Matsushita will scrap its Japanese brand name “National” and start a marketing blitz called “Hello Panasonic” in an ambitious drive to boost market share, company officials said yesterday.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, a major Japanese electronics maker that rivals Sony Corp, is changing its company name to Panasonic Corp next month, dropping the name of its founder, Konosuke Matsushita, one of Japan’s pioneering entrepreneurs credited with leading the country’s modernization after World War II.
The move symbolizes the company’s growing international stature and ambitions. Panasonic has long been its brand name abroad.
PHOTO: AFP
The end of the National name also highlights the firm’s break from its past, when it built its customer base in Japan through an army of electronics salesman-cum-repairman at small National stores around the country.
Under its new marketing blitz, Matsushita will push products that connect digitally —such as audiovisual products that link with each other and home security gadgets that link with car navigation equipment, it said.
Products will also become more green to respond to growing public concerns about global warming, it said. Sixty percent of electricity consumed in a household is from appliances, Matsushita said.
Company executive vice president Shunzo Ushimaru said that Matsishita’s market share had risen from 20 percent in 2001, to 28 percent this year, and hoped to lift that further.
Although cars tend to be viewed as one of the biggest household purchases, the combined value of electronics products bought by a family is about ¥2.9 million (US$28,000) — more than the average price of a car, he said.
“We hope to have greater impact on homes with our products by unifying our brand into Panasonic,” Ushimaru said at a Tokyo hotel.
The firm will embark on a major advertising campaign, changing National showrooms’ names to Panasonic, airing TV commercials and starting a mobile Web site to promote the Panasonic brand, Ushimaru said.
Matsushita showed an energy-saving air conditioner, refrigerator, washer-dryer and vacuum cleaner. The products go on sale next month in Japan.
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