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PHOTO BY PAUL PERRIER
VP marketing
Andrew Barrett
and president/CEO
William Cho have
found a match for
the brand in fashion
GLOBAL STYLESETTERS
Life has been good for LG Canada lately. In Q3 of last year, seven years after arriving in Canada, brand
awareness for the South Korean manufacturer of glossy red steam washers, sleek HD LCD televisions,
condo-friendly fridges and status-symbol cellphones jumped to 40% from 27% the year before. This
jump (compared to three points in the U.S.) can be largely attributed to new president and CEO William
Cho, who immediately set about shifting the subsidiary’s focus from manufacturing and sales to
marketing after he joined in January 2006. By Carey Toane
With 21 years’ experience at LG in Europe
and the U.S. under his belt, Cho wants to
make LG Canada’s number one electronics
company by 2010. To that end, he has set
ambitious annual growth targets of 30% and
a revenue target of $1.1 billion for 2008, up
from $900 million in 2007.
Big carrots call for big sticks, and Cho, who
received a global LG Man of the Year award
for driving six-fold growth in appliances over
two years in Germany, wields an integrated
marketing approach that takes its lead from
consumer insights. To realize his vision, he
wooed VP marketing Andrew Barrett from JWT
in October 2006. Barrett, who brings local
experience from Molson and P&G, has since
grown the marketing team from nine to 16, and
will add another nine by the end of the year.
Their signature play is eye-catching visibility
via unique events, mass advertising and web
initiatives as well as marketplace ubiquity, as
they leverage their products’ stylish design
and energy efficiency in retail partners’
efforts. Programs catering global campaigns
to local markets run across every consumer
touchpoint. “Prior to a year and a half ago, we
would have bits of marketing here and there,
none of which looked the same,” says Barrett.
And it happened fast. Four weeks after
joining LG, Barrett launched the Chocolate
phone in Canada, “our first attempt to reorient
the whole company’s approach on marketing.”
In the process, LG Canada blazed a trail on
the branding front for LG global.
The starting point for Chocolate was an
insight into consumer behaviour, namely the
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“Bragging Bob” type who needs to have the
it-phone, whether or not he uses its advanced
features – an attitude also applicable to his
female counterpart, “Social Sally.” This led
to a new positioning for LG as the brand for
“style-conscious Canadians fascinated by
technology,” which in turn suggested a natural
messaging link with the world of fashion.
The campaign began with a buzz-building
exercise in bars and restaurants in Toronto
to identify brand ambassadors, who received
invitations to the product launch, a fashion
show at the Windsor Arms hotel. Post-show,
the same nightspots were dominated with
Chocolate materials created by LG AOR Y&R’s
Toronto office, reinforcing the LG buzz brought
back by the select few. The initial launch was
followed by three more PR-worthy events,
www.strategymag.com STRATEGY April 2008 15