Haier slowly building brand recognition in Asean

Haier slowly building brand recognition in Asean

Asean remains a challenging market for China’s Haier Group, which still has to build brand recognition among consumers in this growing region.

“We have to convince the retailers that our products are popular and in need, showing them the value of Haier’s electrical appliances,” says Mr Wang.

Harry Wang, worldwide communication director of China’s largest electrical appliance manufacturer, says the company has been trying to increase brand awareness among Asean consumers for several years.

The effort is finally starting to pay off. The company’s market research showed that brand awareness of Haier in Thailand in 2009 was 40% of total Thai consumers surveyed. The latest figure has climbed to more than 70%.

The brand awareness in other Asean countries varies, but the company is growing very fast.

Haier a few years ago acquired the refrigeration and washing machine business units in Japan and Southeast Asia from Panasonic Corp, which earlier took them over from Sanyo. This has helped the company to gain more market share in these two products.

Mr Wang said Vietnam was one market where Haier had performed well. It is now the number one brand for refrigerators and washing machines in the Vietnamese market. For Indonesia and the Philippines, although Haier is not the leader, the growth rates are good, putting the company in a leading position.

However, Haier is determined to do more by engaging local consumers in the region during the next two years.

“At Haier, we’re not satisfied with our current position. We want to do better,” he said. “I cannot tell you the exact figure for the Asean target, but I can say that it is a very challenging and ambitious target for Haier.”

Haier Group generated revenue of US$390 million from Asean in 2012, less than 10% of its global total. In 2012, the company posted revenue of $25.8 billion globally and earnings of $1.42 billion. Its retail volume share was 8.6% of the world market last year.

In Asean, there are many electrical appliance brands from Japan, Europe and the United States that have been marketed in this region for many years. Haier, which was founded in 1984, is a relative newcomer.

Mr Wang said one way for Haier to earn more market share in Asean was to be more localised. The company’s employees will go out more to observe what the real needs of Asean consumers are.

“The demand in each Asean country is different. Even the sizes of families and different ages of consumers also reflect the different requirements for electrical appliances,” he said.

“There are both Buddhist and Muslim countries. So, we have to study what are their real needs and we call this product development customer-centric innovation.”

However, persuading retailers to allocate space for Haier is a big challenge given the strong presence and high profile of more established brands.

“Every square inch of store space means money. We have to convince the retailers that our products are popular and in need, showing them the value of Haier’s electrical appliances. Everything has to go together: the product development, and the marketing campaign,” said Mr Wang.

“If we cannot develop our products to meet consumers’ requirements, make them popular among consumers by our marketing campaign, we cannot convince the retailers to give us more space for selling our products.

“This is the key. So, the only way to get a seat in Asean is to differentiate ourselves from other competitors.”

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