By Martin Vedris
SYDNEY, NSW: The local launch yesterday of two new mobile phones under the Chocolate sub-brand by LG is part of a deliberate brand strategy that also ties in with LG’s global premium brand ambitions.
“We want to be known as the fashion conscious mobile phone manufacturer,” said LG Electronics Australia general manager Mobile Telecommunications, Nathan Dunn.
“But we also want to provide fashion-oriented handsets to the mass market. So we’re not only building aspirational handsets in the Black Label series like we have done with the new Chocolate but we have additional handsets like the new Chocolate Slide that will fit with that mass market but will deliver similar benefits and fashion statements like our aspirational handsets.”
LG was the first mobile phone company to launch a touch-only phone and it did so under the name of a famous label, again to develop the fashion brand association strategy.
“I don’t think it’s widely recognised that with the Prada phone we were the first with touch phones but we know what our heritage is and we will continue to build on that heritage,” said Dunn. “And it’s not just touch we’ve also done a great job with QWERTY and messaging over the past 12 to 18 months so they’re the two areas in the mobile phone business we will be focusing on.
“When LG got into the mobile phone business the unique proposition was that we wanted to be different from everyone else and have a design proposition that was better than everyone else.”