Electronics and electrical giants shrug off floods, plan big 2012 push

They say they will continue to spend heavily on marketing communications to promote new products to make up for losses incurred during the flooding crisis.

Sasitorn Khoonpatanakul, senior manager for integrated marketing communications at Thai Samsung Electronics, said yesterday at the "BoI Fair 2012" that the company’s product-launch plans remained unchanged this year, even though local purchasing power might be lower because flood-hit consumers were having to repair and replace their damaged properties.

Although Sasitorn could not comment on upcoming new products, she said marketing budgets among various departments would rise by 10 to 20 per cent from last year’s level. The company normally earmarks about 10 per cent of overall annual sales revenue for marketing.

This year’s marketing strategy will underline the company’s use of new media, particularly social networks, she added.

Thai Samsung Electronics has invested Bt50 million on its 1,000-square-metre pavilion at the BoI fair, which runs until January 20 at Impact Muang Thong Thani. It aims to use the event to showcase its key highlighted selling points of innovation, design, convergence and eco-friendly products.

Kazuo Karasawa, managing director of Hitachi Asia (Thailand), said the company would use the show to introduce new technology to the local market, for example, cutting-edge auto parts and monorail and high-speed trains.

The company is keen to bid for a concession to jointly invest in both monorail and high-speed train infrastructure in the country.

Meanwhile, Panasonic has spent Bt80 million on its pavilion at the BoI fair to emphasise its core innovation of "eco-products".

Yorihisa Shiokawa, managing director of Panasonic Asia Pacific, said the company would make eco-concept products its priority, as this could help customers save energy and have more money in their pockets following last year’s devastating floods.

The company expects to increase both production and sales of eco-products from the current 55 per cent to 60 per cent of the products it manufactures in Thailand.

Additionally, the company has affirmed that it will continue its further investment in the Kingdom, even though operations at three of its manufacturing plants were suspended due to the recent floods.

Panasonic expects the flood-affected plants to resume operations by April, while the facility in Chon Buri is increasing capacity to support domestic sales in the current quarter.

The company expects to see a full merging of operations and manufacturing with Sanyo by March next year, said Shiokawa. Over the past two years, Panasonic acquired Japan’s Sanyo Electric, gaining access to the well-known brand’s advanced solar panel and rechargeable battery technologies, and other products.

"We can achieve our target of Bt88 billion from its [Sanyo’s] 22 subsidiaries by the end of this fiscal year in March, and hit Bt100 billion by the next fiscal year," he added.