Pioneer is back in the TV business via a new deal with Sharp, however it is not known whether Sharp or Pioneer will market the new TV’s in Australia.
Pioneer is back in the TV business via a new deal with Sharp, however it is not known whether Sharp or Pioneer will market the new TV’s in Australia.
Credited with having the best flat panel TV in the world with their Kuro branded plasma TV, Pioneer has struck a deal with Sharp that will see the Pioneer Elite brand used to market high end Sharp LED TV’s.
The Pioneer Elite brand was used by the Japanese Company to market their high-performance plasma TV’s before Pioneer exited the TV business two years ago.
Now Sharp is set to bring the Elite brand back to life with the new TV’s set to be marketed via Pioneer’s dealer network as well as their own.
It’s now emerged that when Pioneer exited the TV business, it sold an equity stake to Sharp as well as Panasonic who now own the Kuro brand.
It isalso not clear whether the Elite brand will appear as a Sharp or Pioneer TV. Another problem is that Pioneer was associated with high end plasma TV’s vin Australia and not premium LED TV’s.
Research group DisplaySearch said that TV brands have been trying to figure out how to market to what is becoming a bifurcated retail market for TVs: high-end specialty retailers offering deep margins but small volumes, and large national (or semi-national in the case of hhgregg) retailers that deliver large volumes but have slim margins and place intense pressure on brands for price concessions they claimed.
They added “It can be difficult for a brand, like Samsung, to sell to national retailers and simultaneously offer the same product to a small specialty retailer that is cross-shopped with the likes of Harvey Norman. However, small specialty retailers usually have limited selections of sheltered brands, allowing them to avoid cross-shopping. At the same time, sub-branding has become less effective as the likes of Harvey Norman, JB Hi Fi and to a lesser degree mass chains like Best Buy continue to account for a larger percentage of sales and can impose stronger control or influence on product strategy”.
