Lumix Marketing Battle

[pic 1]

Table of content

1. 
   Background

1. Company Overview:

        Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the manufacture and development of electronic products. Over the years, with a wide range of electric products, Panasonic has developed strongly in the industry. In 2012, the company was ranked 65th in Best Global Brands and ranked 6th in Best Global Green Brands by Interbrand. The revenue of Panasonic in fiscal year 2012 was 7,846 billion yen (Panasonic Annual report, 2012). According to Kazuhiro Tsuga, the president of Panasonic, Panasonic always makes people central to their activities and focuses on people’s lives. Kazuhiro believes that the development of Panasonic is parallel with customer’s benefits.

        Currently, Panasonic Corporation is comprised of various business domain companies. However, it is divided into 6 main sectors which are Home Appliances, Digital AVC Networks, Components and Devices, PEW & PanaHome, Sanyo Electric and Other Business Domains (Panasonic, 2012). Each sector has its own unique production, R&D and sales function in order to satisfy specific needs and wants of customer worldwide.  However, in this report, we only focus on the Digital AVC Networks, specifically on the Lumix – Digital Camera.

1. Market situation:

Panasonic offers a wide range of digital cameras for all customers needs. With designs ranging from creative, stylish, casual, super zoom and touch digital cameras. Lumix is one of the best camera of Panasonic. With features, which make stunning photography effortless, the Lumix is the best choice for customers who want to capture moments in perfect clarity. By applying new technologies in the products, Panasonic has made Lumix become an unique camera with various functions but still friendly with users. For example: to help people capture incredible photographs, a Lumix id endowed with features such as iA Mode (Intelligent Auto), helping people adapt photography to whatever surrounding they are in. Moreover, with other features which are Face Detection and Intelligent Scene Selector, a Lumix cannot leave anyone out of the frame (Panasonic, UK, 2012).

According to Mintel – a market research firm- Panasonic was in Top 4 camera manufacturers, having increased their market share 2% from 2010 to 2011

        
[pic 2]

Figure 1: Digital Camera manufacturer market share (2008-2011)

However, in compare with the leaders in the market such as Canon, Nikon and Sony, the market share of Panasonic is significantly lesser. These 3 brands they are very strong in DSLR – currently, this type of camera is very popular, there are more and more consumers want to buy it. In case of Panasonic, the company focuses on single lens camera; hence its market share is much lesser than other 3 brands. Stability, Panasonic is more and more well-known for it single lens camera in the digital camera industry.

1. Competitor’s analysis

                There are several competitors in Thailand digital camera market; however, we choose Canon, Nikon and Sony as Panasonic’s main competitors. These 3 digital producers have a lot of experience in digital camera’s technology and have a long history running their business in Thailand market. Although there are not direct figure show their market share in Thailand, but those them are well known by Thais.

Canon:

                The number one company in the digital camera industry and it has over 28 years experience in the digital camera industry. Canon’s digital camera has led the Japan market today and those products have become synonymous with quality, durability and style. Canon’s compact digital cameras embody the advanced camera technologies Canon has developed over the years and continue to receive enthusiastic reviews from users. Advanced optical technology, camera control technology and electronic devices technology densely mounted in a small body design make for compact cameras that deliver high performance and high image quality.(Canon Europe, research and development mission for Canon Europe, no date). Nowadays, a large number of the excellent camera shop offer Canon digital camera in Bangkok, although the electronic store not just sells digital camera, it also sells other electronics which belong to different brand.