Increasing popularity of local TV brands deters illegal import: Report

Local brands are now getting popularity in the country's television market thanks to the increased investment of some home-grown companies, especially the giant Walton.

Currently, Walton holds the lion's share – around 27% ­– among all the domestic and international brands for television in the market. Besides, Singer accounts for 9%, Minister 4%, Vision 3%, Jamuna 2% and Nova 2% of the total television market.

The Marketing Watch Bangladesh (MWB) on Tuesday revealed the report, based on a study on television uses across the country between January to April this year.

Riding on increased uses of Information technology, enhanced electricity coverage, and growing income of households, the use of television in Bangladesh has significantly increased; local brands saw substantial growth.

The study said the size of Bangladesh television in 2020 reached $636 million and is expected to grow to $687 million in 2021.

MWB Co-founders Prof Dr Mizanur Rahman and Associate Prof Dr Nazmul Hossain, both from the Department of Marketing at the University of Dhaka, conducted the research.

"We observed that local television companies have been getting popular for the last 20 years. Once people used to prefer foreign brands. Now the situation has changed," Prof Mizanur Rahman told The Business Standard. 

Besides, the prices of the local brand television devices came down to an affordable level, he added.

The professor believes that the local brands can grab the lion's share of the television market if the illegal imports can be halted. "Besides, we should increase duties for the finished television imports," he suggested.

The study however did not mention the exact percentage of television market share for the local brands.

Among the local brands, the local brand Vision has been performing well in the last two years although its share hovered between 2-3%. Among the international brands, Samsung sees a gradual increase in its market share.

According to another study by DATABD.CO in 2017, Walton's market share was 27% in 2017, while among other top brands, Singer held 7%, Minister 4%, LG 3%, Sony 3% and Vision 2%, Nova 2%, and Samsung 2%. And other brands accounted for about 50%.

The MWB conducted the research keeping the DATABD.CO previous study in consideration.

The latest study said, among the multinational brands, Samsung now accounts for 11% share, Singer 9%, Sony 5%, and LG 5%, and added that some devices came from China – both legally and illegally.

The Chinese television device imported through the grey market belongs around 20% shares of the total, while legal imported sets are 10-12% in share, which was alone 30-35% in 2017.

The study surveyed 2439 people from all the divisions.

It suggested the local producers emphasise quality rather than quantity. Besides, well-organised exhibitions, targeting higher-class groups of people, bringing the latest features and innovation, ensuring post-sales service, affordable price, and increasing branding were a must for further development of the local industry, the study said.

Other findings

Which brand/name comes to mind first when you think about any TV? In response to such a question, some 25% of respondents have mentioned Sony. Besides, many mentioned the names of Walton (21%), Samsung (14%), LG (12%), Singer (7%), Vision (2%), and My One (2%).

The findings show that Walton made gradual and consistent progress in terms of market share from 6.98% in 2005 to a whopping 26.98% in 2020 while its close rival Sony has made a gradual decrease from 28.49% in 2005 to 16.45% in 2020.

Walton makes 80% of its total sales to low and middle-class customers. While LG, Singer, Samsung, and Sony make sales to the same group of customers – with 82%, 79%, 72%, and 66%, of the sales respectively.

For 'Smart' or 'Android' TV, most people prefer 32″ TV, while for 'Basic' TV, most respondents like 20″/24″.

The use of 'Basic' TV was found sharply declining.

The study also analysed netizen reactions on 5 top television companies, a closed Facebook group named Electronics Product Review Bangladesh.

About 70-81% of customers said they did not find any troubling issues in using their television sets for a long time, while 7-12% complained about screen issues and 2-4% about sound.