LG Mobile in strategy u-turn
LG Mobile is making a u-turn in its marketing strategy to target style conscious female consumers instead of “pub geeks” and early technology adopters as it looks to differentiate itself in the crowded smartphone market.
The style-focused strategy is to be trumpeted this month with a £4m multimedia marketing campaign to promote LG’s new range of L-Series smartphones.
It is hoped the new focus, which reverses the brand’s strategy of 2011 to target early technology adopters, will plug a gap in the market of consumers looking for attractive but affordable smartphones, according to LG’s consumer electronics marketing director Steve Gater.
He adds: “The L-Series campaign will be aimed at those individuals looking to either ‘migrate’ from a feature phone to a smartphone, or those who are looking to upgrade their current smartphone. A lot of people want the functionality of a smartphone but don’t want to pay £40 per month for the privilege, especially young people.”
Gater currently leads all of LG Mobile’s marketing activity as it searches for a replacement for its head of mobile Warren Lewis who left earlier this year, having only been in the role for a matter of months.
The L-Series marketing activity, which is being designed by brand activation agency MWorks, will also include leveraging the company’s sponsorship of Birmingham’s LG Arena to offer access to sold-out events such as concerts from Jay-Z and Kanye West, Olly Murs and One Direction.
LG plans to repeat its style-led marketing focus when it launches the Optimus 4X HD quad-core smartphone later this year, although this activity is likely to have more of a male slant.
In the UK, LG has only a 1% share of the smartphone market, according to comScore data for March. Its closest rivals are Motorola (0.6%) and Sony (6%).
Globally, LG Mobile’s operating profit more than tripled in the first quarter of the year to 39 billion Korean Won (£21.2m) on the back of an increased proportion of smartphone sales despite a 14% fall in revenue to 2.5 trillion Korean Won (£1.4bn) due to the decline in feature phone sales.
