GCC dominates LG annual regional awards

In all, LG subsidiaries and distributors from the Gulf won four gold, two silver and one bronze award together with the grand prize for Tear Down and Rebuild (TDR), which went to LG Electronics Gulf FZE's (LGEGF) commercial air-conditioning team.

"The awards are an important part of LGE's annual marketing conference because they set benchmarks for our distributors and subsidiaries," said Mr. K. H. Kim, President, LG Electronics, Middle East and Africa Operations.

"This year, the GCC demonstrated its command of marketing and service disciplines to walk away with a number of top honours. The rest of the region will learn from the success of the GCC subsidiaries and distributors and take away valuable lessons for next year."

LG Electronics Middle East (LGEME) took home the gold award for service marketing with its 'One-Call-Does-It-All' campaign highlighting the free phone number for LG's customer information centres (CICs).

"The 'One-Call-Does-It-All' service initiative was developed to keep LG ahead of its rivals in customer service indices," said Mr. Y. R. Roh, Managing Director, LGEME.

"Our research shows customers want easy access to product information, to details on where they can purchase, what promotions are taking place, recommended prices and product maintenance. All this is now available via one call to the CICs. Once a customer calls a CIC, they also receive a return call which gets them to rate the service and their satisfaction. This 'Happy Call' monitoring has resulted in tremendous customer response across the region with LG CICs recording high levels of customer service satisfaction."

LG CICs have been opened in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Iran, Pakistan, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa. The launch of the CIC network means LG now provides service access for 16 hours a day, 365 days a year in the 12 countries.

"In 2004, LG will push ahead with plans to open more CICs across the region and the 'One-Call-Does-It-All' campaign will again be the vehicle to ensure the customer knows what to expect," said Roh.

LGE executives, distributor principals, dealers and representatives from advertising and PR agencies from across the region were amongst over 300 delegates attending the Korean giant's two-day annual conference held in Cape Town, South Africa.

Issues related to revising management principles and refining business processes dominated workshop sessions and the participants were also exposed to a wide range of LGE products that are due to be launched in the next 12-months.

"We have to challenge the accepted norm if we are to dominate the market," said Kim. "Part of that is the ongoing assessment of internal practices and procedures to ensure we are on top of our game."

Gallup commissioned studies around the region revealed that LGE's unaided brand awareness had reached an average of 50 percent across the region, a target the company had originally set to be achieved by 2005.

"Be under no illusion, we have the people, products and brand power to take down the competition next year," said Kim. Dominating customer service indices, raising brand awareness to new heights and bringing the right products to market at the right price and at the right time, will cement LG Electronics leadership in consumer electronics in the Middle East and Africa."