MUMBAI: Philips India today announced the launch of a new brand campaign evolving around the concept of 'Sense and Simplicity'. The ads are designed to give customers a distinctive image of a sharper, more focused enterprise, which - throughout its activities in healthcare, lifestyle and technology - is held together by a common drive to deliver intuitive end-user experiences.
Royal Philips Electronics has set aside a sum of Euro 80 million in the first quarter of 2005 to bring its message to customers in 11 key markets around the world. In India, the investment will be Euro 2.5 million.
Philips India managing director and CEO K Ramachandran said, "Philips is not the only technology company to grasp the need for simplicity - but I believe we're the first to put a stake in the ground and declare our intent to take action. Others may aspire to be more fashionable, more cool. Our route to innovation isn't about extra complexity - it's about simplicity, which we believe will be the new cool. The advertising campaign will change the way the world sees and experiences Philips."
"Simplicity is what people expect of technology and it is as applicable to a doctor working under pressure in a hospital with advanced medical equipment as it is to a consumer operating a DVD recorder. Simplicity is equally relevant to our customers, be it in healthcare, in lifestyle or in enabling technologies. In each of these domains Philips already has many proof points of simplicity and some of these we highlight in our new advertising campaign. The challenge before us is to further realign our company to deliver on our new brand promise in each and every aspect of what we do and make," he added.
The brand campaign will focus firmly on a core target group consisting of the 20 per cent of people who do 80 per cent of the buying, typically affluent decision-makers in the 25-55 age range and A/B+ category who share a dislike for the unnecessary hassle often created by technology.
"These same people make decisions in their personal and professional lives that are profoundly interesting to Philips. One person making a decision on a top-of-the-range flat TV for his or her home could be the very same manager responsible for the purchase of medical diagnostic equipment at a local hospital," said Philips International senior vice-president and head of global marketing management Enderson Guimaraes.
"We wanted this campaign to be true to the concept of simplicity. We wanted to use a different language than the one you might have expected from any technology company, and from Philips in particular - fresher, cleaner, more human. Every ad, every insertion tells a part of the story. One ad reinforces another. That is why you will always see multiple insertions in TV commercial breaks," Guimaraes added.
The campaign, which was developed together with DDB, Philips' global advertising agency, and media buyers Carat, features existing Philips products that fit the new brand positioning. It will run via broadcast, print and online in India, Brazil, Russia and Spain and then in a new version in China, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK and the US.
The total value of the campaign in the first quarter of 2005 is around Euro 80 million. At an annualised rate, the spend for the new campaign is comparable with the world's most influential advertising campaigns.
