TFCinfo: Major Plasma Brand and Customer Preference Study reveals that Sony and Panasonic are the strongest brands in the plasma industry.
By TFCinfo
Jun 20, 2006, 11:18
Austin, Texas- TFCinfo Corp, the worldwide leader in AV Market Research, reveals its customer brand preference findings from their new report entitled "TFCinfo Plasma Brand Strength and Customer Preference Study 2006." This report is an exciting plasma study of experienced plasma users and purchasers that reveals previously unknown customer perceptions, customer preferences and brand strength.
Customers are guided by both rational and emotional responses to products and perception of products. Customer perceptions and the concomitant management of brand is especially important today as the plasma display industry continues its phenomenal growth, while facing new competition from other large displays.
Other AV studies often exclude the analysis of data along confirmed customer purchasing clusters due to reasons of increased complexity, effort, and cost. This study is designed from the outset to compare the brand strength, customer preferences and user perceptions between both business users and home entertainment users of plasma displays.
"Understanding your customers' current perceptions, preferences and subliminal brand affinities is one of the most sought-after aspects of sales and marketing disciplines," states Paul Martin, president of TFCinfo. "These insights are treasured not only because they lead to understanding the mind of the buyer, but also because of the enormous potential this insight has to reshape a company's communication and marketing programs for the better."
"In a complex multi-dimensional customer perception study such as this, the value of the study is not only in understanding which companies are thought highly of by their customers, but for those companies who wish to grow at an accelerated pace, it may be even more revealing to understand the lagging performance dimensions that customers are telling TFCinfo about each company," says Martin.
Overall, Sony and Panasonic are the leaders on brand awareness among experienced plasma users and purchasers in the key market segments surveyed -- business and entertainment. Some of the positive findings from this unique research include:
Sony
Sony is a plasma brand leader! Sony ranks #1 among entertainment users, and #2 among business users on unaided brand awareness. Sony also takes the top spot on aided brand recognition among both entertainment and business users. "Everyone knows that Sony is a strong consumer brand, and TFCinfo has been tracking the extent to which Sony's business users feel as strongly about the brand. This year, data shows vast improvements in Sony's brand rankings and perception among business users. Sony also has one of the clearest perceptions profiles of all brands surveyed. The Sony brand is strong and is associated with quality, and a price premium.
Panasonic
Panasonic is one of the best overall performing brands throughout this research among both business and entertainment users. Panasonic does extremely well on both unaided and aided brand awareness. Panasonic is one of the plasma brands this is most considered for purchase (strong customer preference), and is seen as a superior brand (strong customer perceptions) for wanting to use or purchase. "It is exciting to see how well Panasonic continues to do throughout this yearly tracking research," states Tanya Lippke, TFCinfo's manager of survey market research. "Panasonic does well on many of the most customer-desired purchasing factors, is viewed as a great investment, and purchasers are clearly willing to pay for that."
NEC
NEC's strength currently lies within the business segment, where experienced end users see that NEC provides a high quality reliable plasma display with a great picture. In addition, entertainment users are taking notice of the brand. As NEC successfully extends their positive perception into the consumer segment, they will move up within the top rankings.
Pioneer
Pioneer is a brand with the potential to compete at the top, with the leading brands in both business and entertainment. Pioneer performs strong throughout this research, never too far behind the top performing brands (Sony and Panasonic). Pioneer has solid brand strength, and takes the #3 spot on many of the most important purchasing preferences customers have for buying plasma. Pioneer clearly has an image of quality, and the company deserves to reinvigorate this image of quality in their marketing to remain competitive.
Samsung
Samsung is a brand recognizable by both business and entertainment users, although at lower levels than top performing brands. Samsung performs very well throughout this research. Experienced users and buyers prefer Samsung's price and product positioning. Customers perceive Samsung as offering great value, and also as offering good picture quality. Samsung is in a position to strengthen its image by understanding the most important customer buying preferences which this report reveals.
Many other brands were researched in-depth and each show significant strengths and weaknesses including: Dell, Hitachi, JVC, LG-Zenith, Marantz, Maxent, and Philips.
New This Year
TFCinfo conducts this and similar projector studies annually. This year, TFCinfo has introduced the Brand Image Index - the relative position of brands on important image criteria. TFCinfo has created this unique tool in order to facilitate plasma manufacturers in monitoring their brand performance on the most important image criteria. This tool allows manufacturers to not only track their performance, but also their performance in relationship to their main competitors. Recurring annual purchasers of TFCinfo's Plasma Brand Strength and Customer Perceptions Study can witness and chart the numerical strengthening of brand perceptions.
With a complete brand analysis - through research, such as TFCinfo Plasma Brand Strength and Customer Perceptions Study 2006, industry participants can measure their brand strengths and weaknesses for all facets of plasma brand management. Participants can see the success or shortcomings of their current branding strategy, as well as the weaknesses in their competitors' strategies. Plasma companies then can implement new marketing plans to bring their brands to the forefront of the minds of the purchasers that they target.
For a complete brochure and outline of this study, or for more information on purchasing, please contact Tanya Lippke, Manager of Survey Market Research, at (207)-783-0055 or tmlippke@tfcinfo.com.
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