CHAPTER 3 : : COMPANY PROFILE

3.16 Marketing Strategies

3.16.1 Pricing

BenQ was faced with a large problem when it formed the new company and lauchched the new brand name-no one knew what BenQ was. There were two urgent needs arising from this situation. First, BenQ had to generate an enormous amount of brand awareness to get consumers interested; and second, it had to sell a lot of product from a position of little awareness or recognition at the same time to enable it to survive.

It wasn`t surprising, therefore, that BenQ`s initial business strategy was to buy market share with a low-price policy. BenQ, however, has stressed that this was merely an initial marketing strategy initiative, and that as its intention is to grow a global brand, it is aiming for a premium-price end game. This may seem logical, but time will tell whether BenQ can pull it off.

A look at branding history tells us that once a market is entered with a low-price strategy it is difficult to pursue a premium pricing policy, which is the objective for all great brands. By contrast, it is a little easier to start off with high prices and reduce them, although even this is fraugt with difficulty and may dilute a brand`s power.

Either way, there are potential damaging effects to the desired brand image, so BenQ, although it had little choice but to move down the path it has, won`t find it easy later on as it seeks to raise the brand`s image in consumers` minds. Whether it is successful or not will depend on its capability to understand consumers and get really close to them emotionally. Price-driven consumers are a different breed from brand-conscious ones. BenQ does seem to be addressing this issue.

3.16.2 Differentiation

Jerry Wang sees the flaw in the above strategy but feels it was necessary. He says, ”Brand marketing is not simply a matter of blurting out the slogans. A brand must take as its starting point the fulfillment of consumer demand through a brand with a distinctive character that differentiates it from other brands and clearly separates the company behind the brand from its competitors.” With this in mind, BenQ built a new brand identity, with its constituent elements of the name, a brand personality, and a visual identity. Wang clearly understands the value of a brand when he says that “consumers love you not simply because of the product, but because of their understanding of the brand and the company.” This understanding is the responsibility of brand marketing.

3.16.3 Customer Focus

Perhaps a saving grace here is that one of the core competencies of BenQ appears to be its focus one the consumer. Product development is based on what customers want, rather than on what technology is available. As an example of this, BenQ has established the Lifestyle Design Center in Taipei to conduct consumer trend research on a global basis. Knowledge is power, so they say, and BenQ is trying to gain as much insight into consumer thinking and purchasing behavior as it possibly can. It also realizes that branding is very much a mind game and that consumer perceptions can be managed with skillful brand management and communications.

3.16.4 Brand Communications

As well as using all the traditional media for brand communications in fairly large quantities, BenQ uses sports marketing and was the official IT partner of UEFA EURO 2004. It tries hard to live the brand philosophy, with interactive websites and a “BenQ JoyFamily Smart Manager” Initiatives here include “Liveupdate,” which automatically checks and compares the software of you BenQ product with the latest version and tells you if you need to perform updates; and “QMessenger, [which] establishes a live connection between you and BenQ customer service ot other ‘JoyFamily’ friends to enable customers to get answers to queries just when they want them.”

3.16.5 Distribution and outlets

BenQ has established operations globally and has offices in more than ten countries to support its channel partners. K.Y.Lee says that this is an ongoing search; capable partners must continually be brought into the BenQ distribution system.

BenQ has sales operations in Taiwan, the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, and China with Global Logistics to serve customers worldwide, and has set up distribution channels in the US, Europe and Asia. In addition to brand business, BenQ actively acquires orders from global IT companies for original design manufacturing business. Its main sales regions are Europe and Asia.

BenQ isn`t going to pursue the route taken by Sony and other large brands and build a chain of specialty stores, Instead, it is building brand image showrooms to give consumers a different feeling about the brand`s products and to raise awareness. So fa, although they number less than ten, the showrooms have proved to be successful in their objectives.

Brand marketing needs a brand platform to stand on, messages to communicate and a means of expressing differentiation. This is where the name, personality, and visual identity play their part.