Philips takes on rivals in blind test campaign

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