Samsung most valuable global TV brand?
By Matt Burns 
posted Jul 28th 2006 10:08AM
posted Jul 28th 2006 10:08AM
What's in a name? Everything and anything if you are a manufacturer of consumer electronics. Your brand could have the ability to sell on name alone. Or, have the ability to turn away customers with just the name. Business Week has taken a long look at who is the most powerful brand in the world and Coca-Cola came out on top. We aren't here to cover soda pop though - we would love to, but the boys upstairs probably wouldn't like it too much. In order to even qualify for this list, a company has to have over 1/3 of their total sales outside of their home country; this is a global list you know. The list evaluates brands on not how much they are making now, but rather, how much they are projected to earn in the future. Samsung came out on top of the audio/video business at number 20 based on their LCD and memory chip business. Sony then followed at 26, Philips at 48, Panasonic at 77, and LG rounding out the list at 94.
Everyone has their own perception of a certain brand. Do you think that Samsung's brand has reached Sony's level? Business Week sure thinks that they are going to do more with that name.
I bought a Samsung TV and small home theater unit in 2002, and a samsung ATSC tuner last year. I'd say that the video quality is as strong as the Sony stuff that I've had, but the user interface is still much less refined than the sony interface.
I'd also believe that it's much easier to improve the user interface than to improve perception of manufacturing quality. Samsung came in less expensive than sony by a significant margin.
The TV was great. The home theater unit was a terrible unit, and the thing would overheat and lock up during the playing of a single DVD Movie. It finally stopped workin entirely. I think the problem was blown capacitors, but I'll never buy another samsung stereo, while I'll be likely to buy another samsung screen.
Samsung certainly has recognition in the memory chip and LCD computer monitor world. The memory chip recognition probably doesn't matter much in the way of end consumers though. PC monitors are certainly a large market though, and I know plenty of people that would buy a Samsung monitor based on name.
In the home entertainment TV market, however, I think Samsung's real winner is rear-projection. As far as RP DLP sets go, Samsung has clearly become the brand of choice in 2006. Samsung models are the ones most recommended both on the AVSForum as well as by most sales reps that I know at the mass market electronic stores. The upcoming LED-based set will also do wonders for the brand, especially since the other contenders in the area are brands like Akai and NuVision which have utterly no mass market recognition.
Granted, the new HP sets are probably the best DLP RPTVs out there right now, but they have little market penetration and the HP brand still conjures images of printers and notebooks rather than TVs for the majority of consumers.
Given that TI is pushing DLP like mad, and that DLP RPTVs are more economical now than ever, being the forerunning DLP RPTV brand isn't a bad place to be.
Sony has brand recognition for sure, but the last 10 years have seen the Sony brand move away from "best out there" to "overpriced" in the minds of many -- even Best Buy sales drones steer people away from Sony thesedays (unfortunately, they still recommend Bose...). SXRD may be worth the premimum, but I doubt the normal consumer would know that. Besides, TI DLP commercials are everywhere; SXRD commercials are none existant.
Conclusion: In my opinion, the Samsung brand is not only equal but worth more than the Sony brand in the area of high-definition TV sets. With 2006 and 2007 being the years the masses will start adopting HD, I think Samsung has it made. I wonder how many PS3s will be going out alongside Samsung RPTVs this Christmas.