HDTV no longer a pipe dream, but still a marketing, branding challenge - High Definition Television

Brandweek, Jan 19, 1998 by Tobi Elkin

This year's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was the expo at which the ultimate idiot box, high-definition TV (HDTV), was no longer a pipe dream, given a congressional mandate that broadcasters offer digital telecasts in the top 10 markets by this year's fourth quarter and the top 50 by year-end 1999. Thus, most TV-set marketers showed working prototypes to the nearly 100,000 attendees while keeping their pricing plans close to the vest. The sets won't be cheap: most marketers put them somewhere from $6,000 to $10,000.

While pricing, capital-investment, format and other uncertainties mean a real market won't take shape before 1999, marketers are already maneuivering to grab mind-share and resolve branding quandaries such as that posed to Samsung's "so simple" positioning. "HD isn't simple, so we're trying to come up with ways to keep the positioning, but address the product," said Mark Knox, nat'l. marketing mgr.-digital products.

Although initial buyers will be the usual early-adopter types, "Everybody's going to want to see [HDTV]," predicted Thomson president/COO James Meyer. Thus, Thomson plans heavy marketing and promotion, and will work with the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association on an education and awareness campaign this fall. Thomson, the largest producer of digital satellite system settops, will also get a boost from digital broadcast satellite provider DirecTV, which plans to offer at least two HD channels in its lineup nationally by fall.

Philips this year will include HDTV in its forthcoming global brand campaign, and will join with PBS, TV transmitter maker Harris and other partners on "DTV Express," a cross-country mobile van tour touting digital TV

Still, given HDTV's expected long transition to market acceptance, the last thing retailers and marketers can afford to do is cause consumers to delay purchases of analog sets, said Jeff Cove, vp/gm of Panasonic's TV division. Since analog, big-screen, projection TV sets are viewed as a vital retail profit center, marketers will include other advanced TV products in their lineups during the transition. Sony this fall will mount a massive campaign around its new FD Trinitron flat-tube proprietary technology, which minimizes image distortion and degradation, via the mantra, "Trinitron Reinvented," said Jim Palumbo, vp-consumer TV products. Sony's message to the trade: FD Trinitron is the high-performance product that meets the industry's needs now. "Any retailer focusing on DTV is missing the focus and should concentrate on PTV [projection] and big-screens," Palumbo said. Meanwhile, Sharp showed standard analog TV sets with component video inputs that make them HD-ready, and plans education efforts on HDTV this fall.

TV marketers are also mulling plans to offer set-top converter boxes to enable analog TVs to receive digital TV signals. Those plans, as well as Sony's recent deal with NextLevel to build digital set-tops for the cable industry, and Microsoft's arrangements with TCI on a similar front, are sure to be backed by hefty marketing dollars from the cable industry.

As usual these days, Microsoft found a way to be at the center of a controversy when it pitched "Palm PC" as a suitable "category identifier" for handheld units based on an upgraded Windows CE, the consumer electronics version of Windows. To some, it was a market-confusing play on the moniker of 3Com's wildly popular--and non-Windows--Palm Pilot.

Microsoft has also begun its first print campaign around the upgrade, Windows CE 2.0. The ads from West Design, Seattle, target mobile pros, business pros dubbed "corridor cruisers" and IT managers. In June, Microsoft will launch a print effort around a voice-activated Win CE derivative, Auto PC, that enables such data services as traffic and weather reports.

Microsoft also debuted a new logo, "Powered by Microsoft Windows CE," which could wind up on such other CE devices as DVD, game consoles, WebTV and smart phones. Clarion, the first Microsoft licensee for Auto PC, launches its own print campaign by May, but Samsung, Alpine, Daewoo and others likely will join in the second half.