The foundations for what was to become one of the world's biggest electronics companies were laid in 1891 when Gerard Philips established a company in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, to manufacture incandescent lamps and other electrical products. The company initially concentrated on making carbon-filament lamps and by the turn of the century it was one of the largest producers in Europe. Developments in new lighting technologies fuelled a steady program of expansion, and, in 1914, it established a research laboratory to study physical and chemical phenomena, so as to further stimulate product innovation.
Today, Royal Philips Electronics is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of 37.9 billion Euros in 2001. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, electric shavers, color picture tubes for televisions and monitors, and one-chip television products. Royal Philips Electronics is eighth on Fortune's list of global top 30 electronics corporations and quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges.
Philips has 168,400 employees in more than 60 countries actively functioning in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, security systems, components, semiconductors, and medical systems (particularly scanning and other diagnostic systems). It is a world leader in digital technologies for television and displays, wireless communications, speech recognition, video compression, storage and optical products as well as the underlying semiconductor technology that makes these breakthroughs possible.
As a technology-driven company, Philips attaches great importance to protecting its innovations by intellectual property rights (IPRs) to secure its investments in research & development. The company's IPR portfolio currently includes about 70,000 patent rights, 22,000 trademark registrations and some 6,000 design rights.
Philips' brand name is the company's most important asset. It guides the direction and shapes the content of its activity, from R&D to the delivery of products to customer servicing. Philips has spent substantially on supporting its brand throughout the world promoting the company theme of ‘Let's Make Things Better'.
Philips has ensured that the campaign carries significant consumer relevance: before a campaign was devised, Philips talked to over 14,000 customers in 17 countries in personal 'one on one' home interviews, with a group of men and women, roughly aged between26-32 years, with a specific attitude and lifestyle exhibiting comfort in technology and its benefits.
[...] The following part will present the marketing implications of the cultural differences in France, Germany, Spain and Great Britain Implications for Marketing and how to use the Information The starting point of this work was to find the explanation for different consumer behavior in four main European countries. This information makes it easier to understand the results provided by the consumer research. While this study on cultural differences might be too detailed for managers, it is a substantial source of information for marketing researchers and CMI. [...]
[...] French people are mainly in favor of Europe, and ready to study, work and live anywhere in the European Union, but also to vote in local elections of other member states if living there. They also focus on local issues and institutions, giving an important place to national superiority. They defend the respect of law and legal structures either as a way to preserve the established order or to make necessary changes. Implications: o Need for benchmarks and guidelines in private and in public life. [...]
[...] CHAPTER 3 EXPERIENCE GAINED AND OBSERVATIONS Even if my different tasks were interesting, they required a lot of work think I have never worked so hard . even at Audencia this experience was also the opportunity for me to analyze with objectivity the difficulties I encountered and the skills I gained but also the pros and the cons of working in a big company such as Philips. Paragraph 1 A New Experience 2 A Cultural Challenge Lots of cliches exist about Amsterdam and its inhabitants: the bicycle rides on the bridges above its marvelous canals, a certain sense of tolerance and freedom of speech, a cosmopolitan culture and the citizen's attachment for their sovereign but also the junk food, the red light district and the abuse of substances that are illicit and illegal in France. [...]
[...] This is described in much more detail at a later point Skills Acquired I strongly believe this work experience has been useful to me and extremely profitable from a skills acquisition point of view. Indeed, I had to quickly assimilate a large amount of information on such unfamiliar topics as High-Tech CE product technologies or distribution, forecast and consumer tracking and segmenting issues. I obviously had to become comfortable with these topics to be able to carry out the tasks I had been assigned to. [...]
[...] Set a Consumer Intelligence goal and work out a structure 3. Identify the information need 4. Collect the necessary primary and secondary data and store it 5. Combine and analyze the available data to generate the needed information 6. Make the information available to the appropriate users 7. Take action 8. Evaluate the result of the actions and use it to set new goals. Paragraph 3 The Consumer Marketing Intelligence Department 3.1 The CMI Department CMI specifically focuses on information regarding Philips, as well as competitors' customers because in today's economy, consumers have much more insight into the market than before. [...]
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