In Japan, the brands are unified as National and Panasonic; in overseas markets outside Japan, the brand of all Panasonic products is unified as Panasonic, including China.
The Panasonic Group originated from "Matsushita Electric Apparatus Works" founded by Konosuke Matsushita in 1918, and its products were wiring products at the beginning of its establishment, and the products of Panasonic Electric Works have never ceased to be produced in the past eighty-six years.
Matsushita Electric was founded in 1935, and then Matsushita Electric became independent from the third division of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
Only in terms of Matsushita Electric, the scope of business has been very complex, mainly by lighting, information devices and wiring, household appliances, building products, electronic and plastic materials and automatic control products and other six categories, in 2002, sales of about 10.7 billion U.S. dollars, wiring is only a small part of it.
The National brand was founded by Konosuke Matsushita in 1925, and in the 1960s Matsushita Electric began exporting overseas. Because National has the meaning of "country, nation," it was rejected when it was registered in many countries, and Matsushita Electric switched to Panasonic. Both National and Panasonic are owned by Panasonic.
Originally, Panasonic's use of the Panasonic brand belonged to a special case: it was used only in the Japanese and Chinese markets under the National and NAIS brands, but not Panasonic; the latter was used only in the small home appliance market in Europe and the United States, and so its output value was quite small, only 12 billion yen, accounting for one percent of Panasonic's sales.
In order to bypass Panasonic's overly strong brand image of electrical appliances, Matsushita Electric created its own independent brand NAIS in 1981.In Japan, National and NAIS each account for half of its market; overseas, such as the Chinese market, NAIS brand sales tend to be higher. In Japan, National and NAIS each have half of the market; overseas, such as in China, the NAIS brand tends to have higher sales. According to a source familiar with the matter, Matsushita Electric used to "use Matsushita Electric's National and Panasonic brands for a fee".
In 2003, when Panasonic's brand was being integrated, Hiroshi Tanaka told the media, "Starting in March, except for small appliances with Panasonic, all others will use NAIS." According to the plan, after the integration is completed, Panasonic will use NAIS for all of its six categories of products, except for small appliances. This initiative was once jokingly referred to as Panasonic's "independence movement". What does it mean to suddenly turn back and cancel the brand diversification program?
"Because from the end of last year, we have a new idea with Panasonic, simply put, Panasonic Electric and Panasonic framework cooperation agreement changed our policy." Hiroshi Tanaka told reporters.
The framework cooperation agreement was signed on April 1 of this year, the new Panasonic group includes the two largest companies, and directly led to the two brands back to the "*** same point".
"There are three starting points for brand unification: the customer comes first; whether brand unification is beneficial from a global standpoint; and the effect of brand unification from the standpoint of competitors. We want to penetrate consumers and maximize the value of the brand. In terms of publicity, two brands cost unnecessary money. It would be better to publicize the two brands separately than to unify them into one brand."
Background: Panasonic absolute holding "little brother"
Analysts believe that this Panasonic Electric abandoned the "NAIS", limited to "National
Analysts believe that this time the Panasonic electrician abandoned the "NAIS", limited to "National", and push the Asian users are not familiar with the "Panasonic", the fundamental reason is still to be and Panasonic "consistency".
The entire Panasonic Group sales revenue of about 8,600 billion yen, Panasonic Electric sales revenue of about 1,300 billion yen, calculated Panasonic Electric accounted for more than 15% of the group's total revenue, although the profit margins are relatively high (Panasonic Electric in the Chinese market profit margins this year will be more than 5%, while Panasonic's average profit margins of only 2%), but the semiconductor, audio-visual field is strong Panasonic is still the leader of the group. Although the 2001/02 fiscal year reported a record loss of 400 billion yen, shrinking revenues, and will be "the world's largest consumer electronics manufacturer" seat to the old rival Sony, but the camel is bigger than a horse, the group's brand unification road must still consider the relatively strong Panasonic marketing integration of the interests of the group.
2002 annual report shows that Panasonic Corporation in Panasonic Electric Corporation has 31.83% of the shares, its largest shareholder; in December 19, 2003 held a board of directors, Panasonic Corporation decided to buy shares of Panasonic Electric Corporation, to obtain 51% of the shareholding ratio, to become the latter's absolute controlling party. "Brothers, clear accounts", it seems, "absolute control" is a necessary means of coordinating the pace.
Japanese companies have the habit of holding each other's shares, but on the other hand, the strength of a little less Matsushita Electric only holds Matsushita Electric "not a big share".
Experts believe that the brand's differentiated positioning and regional market coverage of the non-overlapping nature of the channel makes it difficult to **** enjoy, resulting in an increase in sales costs; if the brands do not have a strict market differentiation and "team spirit", will make their respective product market squeeze each other, there is a "this one is not the other one is growing "
The brand is conducive to saving publicity costs, and enhance the brand reputation, awareness and association.
Matsushita Electric has long believed that the dual brand of Panasonic and National often confuse the concept of the user, confused about their relationship with Panasonic, is not conducive to enhancing the overall competitiveness. After suffering two consecutive fiscal years of huge losses, Panasonic urgently need to adjust the brand strategy, to regain market share. In the Chinese market alone, Panasonic plans to spend about 7 billion yen on brand integration strategy. As the controlling party, Panasonic asked Panasonic Electric to give up "independent thinking", together with a single brand is also expected.
The two companies will settle their accounts jointly, with Matsushita Electric importing Matsushita Electric's financial rules, and accounting benchmarks based on the U.S. accounting system. The annual settlements of the two companies will also be harmonized from 2005.
Tanaka said, "It can be said that Panasonic Electric became part of the Panasonic Group, which is dominated by Panasonic. But because there are other shareholders, we are not running 100 percent on the Panasonic model."
Outlook: Panasonic to increase its efforts in Europe and the United States
Despite its low sales, Panasonic is still paying more attention to the Chinese market. On the mainland, it has more counterfeit products, with wiring products being the most commonly counterfeited. "The products launched this time use cutting-edge technology that is not even available in Japan and have applied for patents with the Chinese Patent Office. In addition to legal means of protection, this time our brand is engraved with laser equipment not yet available in China, which is impossible for local manufacturers to imitate. One machine costs 50 million yen, more than 3 million yuan." Tanaka said.
Nevertheless, from the global market point of view, in addition to the huge Japanese domestic market, the most important is the European and American markets. According to the data obtained by the reporter, Panasonic Electric, for example, in its 1,300 billion yen in global sales, the Japanese market has 870 billion yen; the rest of the market to Europe and the United States. Panasonic brand familiar to users in Europe and the United States to promote products globally, indicating that Panasonic overseas market development focus on the European and American markets, Asia due to intellectual property rights, consumer strength of the reasons for a moment can not match the importance of the European and American markets.
It is understood that after the merger to become a Panasonic group, Panasonic Electric does not have to pay Panasonic brand royalties to Panasonic. "We will gradually unify and there will be a time when the two brands (National and Panasonic) **** exist." Business executives said. It was revealed that it would take three years to convert 100 percent of National's brand. In contrast, "NAIS", which is a separate symbol of Panasonic's electrical brand, will not be so lucky, and it will be replaced by Panasonic as quickly as possible.
Another reference article:
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The dialectic of single-branding and multi-branding--Panasonic's thinking on the transformation of branding strategy
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