Philips is a household name and a diversified brand, and has been active in the medical field for many years, having had its own hearing aid division in the last century.
In 1999, Philips completely withdrew from the global hearing aid market after its hearing aid business was acquired by US-based Bertone for €150 million.
December 31, 2017, is operating Siemens hearing aid fitting store ushered in the "dark moment", they received a product withdrawal notice, meaning that the Siemens brand "out of the hearing aid group chat", Siemens Group and the hearing aid industry parted ways. The Siemens Group has parted ways with the hearing aid industry.
In 2018, Philips announced a licensing partnership with the Danish Demant Hearing Group. The Danish Demant Group is the parent company of industry brands such as Oticon Oticon and Bernafon Borealis.
In April 2019, Hearlink hearing aids, a collaborative product between Philips and Demant Group, were launched.
The market direction of Philips hearing aids was of particular interest in early 2020, when Philips hearing aids were fittingly announced in China at a time when Siemens branded hearing aids were being withdrawn from the market altogether.
As the parent company of brands such as Oticon and Bernafon, Denmark's Demant Group is one of the fastest-growing hearing groups in terms of sales in recent years, with a global market share of about 20%, making it a Top 3 player in the global hearing aid industry (the other two being Switzerland's Sonova and WSA Group).
If the Demant Group is so strong, why partner with Philips?
Although Philips' brand awareness is not generated by hearing aids, "Philips" and "Siemens" are among the most familiar brands to the average Chinese consumer who has almost no knowledge of the hearing industry. Obviously, Demant Group is interested in Philips brand influence and sales channels.
Demant Group is the ODM (original designer) of Hearlink hearing aids, Hearlink hearing aids are completely produced by Demant Group as well as sales, using the hardware and software platform of Demant Group ****, just labeled with the Philips brand, which is the Philips hearing aids and Oticon hearing aid products. This is the main reason why Philips hearing aids and Oticon hearing aid products have "déjà vu".
While it is "authorized labeling", Philips' marketing still puts a lot of thought into it. Philips re-entered the hearing aid market with new products using two key technology names - SoundMap and SoundTie.
SoundMap technology consists of three sound processing technologies: noise control, amplification and feedback elimination. Philips claims that these three core technologies are best-in-class innovations.
Hearing aids, in turn, are connected to the outside world through SoundTie. For example, they can be directly connected to Apple devices (e.g. iPhone/iPad). For Android phones, an AudioClip accessory is required.
Based on the public information that has been released, Philips' new HearLink line of hearing aids is closer in appearance and software technology to its sibling, the Bernafon brand.
The Hearlink series consists of behind-the-ear, customized, and external receiver hearing aids, and is available in five technology levels: Hearlink 9010 (top of the line), Hearlink 7010 (premium), Hearlink 5010 (mid-premium), Hearlink 3000 (mid-premium), and Hearlink 2000 (basic). 2000 (basic).
The layman looks at it from the outside, the insider looks at it from the inside. From a professional point of view, the performance of noise control, amplification, feedback elimination, and direct connection to Apple's system devices are already the basic standard of today's international brand hearing aids, not any special performance, and can only be described as moderate. For consumers, if the same price, the same configuration, the choice of the more well-known Philips is a very natural thing.
However, after analyzing, Philips hearing aids in mainland China's cost-effective than the Danish Demant Group's genuine "son" Oticon hearing aids. Publicly released information shows that the same level of hearing aids, Philips hearing aids in mainland China's retail prices are much higher than Oticon hearing aids, but also much higher than the same type of foreign products, the results of the comparison is staggering (see figure below).
Among them, the price gap between mid-range and high-end machines is the most alarming. In the middle and high-end RIC hearing aids, for example, Oticon hearing aids priced at 9880 yuan, Philips hearing aids HearLink priced at 15,980-17,980 yuan, the price is 62%-82% higher than the Oticon hearing aids! According to the branded hearing aids in the Chinese market generally enjoy discounts (Tmall to see on there huh), this calculation Philips branded products will be at least double the retail price of similar products!
Almost identical products, with Philips branding, are Chinese consumers willing to pay for the brand premium?
Research shows that 95% of hearing impaired patients can improve their hearing by using hearing aids, and the penetration rate of hearing aids in western developed countries has reached 35% to 40%. About 150 million people in China suffer from hearing loss, but the penetration rate of hearing aids in China is less than 5%. This has a lot to do with the lack of publicity in the hearing aid industry. The public does not have a correct understanding of the benefits of hearing aids and technology, easy to enter the misunderstanding, and even fall into the consumer trap. Therefore, consumers must be careful when choosing hearing aids, comparison, rational choice.