electronic shower equipment, fax machines, cordless telephones, projectors and electronic boards. Singer and DJ Pakorn `Dome' Lam (centre left) and actor Theeradej `Ken' Wongpuapan (centre right) test their new Panasonic Lumix digital cameras at a presentation at CentralWorld yesterday. Panasonic is investing 200 million baht in marketing activities to help promote its latest digital camera lineup.Under the GP3 plan, which stands for ''Global Progress, Global Profit, and Global Panasonic'', the company hopes to boost its market share of plasma TVs to about 40% in 2009, up from 35% now. Its market share of digital still cameras is targeted to rise to 25% from 8%, and it hopes to control 22% of refrigerator sales, up from 18.5% now. Mr Ito said he also wanted to increase air-conditioner sales. Panasonic is currently the market leader, with a 23% share in the first half of this year.
Its latest digital still camera models, the Lumix FX33 and FX55, are the world's first digital still cameras equipped with the intelligent auto mode (IA) feature. Panasonic plans to spend 200 million baht to promote the cameras, and has hired two of Thailand's hottest celebrities to help: actor Theeradej 'Ken' Wongpuapan and singer Pakorn 'Dome' Lam. Pinyo Chansiriworakul, product manager at Panasonic Siew Sales Thailand Co Ltd, said that the campaign would help the company increase its market share of digital still cameras to 15% by the end of this year, up from 8%. The company would rise to the top three from fifth now. It sits behind Sony with 24%, Canon with 20%, Samsung with 12% and Nikon 10%. The total digital still camera market is expected to grow about 10% to 850,000 units. Mr Pinyo said that the company would spend at least 300 million baht annually to promote Lumix digital still cameras over the next two years to become the market leader in 2009. Panasonic Siew Sales Thailand expected total sales for fiscal year 2007 to hit 21.2 billion baht. It has already achieved 10.3 billion baht in sales in the first six months of fiscal year 2007 ending September 2007. Mr Ito said that Panasonic recently shut down its factory in Pathum Thani that produced cathode ray tube (CRT) TV components mainly for export to India and the US. The closure of the Pathum Thani factory is in line with the decline of CRT TVs as flat-screen and digital televisions become more popular around the globe. Mr Ito said the company had organised a job fair to assist 2,400 workers employed at the factory in Pathum Thani who have lost their jobs.