Premium Products in High Demand
LG Electronics stands out in the Middle East market, where preference for premium products is high among consumers. In particular, the Korean home electronics giant ranked first in the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TV market with a share of up to 80 percent, a survey has found.
LG Electronics accounted for 78.9 percent of the OLED TV market in the Middle East and Africa in terms of shipments in 2022, market research firm Omdia said on Jan. 16. Japan’s Sony came second with 14.9 percent. The two were followed by Samsung Electronics (4.1 percent), Philips (1 percent), Toshiba (0.7 percent), and HiSense (0.3 percent). Considering that LG Electronics’ share in the global OLED TV market is around 60 percent, this is an impressive sales performance.
The OLED TV market is expected to continue its high growth in the Middle East. Omdia predicted that OLED TV shipments in the Middle Eastern and African TV markets would increase significantly by more than 30 percent this year compared to the previous year. This year, while the entire TV market in the Middle East will show negative growth of 1.5 percent from a year ago, OLED TVs will continue to grow rapidly, experts forecast.
“LG Electronics is leading the premium TV market in the Middle East thanks to its overwhelming technological prowess and the provision of differentiated experiences tailored to local customers,” an industry insider analyzed. For instance, the company introduced products that reflected local consumers' preference for gold. In 2004, it launched a 71-inch gold-plated PDP TV. The launch price of this product was 80 million won. It was a product that was labeled as the most expensive on the plane. But even before its launch, LG Electronics received more than 300 pre-orders from the Middle East. It also launched the world’s first OLED TV with Arabic voice recognition in 2019.
LG Electronics has been focusing on this market for a long time, paying attention to demand for premium products. The Korean TV giant took its first step in 1979 by establishing a branch office in Kuwait. Currently, it has production bases in Tens of Ramadan City in Egypt and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, and many sales subsidiaries and branches in the region.
LG Electronics is showing strong performances in the home appliance sector, too. It is operating a total of 12 premium brand shops in the Middle East. All of these brand shops have LG signature lineups, and sales are on the rise every year.
LG Electronics is also seeing the effect of launching specialized products based on an understanding of local cultures. Titan Big II, released by LG Electronics in 2013, is a typical example. This product is a regionally specialized air conditioner that provides a strong cooling performance even at high temperatures of over 60 degrees Celsius. Reflecting a high indoor smoking rate in the Middle East, it gained great popularity as it was equipped with a smoke removal function. A success story was written by adding a function to cook food preferred by Africans and Arabians in a microwave oven in consideration of multi-ethnic culture.