Research Paper on Philips

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Branding

The brand name of the Philips 3000 series LED TV is Philips. The logo incorporates a wordmark of seven letters and a shield emblem of four stars and two waves. The waves represented radio waves, while the stars meant the atmosphere of the evening sky through which the radio waves would travel. Furthermore, these two elements were placed in a circle, symbolizing the Earth. The trade name is under copyright. The award and recognition of Philips is one of the biggest climber in the annual ranking on the Top 50 Best Global Green Brands in 2013.

Packaging

The packaging of the Philips 3000 series LED TV is in the form of a box which consists of the Philips brand name. The box is 151mm in depth, 566mm in height and 802mm in width while the total weight of the product with its packaging is 10.3kg. The packaging box with its actual product also includes accessories such as a remote control, a table top stand, a Warranty Leaflet and others. The packaging materials are environmental friendly and can be recycled.

Labelling

The printed information appearing on the packaging includes a registered trademark (© 2012 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.) which is identifies the product and brand. The company also promotes their product through attractive Philips logo which includes a wordmark of seven letters and a shield emblem of four stars and two waves. Besides, the company also describes several details of the product such as its features, who, where and when it was made, instructions on how to use it safely, issue date, governing law, support services, license restriction and privacy policy.

Product support details

The product comes with additional support services like a warranty which specifies that any defects within the warranty period will be serviced free of charge by Philips. Besides, the Philips customer care team also provides online support via www.philips.com.my. A regional customer hotline (1800 880 180) is provided to handle consumer product enquiries. Moreover, home delivering is also offered by Philips so that consumers are delighted with the company.

2.1.3 Major brand strategy decision

Brand positioning

Philips positioned their brands clearly in target minds by introducing its new brand line “innovation and you” in 2013 which is rooted in its strong belief that innovation is meaningful based on a deep understanding of people’s needs and desires. Hence, whenever the brand name is mentioned, people will relate it with a wide range of Philips innovations that makes a real difference to their lives across the world in terms of comfort and practicability.

Brand Name Selection

Philips' brand name is distinctive from others because their innovations have improved the quality of life and created a strong and trusted brand consumers can rely on. Moreover, the name Philips is easy to pronounce, recognize and remember. For legal protection, Philips uses the word brand and registered trademark symbol, © Koninklijke Philips.

Brand Sponsorship

Philips company is under manufacture brands as Philips sell their output under their own brand names. The product of Philips 3000 series LED TV is under Philips brands.

Brand Development Strategies

In general, Philips is under brand extension as they use their brand name to launch many categories of products. For example, Philips originally sold lightning products before it gradually started to extend its brand name into other categories like sound and vision such as televisions and household products among others. Specifically, Philips 3000 series LED TV belongs to line extension as it is an improvement in the already existing 3000 series which already has similar products like the Philips LED TV 107cm(42’’) model in order to produce instant recognition and faster acceptability among loyal and prospective customers and also to gain easier profit.

2.2 Pricing Strategy

2.2.1 Factors affecting pricing decisions

There are many types of markets, namely pure competition, monopolistic competition, pure monopoly and oligopolistic competition. Pure competition consists of many buyers and sellers, monopolistic competition consists of many sellers and buyers who trade over a range of prices, pure monopoly has only one seller while oligopolistic competition has few sellers in the market.

Philips Slim LED TV (32") HDTV 32PFL3008 belongs to a monopolistic competition market. The reason for this is that the television industry contains many such suppliers, notably Panasonic, Toshiba, Samsung, Sony and others. The market for television contains many sellers and buyers who adopt a trade policy that consists of many different price range instead of a uniform market price. Philip's products differ from those of its competitors through its many features. For example, the Philips Slim LED TV 81 cm (32") HDTV has a 100Hz Perfect Motion Rate while the similar rival product Samsung 32" LED TV only provides Clear Motion Rate of only 50Hz. An advantage is that Philips does not have to bother much with their pricing strategy as they are not adversely affected by their competitors pricing strategies. They only have to focus on providing value to customers and making them into loyal consumers and earn profits at the same time.

2.2.2 New Product pricing strategies

In regard to Philips Slim LED TV 81 cm (32") HDTV, Philips has adopted the market skimming pricing strategy. The company aims to collect as much revenue as possible in the shortest amount of time by setting a high initial price of the product. As proof, the debut price for Philips Slim LED TV 81 cm (32") HDTV was RM 999 compared to the initial prices for similar rival televisions Sharp 32" LED TV SHP-LC32LE243M at RM 799 and Panasonic 32" LED TV VIERA PSN-THL32B68K at RM 839 respectively.

This shows that Philips wants to "skim" layers of profit from the market before demand drops over time. This can result in fewer sales, but the upside is that Philips can make more profitable current sales. This is an advantage as Philips can use the instant cash to develop and fund other product categories, leading to more growth. The company takes the risk that their product may not be profitable enough in the long run by targeting