Siemens who late last bragged that they were set to become the #1 home phone vendor in Australia simply because they were “European” up against Asian made brands like Uniden and Panasonic have sacked their public relations Company after only a few months and appointed an unknown Melbourne based Company Greta Donaldson Publicity in an effort to crank up exposure for the struggling European brand.

iemens who late last bragged that they were set to become the #1 home phone vendor in Australia simply because they were “European” up against Asian made brands like Uniden and Panasonic have sacked their public relations Company after only a few months and appointed an unknown Melbourne based Company Greta Donaldson Publicity in an effort to crank up exposure for the struggling European brand.

The move comes as the European vendor looks to expand distribution in Australia. According to GFK Siemens has failed to take market share away from Uniden and Panasonic with several Asian made brands also outselling them in the Australian market.

Thomas Bieg a Senior Director with Siemens Home & Office said at the launch of the brand late last year that he had spent the last 12 months jetting back and forth from Europe to launch the product and he was confident that Siemens would quickly take share away from the major players because they are a “European brand”.

 He also said “We have conducted extensive research and are convinced that the market is “ripe” for a European cordless phone offering. We have done a lot of work in the Australian market. We have built a team of experienced people and we are confident that with retail partners like Harvey Norman, Myer, David Jones and others that we will quickly capture share”.
He added: “We have the added advantage of having a superior European designed and made phone which we believe will appeal to Australians over yet another Asian made model.”

Earlier this week the new Siemens PR Company seems to have confused trade media with consumer media. In a release sent to consumer titles by the new PR Company Greta Donaldson they said that the new PR Company had been appointed “part of a bid to raise brand awareness in Australia”.

“There’s no better way to communicate our stylish and high-tech phones than through the word of mouth of Greta Donaldson Publicity the press released gushed. However when Channel News spoke to Siemens internal PR Manager Alexis Wheatley she seemed confused that a press release had been syndicated to the market. “I have not authorized or approved a release to out” When told that the story of the Greta Donaldson appointment had already been published on a technology trade web site she said “I am not aware of this I will investigate this”.

A short while later Wheatley came back to ChannelNews and said “I have read the story and I was not aware of it being sent out. The site is not relevant it’s not as if it is ADNews or B&T”.

When asked why trade media in the consumer technology market was not as relevant as AD News she got angry and said “I don’t like your tone and manner the site is irrelevant and we have big plans for the brand. We are launching new products and you will hear about it soon”.   

Siemens Australia and New Zealand general manager for Australia and New Zealand, Dean Verberne is quoted in the release as saying of the Donaldson appointment “It’s a partnership dedicated to talking the talk,” he said.

Apparently Siemens are set to have another crack at getting traction in the Australian market. This time they are set to roll out a new Gigaset range which includes cordless and fixed-network phones, voice over IP devices, routers, gateways and software. The range even includes WIMAX devices and home media products such as set-top boxes.

An Industry insider said “The technology media market is primarily in Sydney and Melbourne based Companies struggle when they use local Melbourne based PR Companies who do not have a presence in Sydney. Another problem is that technology marketing is a mix of the specialist technology media that is extremely important when it comes to reviews and the mass consumer market where technology Companies are currently fighting to build their brand as consumers become a lot more familiar with technology in their lives. It is clear that Donaldson lacks knowledge of the CE trade market and is attempting to try and get a PR presence in the mass market at the expense of the technology based media”.

They added “Another problem is that Melbourne based PR Companies have very few technology clients and they are not dealing every week or every month with the technology writers who today are reaching millions of consumers who have fallen in love with all things technical. This includes games, mobile communication devices and TVs as well as portable music devices.”.