BPL is more but Philips is better

When it comes to public image, greater coverage is not necessarily better as the Philips-BPL case glaringly illustrates. Many of the other consumer electronics companies disappoint

agencyfaqs! News Bureau

NEW DELHI

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BPL has been more written about in the Indian press than any other consumer electronics company. But the image leader is Philips. This is the conclusion from the data by Cirrus, a media monitoring service from agencyfaqs!. The gap between the two has been consistently close, however.

While Philips has received somewhat less coverage, the reportage has been significantly more positive than for BPL. According to the Cirrus Quality of Exposure Index (QEI) which gauges how positive the coverage (and in which a company can score a maximum of 200 points), Philips has outperformed BPL in every one of the six months since October 2001. Philips' monthly QEI scores have typically been between 125-150 points while BPL's have been between 100-120. BPL has had to suffer more than twice as many negative write-ups in the press than Philips during this period.

In the overall Cirrus 200 Image Index culled from over 1,100 corporates across industries, Philips currently stands at No 61 followed by BPL at No 71. Sony (No 101), LG (No 104) and Siemens (No 125) are the others who follow in their wake in terms of positive perception in the press.

March was an especially good month for consumer electronics companies because they received significantly more coverage than they normally do, as a group. While Philips led as usual, Sony almost pipped it to the post in terms of positive coverage in that month.

Most months, BPL received 25-50 per cent of its coverage from its marketing and sales activity, with product launches creating news during October-December last year. Financial aspects of the company have also received some notice in the last couple of months.

In contrast, the press has chosen to write about Philips most because of its financial performance. Marketing and sales and product launches have received significant coverage only in the first three months of 2002.

As with BPL, Sony's coverage too is skewed towards product launches plus marketing and sales.

While LG and Whirlpool have received reasonably good coverage in the press, what is surprising are the notable omissions, large, well-regarded companies that receive little notice in the press. These include Electrolux, Mirc Electronics (Onida) and National Panasonic, among others.

Samsung Electronics, for all its striking advances in India, stands at a lowly No 7 within the consumer electronics basket of companies. And in Cirrus 200, it figures at only No 159, far lower than other companies that have achieved much less in other industries. © 2002 agencyfaqs!