NEW DELHI: Philips India has rolled out its "Dare to Compare" campaign
for its flat colour television, basing creative on a series of blind
tests in which it out-performed its two key rivals.
Sony and Samsung, which were used in the Philips' exercisefor comparison
purposes, have reacted angrily to the tests, labelling it a farce.
Inspired by cola marketers, the blind tests pitted Philips' high-end
Matchline RF set, priced at US$2,100, against Sony's Vega DRC and
Samsung's Plano. The Vega at $2,530 and the Plano at $1,680 were chosen for the blind tests as both are the only 29-inch TV
sets in the 100Hz segment.
As part of its drive to improve its less than five per cent share of
India's TV market, the tests were carried out in New Delhi, Mumbai,
Chennai, Calcutta, Indore and Ahmedabad, and involved more than 2,500
consumers.
Participating dealers were asked to camouflage the three brands with a
special black cover, leaving only the screen visible for consumers to
evaluate picture quality.
Consumers were queried on three measures - motion smoothness, picture
stability and sound quality.
Philips claimed it outperformed Samsung and Sony by a wide margin on all
three measures, achieving scores of more than 90 per cent for motion
smoothness and picture stability and close to 80 per cent for sound
quality.
It was the robustness of the scores which prompted Philips to try a
comparison-based campaign, which was one of the last pieces of work
executed by Euro RSCG, its former agency before the mid-year realignment
to Hindustan Thompson Associates.
The Delhi segment of the campaign mentioned that the blind tests were
conducted at five outlets across the city in which 88 out of a 100
consumers chose Philips.
Sony and Samsung have labelled the campaign a farce. Ravinder Zutshi,
Samsung India's vice-president of sales, said: "The results were
predetermined in favour of Philips." He also felt that consumers should
have been allowed to change settings with a remote.
Sony India managing director, Teruo shii, added: "The campaign is
one-sided and there is no element of fairness."
Philips has defended its campaign, saying it maintained the integrity
and independence of the tests by putting ACNielsen in charge. "They are
questioning the integrity of Philips. They are even questioning the
authenticity of ACNielsen, which has arranged everything independently,"
said Philips general manager for consumer and trade marketing, Rupam
Ganguly.
