Global Marketing and Communication Strategy of LG Corporation

International Marketing

International Marketing refers to the employment of marketing concepts to meet the assorted wants and needs of different customers residing in different parts of the world. With the evolving technological innovation LG, tends to revolve around its customers and offers optimum solutions as well as new experiences to enable its clients live better lives (LG Lifes Good 2019). According to the basic marketing theory, to maximize sales, an organisation should position its products in the marketplace in a way that convinces that they need a particular product. (Baker, & Saren, 2016). The company was founded in 1958 and is a global leader in home appliances including radios, television sets, fringes, and other electronics (LG Lifes Good 2019). Competition among businesses is becoming more robust every year as a result globalization along with the advancement of technological innovations. International marketing activities have a very significant role in helping organizations sell their products or service, thus LG keep on launching its brand worldwide including Africa (Ramaswamy, 2007).

Aim of the Report

This report focuses on product and promotion in LG Company which have made the corporation remain relevant in the global market despite the high competition in the electronics industry. Product refers to items manufactured by the company for sale to its customers from any part of the globe while promotion refers to the method used to market the products to the clients to raise awareness, create interest, increase sales, as well as establish brand loyalty through advertising, after sale service such as warranties, direct marketing, personal selling, publicity, and sales promotion (Kretchmer, 2004). The report is organized into various sections that include background, investigation of LG product and promotion, the method of investigation, and the findings.

Investigation of LG Corporation and how it was investigated

LG is an international technology brand which strives to make the lives of its customers more enjoyable using technological innovations. The company’s brand slogan is “Life’s Good” and it identifies itself as a smart brand which believes in bringing stunning enjoyments for the clients (LG Lifes Good 2019). The company’s philosophy is to connect with humanity and the logo signifies its connection with the humanity across the globe. The principles are also associated with positive performance and include continuous inventions, Jeong-Do management that is associated with fairness, transparency, and trust, and training support (López & Monfort, 2017). Investigations on LG Inc. was through reviewing of literature as well as company websites that gave relevant information about its operations especially on product and its promotion.

Findings

LG’s Product Strategy in the Global Market

LG is a company that believes in satisfying its clients and working closely with its suppliers to ensure quality products in the global market. The organization has more than 10,000 traders across the globe and more than 45 branches positioned in different countries (LG Life’s Good 2019). The South Korean conglomerate giant, which was widely referred to as ”Lucky-GoldStar,“ has established its products in more than a hundred nations across the globe with its subsidiaries such as ZKW group (premium automotive lighting company), LG Electronics LG Innotek, Zenith, and LG Chemicals (Ponde and Muley, 2015). In the beginning, when the company entered the Indian sector, the products were valued at high prices since it had to import its merchandise with the lack of a manufacturing unit in India. According analysts, this approach was used to make local customers feel that products manufactured by LG were in no way substandard compared to the Japanese goods in terms of quality as well as performance (LG Life’s Good 2019). Nevertheless, in 1998, the company unveiled ‘Sampoorna,’ an inexpensive television which targeted the rural customers (LG Life’s Good 2019). LG believes that the future advancement of the firm will be constructed on the blended strength of its product innovation along with its understanding of the consumers. With the facilitation of IBM’s process competence, the company has realized the vision of continuous inventions. LG depends on the trust and loyalty of its clients due to powerful communication tools as well as cohesiveness of different renowned organizations globally such as Bestbuy (LG Television Inc. US, 2019). depends on its Research and Development capacities as well as product advancement in synergy with global technicians from organizations such as IBM (Todor, 2014). The approach has resulted to an increased rate of good results for new product improvement with reputable monitoring and planning as well as a product promotion to the marketplace due to IBM’s effective product development approach.

LG’s Promotion Strategy in the Global Market

LG electronics has an assertive global business policy controlling more than 118 subsidiaries worldwide while the number of executives and staff total to 75,000 (LG Life’s Good 2019). The corporation introduces its new products through contemporary tools of communication such as television and radio commercials, billboards as well as the World Wide Web so as to generate more brand awareness all over the world (Todor, 2014). The company sponsors various international clubs and between 2009 and 2013 it sponsored German Bundesliga club while it was the main supplier to virgin Racing as well as Lotus Racing team (Yonhap New Agency, 2013). The company offered sponsorship to London Fashion week as well as LG Arena in Birmingham as well as snowboarding and music festival (PRLOG, 2008). It also sponsored the former Australian vice-captain in 2014 named David Warner although his contract was not renewed in 2018 as the brand ambassador after the ball-tampering scandal (Staff, 2018). The sponsorships helps the company to market its products in various countries and increase sales. According to a research by Chen and Ann (2016) LG Electronics has seen great improvement in its competitive positioning by ranking fifth after occupying 2.6 percent of the global market share. LG is a global electronics as well as telecommunication corporation that focuses on quality to beat its competitors such as Samsung in the world market. India is one of the countries where the company has influenced purchasing decisions of consumers by ensuring that its products meet the desired design, entertainment value, safety, and comfort among other characteristics (Senthilkumar, 2017).      

LG’s Product Strategy in the Local Market

LG’s products for local consumers meet the quality standards and are marketed throughout the year by means of different means such as the internet, radio, television, magazines as well as newspapers (Mudambi, Saranga and Schotter, 2017). The company primarily makes the products that constitute a high turnover merchandise and they ensure that local clients know about the items produced in their country, which consequently increases their sales and returns in the local markets. The organization avails its products in the market via local and national distributors that include Redington, Ingram Micro (Bhasin, 2018). LG produces an assortment of products from air solutions and home appliances to vehicle components, home entertainment and cellular communications. The corporation is one of the top manufacturers of flat panel Televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, as well as a selection of electronic home appliances exported in various continents (Senthilkumar, 2017).

LG’s Promotion and Product Strategy in the Local Market

The promotional strategy within the marketing mix concentrates on formidable brand awareness via every achievable channels (Weinstein, 2013). The company furthermore promotes its products by means of the different sporting functions where it establishes itself as a sponsor of the tournaments or the teams in Korea. The corporation supports local sports activities and owns the Korean Baseball organization LG Twins since (Lee, Jang and Fort, 2016). The team is a good marketer and promoter of the company’s products since LG attracts huge attendance. The company has local agents who pick up the famous local celebrities and they in due course get them to be the brand ambassadors in Korea. For instance, HS Ad does all advertising communications such as creative content, advertisements for four major media, brand marketing, wireless advertising, and event and space design (Bhasin, 2018). HS Ad also publishes company newsletters and delivers information on advertising in Seoul, Korea. The strategy is very effective since it makes people directly relate to the products that are available to them.

LG’s Product Strategy in the Glocal Market

Glocalisation entails globalization and localization of products in which there is both global and local marketing of a product (Kim & Cha, 2009). LG produces items that meets both local and global clients’ needs by making products that satisfy all customers. LG group operating in the electronics and appliances industrial sector make its products readily available in the market and uses technology to resolve environmental, poverty, and hygiene issues in the local community and globally (Kim & Cha, 2009). The company has a strong partnership with the local authorities, communities, international organizations to solve various issues and provide entertainment among other products. Donations and social contribution for local and global beneficiaries enable the company to participate in activities that improve living standards. Thus it shares with local communities and plans to have plans for its employees to take part in the sharing activities in all nations by 2030 (Bhasin, 2018). The plan will be achieved by provision of institutional programs such as talent as well as culture sharing. The electronic industry can succeed in moving from low-value production to sophisticated technology use. LG Company has gone through the process of innovation to meet the need of the local as well as global consumers.

LG’s Promotion Strategy in the Glocal Market

LG Company targets a great deal of segments of individuals, thus the company has an array of products that meet the needs of its local and global customers. The products by the corporation are valued from high to low ends (Ponde and Muley, 2015). They are centered in consideration of the different social classes of customers both locally and globally. For mobile phones, there are products that cost low and these LG devices consequently have low features but still meet the needs of their clients (Ponde and Muley, 2015). The company ventured into several types of selection and the cost of the products were fixed based on the features as well as the demand of the consumers. Therefore, from the pricing and promotion strategy within the marketing mix of the company, it is evident that more price ranges are set by the organization depending on their local and global competitors (Hallbäck & Gabrielsson, 2013). The international technology organization positions itself as a high-quality manufacturer delivering services and products with superior capabilities and functions to satisfy all customers from all social classes.

LG’s Target Market

LG’s positioning, targeting and segmentation represent the heart of its advertising initiatives. Segmentation consists of separating population into categories based on specific qualities while targeting appertains to selecting certain groups recognized as due to segmentation to sell as well as market goods (Weinstein, 2013). Positioning is concerned with the selection of the most appropriate marketing mix for the target clientele segment (Weinstein, 2013). LG utilizes a mono-segment form of positioning and creates a positive attractiveness towards a single consumer segment and one of the distributor is Maddiran in Iran (Dehghan & Shahin, 2011). LG has been segmented according to the usage of its products but loyalty is a crucial construct in marketing especially in customer management (Dehghan & Shahin, 2011). For instance, smartphones are typically used by the tech-savvy generation of millennials while the appliances for the home are utilized by the married people generally, air conditioners are used in metropolitan or semi-urban areas.

Market analysis in LG’s Marketing strategy

Entry into the market especially foreign is important in strategic decision for international businesses but there is need to consider the risks, tariff barrier, and resource availability among others (Goyat & Nain, 2016). Use of Wholly owned subsidiaries is one of the strategies of LG Company in different countries. One of the subsidiary, LG India facilitates marketing of the products to the country and offers more control and management of businesses (Park, Shintaku & Amano, 2010).To corporate and business, LG offers tailor-made services to the MNCs, government bodies within the industry segment including infotainment, security systems, vehicle components, etc.

Conclusion

In conclusion, LG’s product development, as well as its comprehensive marketing, have led to the success of the company. As a principle element of the achievement, LG is persistent in creating innovative products that have friendly user interface along with simple style and designs for all its products. Apart from the wide array of products, the promotional initiatives adopted by LG are extraordinary too since their customer’s daily lives are infiltrated by Rigorous advertising and marketing of the company’s products. Additionally, the firm’s style of communication has furthermore been accepted by customers within the global and local range.

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