Apple Moves Into The Advertising Business Apple is set to move into the advertising market up against organisations like the News Corporation who are currently going out of their way to deliver positive editorial coverage to all things Apple.
Samsung Revenues Surge As Profits Hit $24M Samsung Australia, who five years ago were struggling to get traction in the Australian market is now outperforming most other consumer electronics Companies including LG, Apple, Google and Sony.
Samsung OZ Rips Up The AV Market With 27% Growth After spending millions of dollars building their brand in Australia Samsung is starting to reap the benefits with the Company outperforming the market in several categories including audio visual, telecommunications and appliances.
APC Magazine Slammed By iPad Owners APC Magazine has been accused by Apple iPad fans of price gouging after launching an $8.99 iPad publication which readers claim is an "insult" and "misleading".
Clive Peeters Debt Balloons To Over $140M LG Australia who in the last financial year only managed a profit of $13K from nearly a billion dollars turnover is facing the prospect of $25M exposure, after the collapse of retailer Clive Peeters with debts in excess of $150 million.
New OZ Mobile Ad Measurement A World First Australian research Company Nielsen, has launched a new mobile Internet audience measurement intelligence service which they are describing as a world first in online audience measurement methodology.
Judge Finds That Stores Online Deceived Customers The Federal Court has found that an e-commerce marketing company that advertised products as being discounted when they had never been offered at the full price operated in a misleading and deceptive manner.
Digital Camera Vendors Need To Change Their Strategy Says Expert Digital camera vendors who are struggling to grow sales in Australia must change their “one brand one policy” approach and start tailoring their product range to different retail groups, claims the general manager of Camera House, Australia’s premier specialist camera chain.
Samsung On Fire In IT Market After Dud Start After struggling for years in the IT market, Samsung Australia is now reaping the benefits of a major restructure, with the company now reaching revenues of $18.5 million dollars a month compared to $6 million a year ago.
Westpac Tips Soft August For Retailers Westpac is tipping a soft August for retail sales following good results between March and June. In a new report the banking group said that there has been some underlying 'quickening' in cyclical consumer demand – something that would be expected given recent improvements in the Australian Economy.
Panasonic Set To Twitter The Genius Inside Panasonic who in Australia have both Sony and Samsung worried because of their strong performance and high marketing spend are set to chase consumers who frequent social network sites with Company CEO Steve Rust claiming that the Company is learning how to “Twitter”.
Fake Stephen Conroy Iced Telstra has now conceded that managers did tell its staffer behind the Fake Stephen Conroy blog that he had to stop.
Fairfax Management Changes Fairfax has stopped short of bringing its online and print mastheads together, but taken a step in that direction.
Is The Writing On The Wall For The Age And The SMH? Is the writing on the wall for Fairfax newspapers the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald after Bill Gates own Seattle morning newspaper decided this week to quit print for online after 146 years.
Vendors Hurting Ingram Micro As Retailers Buy Direct Major vendors are bypassing billion dollar distributor Ingram Micro to go direct to mass retailers this has forced the Company to slash costs, retrench people and offer extended credit to key retailers in an effort to retain a relationship say several industry insiders. It has also forced them to consider a new service revenue model.
Discounting Hurting Claims Harvey Norman Director One of the most senior executives in the consumer electronics industry has called for manufacturers to stop discounting. He claims that factories making TV’s to notebooks are slashing costs in an effort to support their faltering manufacturing operations and that the move is set to impact CE retailing in Australia in a bad way.
Clive Peeters CEO On Growth New Web Site & Expanded Marketing Retailer Clive Peeters is out performing the market. They are also is set to crank up their catalogue marketing, roll out a major new online initiative and expand their service offering claims their CEO.
Technology & Appliance Advertisers Could Do Better Consumer technology and appliance advertisers who spend million on marketing using a media buying Company could get better performance if they focus on the people working on their account claims Richard Halmarick a former media agency boss.
JB Hi Rocks Despite Tough Trading Conditions JB Hi Fi is set to rock with the Company forecasting sales growth of 28% running into the last quarter of 2008. This is despite what JB Hi-Fi chief executive Richard Uechtritz calls a “challenging environment”.
Myer Profits Increase 40% Expanded CE range Department store group Myer who have cranked up their consumer electronic offerings of like to compete head on with the likes of Harvey Norman and JB Hi Fi have delivered a 40% increase in net profits.
Sony Boss Takes Swipe At Retailers The consumer electronic market is still growing and while flat panel TV sales have slowed there is still plenty of opportunity and 'solid growth' for vendors and retailers said Carl Rose the CEO of Sony Australia. However he has taken a swipe at white good and AV retailers who he says will struggle going forward unless they make changes.
Retravision Doomed Say Vendors Retravision is doomed say several CE Vendors with Narta the consumer electronics and appliance buying group for David Jones, JB Hi Fi, Bing Lee and several other leading retailers set to be bolstered by the sale of Retrovision’s largest retailer RT Edwards of South Australia to Radio Rentals.
Former Sales Director Takes On Belkin She was once the darling sales director of Belkin now Mary Henderson (formerly Pateras) is set to compete against her former employer with a smart range of designer bags, cables and iPod accessories.
Consumers Not Happy With Vendor Web Sites Consumers are not happy with the web sites of most PC consumer technology and major appliance manufacturers according to the latest's Satisfaction Index (ACSI) study from research Company Foresee Results.
COMMENT: Should JB Hi Fi Sell Or Stick It Out? The 61% increase in revenue and the 70% increase in profits by JB Hi Fi bode well for the consumer electronic industry. It also sends a clear message that consumers are changing their buying habits with many of them prepared to spend money on games, new TV’s and notebooks than over fashion items or the occasional holiday.
LG Reports A Strong Result Profits And Revenue Up LG Electronics, who claim that they are the #1 consumer electronics brand in Australia, have reported higher quarterly sales and profits due to strong mobile phone and flat-panel TV sales. In their latest report sales have jumped 22.1 percent to $12.534 billion and operating profit was $843 million, which results in a 6.7 percent profit margin for its fiscal second quarter, ended June 30.
UPDATED: Consumer Electronic Prices Crash Up to 33% While petrol is going up consumer electronic prices are crashing with leading investment bank Citi Group claiming that the consumer electronic market is set to be impacted by continued price deflation and that the average selling price for CE goods has crashed up to 25%
Guerrilla Retailing Guru Warns Retailers Elly Valas a leading US retail consultant and the co-author of Guerrilla Retailing has warned Australia retailers that despite an economic downturn they must not become complacent and if anything they should increase their level of service and “spend more on marketing”.
Newspapers On The Nose As Readers And Advertisers Desert Them Newspapers are on the nose with advertisers deserting them in droves for online according to Digital Media Wire. In Australia advertising revenue in newspapers has droppped as much as 11% for some major publishers.
Easybiz Search Engine Platform For SMBs Easybiz, a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)-based business directory has released its commercial platform that provides small businesses with a value-for-money means of building the type of SEO-enabled website.
Exclusive: OZ Management Team Quits HTC Taiwanese Management Slammed The entire Australian management team of smart phone Company HTC has quit with the former managing director slamming the Company as being a Taiwanese Company that is “Not the place for him”. John Featherstone the former MD said “The Company is applying Taiwanese marketing practises that will not work in Australia. I believe that they want the Company to be completely Taiwanese run”.
Pioneer Slammed By Channel Future Looks Grim Pioneer Electronics has been slammed after they announced earlier today that they had done another flip flop in a desperate effort to cement themselves a position in the Australia display and sound market. After taking an each way bet between the specialist and mass channel the Company has now decided to concentrate on the specialist channel in an effort to deliver bottom line profits over revenue and losses. However the specialist channel may not support them.
LG OZ Looks To Rich Parent To Bail Them Out LG Electronics claims that it has achieved record sales and profits globally in the first quarter of 2008 however LG Australia it appears is suffering across several categories including display with the local subsidary now looking for an injection of marketing capital from their profit rich parent Company who last night reported a 2000% increase on the bottom line.
Harvey Norman Starts Stationary War A stationary war is set to break out in Australia with Harvey Norrman set to take on OfficeWorks with a new chain of stores called Ofis now going live.
Alliance Flags Mobile Advertising Revolution A consortium of advertising companies has today announced that it plans to revolutionise the mobile phone network in terms of advertising and direct marketing, ahead of the Mobile World Congress which will take place next week in Barcelona.
Matsushita Name To Disappear After 90 Years The Matsushita name will disappear into the ether from 1 October after 90 years in favour of Panasonic – the brand name consumers are more familiar with.
LG Steals $430m Ad Account From Dyson Korean electronics-maker LG Electronics is expected to recruit WPP Group’s MindShare to handle its global US$350 million media account, according to AdAge in New York.
How To Market To Tech Luddites Late technology adopters hold a significant percentage of the market and shouldn’t be ignored by consumer electronics marketers and advertisers, according to Forrester Research.
LG Markets With Cricket and Gaming LG has created a free online cricket game for consumers in a bid to raise brand awareness in the lead-up to the popular cricket season.
Pioneer’s Mass Marketing Mistake Spotty-faced 18-year-old resellers are not the right people to sell $12,000 Pioneer plasma TVs, claims one of Australia’s leading marketing experts.
Online Marketing Tool For Retail Industry Companies in the franchise, manufacturing, fast-moving consumer goods, distribution and finance sectors can now use a new internet-based computer service by MapData Sciences to plan the location of new stores, manage sales territories and develop targeted media strategies.
Consumers Used As Telstra Marketing Guinea Pigs Selected mobile phone users on the Telstra Next G network will be able to use their handset cameras to scan specially-designed barcodes on posters, LCD screens and in magazines to connect directly to third-party websites such as KFC and Pizza Hut, in a trial announced today by the telco.
“Green” Marketing Not So Clean The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will be cracking down on so-called ‘green’ products and services, following a new marketing trend which has seen a major burst of apparently environmentally-friendly products in response to a growing demand from consumers and businesses for companies to lessen their footprint on our ailing planet.
Which Brand Should Survive Mio Or Navman? Taiwanese GPS navigation company Mio is attempting to expand its presence in Australia at the expense of Navman, despite the fact that both brands are now owned by Mitac, a major Asian technology manufacturer.
Has Philips Got What It Takes To Be A Premium Brand? COMMENT: European electronics company Philips, which prides itself on being a leading technology company, seems to have got lost in the digital wilderness if its latest press event for the new Aurea LCD TV is anything to go by. Instead of a CD, DVD or even an electronic email with images and text attached Philips chose to hand out printed press releases and no images.
Apple Beat Sucks In The Gullible The power of the Apple marketing machine is hurting companies like Sony, Samsung and Creative more than any breakthrough product innovation. And what's even more galling for the company is that it's all free publicity that is driving millions in sales.
Viral Marketing Bombs Out 2 years ago advertising agencies and PR Companies were telling their clients that the next big thing was viral marketing but a new research report claims that the practise has "bombed".
Is Your Retail Marketing Hitting The Right Customers? Are you reaching the right target audience? Are you creating an attachment that drives consumers to buy your product or visit a certain store. We take a look at some ofr the changing issues in retail marketing.
Former Global Microsoft Exec Gets Top Gig At Telstra The former worldwide head of marketing at Microsoft, Vivianne Arnold, has been appointed to the role of General Manager of Marketing at Telstra. The move comes as Telstra restructures its marketing department signalling greater integration across all marketing activities.
New Consumer Census Data Released Australians are earning more money, 37% have broadband and the median household income in Australia last year was $1000 - $1199 per week, up from the 1996 median of $600 - $699. However, Australians are now less likely to own their own home outright and more of them are paying one off.
