Sharp decides marketing is key to flat panel success

ags: HDTV, Plasma,LCD, Intel, Marketing

Today's Wall Street Journal has a great article on Sharp's realization that it needed to do more marketing for its LCD flat panel displays to make inroads with consumers. The big aha:

Despite being the world's top seller of liquid-crystal-display televisions, surveys showed that the only TV brand many Americans could name was Sony.

It was easy to see why: Sharp didn't do much in the way of advertising in the U.S., besides occasional TV spots. The company was late in catching on to U.S. consumer trends, such as the move toward bigger TVs. Indeed, Sharp didn't even roll out its new TV models overseas until half a year to a year after they had hit stores in Japan.

At least they recognize the problem. When was the last time you saw any advertising for flat screen TVs from the manufacturer?

Blackfriars can say one thing. The first flat screen TV company that can create a simple, quick branding element like Intel's three tone advertising signature stands to gain a lot of market share with consumers.