MARKETS & TECHNOLOGY
MARKETS & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS THE BROWN AND WHITE GOODS INDUSTRY OUTLOOK JÜRGEN BOYNY - DIVISION MANAGER - GFK How do you see the outlook for the CE market and the white goods market? Mainly the CE market as we have seen is booming, because of the changing technology. Some regions worldwide have a high level of flat TV screens but meanwhile we have other regions, Brazil for example where 90% of the TV sets sold are still CRT. You can even take China, where only 38% are LCD screens so the potential of the CE market is mainly at the moment influenced by the change of technology in the main sector and TV is the main sector of the CE market. But there are, of course, other challenges in addition to the innovative products. It’s not only the TV but with display technology. People will have more displays around themselves, for example car navigation. There will be more and more displays in the house. Why not in the bathroom, kitchen, living rooms or any of the other rooms? One of the main statistics that was very interesting was the trend over the last ten years in TV purchasing not only were a lot more TVs purchased but the average purchase price is a lot more at well. This is a happy situation for the TV industry; to convince the consumer on one hand to buy more TV sets and in addition to spend more money for the TV sets. Consumers are asking for bigger screen sizes. We have been afraid a few years ago that a 40-inch or a 50-inch screen size would not fit in a living room but consumers have been adaptive. If they can get a big screen size, they buy a big screen size. In terms of revenue and turnover in the past ten years we have a growth of over 100%. One of the other very difficult things for people to come to terms with is the different channels to market. And this is one of the issues being dealt at IFA. What are the problems with the channel to market in the CE industry? The CE industry has the challenge of internet sales. Why do people buy on the internet? They want to save money, first of all. But we learned meanwhile that it’s not only the 30 euros DVD player that is bought the internet but also the big plasma TVs. Here they try to save 100 euros in addition to a convenience aspect because they can’t fit in their cars and with the internet there is also a delivery aspect which they might have to pay for but they know it will be delivered. So it’s a price and convenience aspect. Talking about home appliances now, Europe is very different from other world markets in terms of home appliances, which is probably why IFA is so interested in this market. Tell me about the differences between Europe and the other markets. The European white goods market is a very high-tech market. This convenience aspect has been around for many years. People want to have an easy to use washing machine with energy saving capacities, so of course there is a demand in the white good sector for a high tech product. With other regions around the world, if you take Asia for example, people do not look for a washing machine because they mostly hand wash their clothes. In the United States, though, it’s a different market. The only thing that seems to matter is the American market is the size, although now they are becoming more environmentally conscious. This will also be, even for the US, a big challenge in the mind of the consumers and afterwards the retailers to look for a product that is efficient and saves energy, but still has all the comforts and advantages they are used to. IFA International • Monday, 25 th August 2008 www.ifa-international.org 11
