RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A well-known Japanese brand has teamed up with a Brazilian company to return to the market and hopes to sell 1 million smart TVs by 2026.
“Our Japanese are more creative than other people’s Japanese.” Those who lived through the 1990s certainly have memories of Semp Toshiba TV advertisements. The company was one of the exponents of the segment and wants to regain this status.
Separated from Semp (that today is with TCL), the Japanese Toshiba has allied itself with the Brazilian Multilaser to manufacture, distribute and serve customers of new TV sets that will reach the Brazilian market in the first semester of this year.
Multilaser signed a partnership with the Chinese group Hisense, which, in turn, has a global partnership with Toshiba. Thus, the Japanese company will be one of about 20 brands that the Brazilian company currently has in the market, such as Ultra and Rapoo. The company sells about 5,000 products in Brazil and is present in 40,000 points of sale, in addition to having its own website.
The TV segment, currently ruled by the South Korean Samsung in Brazil, is undergoing a phase of changing competitors. The Japanese Sony, for example, decided to leave the sector, while the Brazilian Britânia recently launched TVs with its own brand (it also maintains the Philco brand).
“While good brands leave the market, we are happy to bring a brand with state-of-the-art technology back to Brazil,” says André Poroger, product vice-president. “We bring international brands to operate in a more premium segment of the market. Multilaser pursues its strategy of bringing the best of technology with good cost-benefit ratio.”
Initially, two TV models will reach the market in May. The products will feature 55-inch and 65-inch screens and 4K resolution. The screen will feature quantum dot technology, also adopted by Samsung and TCL. This technology rivals South Korea’s LG OLED screens.
The TVs operating system is called Vidaa, different from Android, Tizen, and webOS that are already on the market. Major video streaming apps will be available, such as Netflix and YouTube. The TVs will also feature Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, present in other TVs sold in Brazil.
The initial focus on large-screen TVs is due to the company’s intention to convey a perception of sophistication to consumers. “There is growth in the large screens segment, with 55 and 65 inches. Toshiba comes to occupy a premium brand space in the market. Our differentiation bet is on design allied to technology,” says Poroger. More devices are expected to come later this year with 32-inch and 50-inch screens.
Multilaser expects to reach 100,000 sets sold in 2021 and 1 million by 2026.
In the long term, in terms of innovation, the brand that launched the wide-screen TV in Brazil will need to again show that its Japanese are more creative than the others – and than South Koreans and Chinese too.
Source: Exame