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TFCinfo Announces Results from Major US Plasma Brand Strength Study (3/5/2005)

TFCinfo: Major US Plasma Brand Study reveals that Sony and Panasonic are the strongest brands in the plasma industry.

TFCinfo Corp, the worldwide leader in AV Market Research, reveals its brand strength findings from their new report entitled "TFCinfo US Plasma Brand Strength Study 2005." This report is an exciting plasma study of experienced plasma users and purchasers that goes beyond the usual analysis of brand, since it also includes such important measures as price premiums for brands, price sensitivities for display sizes, premiums for higher resolution displays and much more!

TFCinfo announced today that Sony and Panasonic are the leaders on overall brand awareness among experienced plasma users and purchasers in the key market segments surveyed -- business and entertainment:

Sony

Sony ranks #1 for both segments surveyed on unaided brand awareness. Sony also takes the #1 spot on aided brand recognition among entertainment users, but falls to 4th place on aided recognition among business users. "Sony clearly is a strong consumer brand, and it is a tribute to Sony that its brand strength extends to the business aspect of plasma displays, even if at lower levels of awareness," states Paul Martin, president and founder of TFCinfo.

Panasonic

Panasonic is one of the best overall performing brands throughout this research among both business and entertainment users. Panasonic did extremely well on both unaided and aided brand awareness. Panasonic also enjoyed a top finish as a brand that is always considered for purchase, and as a superior brand (brand most wanted to use or purchase). "It was exciting to see how well Panasonic did throughout this research," stated Tanya Lippke, TFCinfoâs manager of survey market research. "Panasonic did well on many of the most customer-desired purchasing factors, and purchasers are clearly willing to pay for that. It was interesting to see the price premiums that purchasers were willing to pay for the Panasonic name versus other brands."

NEC

NEC was a solid brand performer throughout this research. NECâs strength currently lies squarely with the business segment. Additionally, entertainment users are already beginning to take notice of the same strong product performance qualities that business users have seen from the brand. NEC is one of the top plasma brands considered for purchase with roughly half of all business users stating that they always consider the NEC brand. NEC also performed remarkably well on important brand affinity attributes such as quality/reliability, best picture, and as a great investment (price, best investment for most features).

Pioneer

Through brand association analysis, TFCinfoâs study reveals that experienced plasma users and purchasers view Pioneer as a plasma display brand for entertainment use, however the results of this research show that Pioneer performs equally well, with very consistent percentages among both user segments surveyed - business and entertainment. Pioneer is considered for purchase by roughly half of all respondents surveyed. Pioneer is also named as a superior brand - users site picture quality by far as the #1 reason why. Nearly 2/3rds of all respondents surveyed, regardless of user segment, stated the brand was "above average." Clearly all experienced end users and purchasers understand the high quality image that Pioneer is setting forth.

Samsung

Plasma users (both business and entertainment users) distinctly recognize the Samsung brand, although at lower levels than top performing brands. Experienced plasma users and purchasers are clear when it comes to Samsungâs brand image. Users know that Samsung provides users what they want in a display while still being affordable.

Dell

For a brand that recently entered the plasma market in 4Q04, Dell may already have a head start. Although initial free recall scores were low, Dell enjoyed top tier aided recognition scores among both business and entertainment users. Dell is a perfect example of a company that is using the cross-over product halo effect to their advantage! Dell also captured many #1 spots on certain brand affinity attributes. Dell may benefit by being seen as both a business and entertainment brand, performing evenly among user segments in this research.

Many other brands were researched in-depth and each show significant strengths and weaknesses in certain areas. Other brands not previously mentioned that were analyzed include: BenQ, Gateway, Hitachi, JVC, LG, Luce, Marantz, Philips, Toshiba, Viewsonic and Zenith.

This report entitled TFCinfo US Plasma Brand Strength Study 2005 is another in the series of in-depth longitudinal Audiovisual Brand Strength Studies, and joins TFCinfoâs renowned annual Projector Brand Strength Studies.

TFCinfo US Plasma Brand Strength Study 2005 not only focuses on the top brands, but on brand performance, brand affinity and brand associations -- and analyzes these across the most important user segments in our industry. With this comprehensive study, plasma companies can track and compare their performance among business and entertainment users.

TFCinfo US Plasma Brand Strength Study 2005 provides significant insight into the plasma industry through the eyes of experienced users and purchasers.

TFCinfo US Plasma Brand Strength Study 2005 is a complete report analyzing a multitude of unique measures of brand strength and its more interesting and subtle derivatives. Besides the significant work on plasma aided and unaided brand awareness, this report also measures: Plasma Brand Price Premium ö how much additional money people are will to pay for your brand over and above an average brand? How concerned are business customers about initial purchase cost vs. burn-in issues? How concerned are home entertainment plasma users about motion artifacts? Who is the most widely used brand in Business? Who is most widely used brand at Home? How many hours on average is the display on (Biz vs. Home)? Most frequent mounting option for plasma. Is it different for biz vs. home? Why did buyers choose plasma over LCD? Why do your customers continue to come back to buy? Do your customerâs perceive your brand as Above Average or Below? What % of Business users currently use their plasma displays for Dynamic signage applications?

With a complete brand analysis - through research, such as TFCinfo US Plasma Brand Strength Study 2005, industry participants can measure their brand strengths and weaknesses for all facets of plasma brand management. Participants can see the success or shortcomings of their current branding strategy, as well as the weaknesses in their competitorsâ strategies. Plasma companies then can implement new marketing plans to bring their brands to the forefront of the minds of the purchasers that they target.

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