Recently, TCL creative project advertisements can be seen at four landmarks of Rome, namely the Colosseum, Via del Corso, Castel Sant’Angelo and Ponte Milvio Bridge. Through this advertising campaign, this Chinese consumer electronics brand made itself the focus in the night sky in the Eternal City.
Prior to Rome, its advertisements simultaneously appeared in Paris, London, New York, Berlin, and Sydney, shining on landmark buildings including Berliner Museumsinsel and Moulin Rouge.
In this creative projection, TCL not only demonstrated its latest home appliances, but also showed its brand style that is in line with the global technology, art and culture trends.
As a leading player of China’s manufacturing industry, TCL started its overseas market expansion in 1999 by acquiring the color TV business of Thomson, the largest color TV enterprise in France, and later the mobile phone business of Alcatel in 2004, hallmarking a milestone for Chinese enterprises going global. In 2016, TCL and BlackBerry entered into a licensing agreement, under which TCL was permitted to produce, design and sell BlackBerry products.
To date, TCL Group has achieved annual revenues exceeding RMB 100 billion for three consecutive years, with a total of 70,000 employees around the world, sales outlets in more than 80 countries and regions, and business covering 160 countries and regions. TCL is the ideal spokesperson of Chinese brands in the world.
In 2016, TCL secured the world’s third, fifth, and eighth places in terms of sales of LCD TV sets, LCD screens, and mobile phones, respectively. In Europe, TCL TV sets are sold in more than 20 countries. Among them it has the third largest market share in France and has secured steady growth in Germany, Italy, and Poland. In North America, TCL was named the fastest growing television brand in the U.S. by U.S. media for three years in a row.
According to Q3 report of 2017, TCL’s sales in North America increased by 97.4% year on year. According to NPD’s latest market research data, TCL’s market share in North America surged from 10.4% in June to approximately 16.3% in August, ranking third in the market. The placement of global projection advertisements in Italy, UK, France, U.S. and other countries fully showed TCL’s ambition and determination for the European and North American markets.
Li Dongsheng, TCL Group’s Chairman and CEO said,
“TCL will continue to explore markets in Europe and North America by strengthening its market share and brand influence, and will further invest in key emerging countries like India, Russia, and Argentina to establish local industrial capacities,”
“Through global business topology, TCL will become a highly competitive global smart products brand in the world.”
Focusing on Research and Innovation, TCL Strengthens Its Core Competitiveness
The global projection advertisements campaign put TCL’s innovative products in the spotlight. Products like TCL X6 XESS private theater, TCL T-GUARDIAN series air conditioner, TCL one variable frequency air-cooled refrigerator, and TCL dirt-free washing machine are all flagship products. TCL X6 XESS, which comes with the latest generation of primary color quantum dot technology, is known as a “truly top product that leads innovative development of television technology” and won the “Quantum Dot Display Tech Gold Award” at IFA 2017 in Germany. TCL T-GUARDIAN series air conditioner is an all-round innovation no matter in appearance design, heating & cooling functions, or energy conservation and environmental protection, and won the “IFA Technical Innovation Award” in 2017. TCL one variable frequency air-cooled refrigerator, which is the very first product to be applied with the one variable frequency air-cooled technology, features fast cooling, less temperature difference, super energy-saving, and low noise. TCL dirt-free washing machine resolved secondary pollution caused by washing machine to clothing and cross-pollution of clothing, of which the pollution-free technology was awarded of China’s national technology certification and four international patents and also won the “Cleaning Technology Gold Award” at IFA 2016.
TCL has been launching industry-leading innovative products, for it has a long-term commitment to R&D and is keen on transforming them into products. So far, TCL has 23 R&D centers around the world, including the U.S. and Hong Kong. It has more than 7,000 researchers, with above 4% of its sales revenue being invested in R&D each year.
As of the third quarter of 2017, TCL had applied for 29,577 Chinese patents, 7,124 U.S. patents and 8,188 PCT patents. As of the end of 2016, TCL Group ranked fourth in terms of number of invention patent applications in China. CSOT, a subsidiary of TCL, ranked sixteenth in terms of PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) international patent applications.
Earlier, TCL formulated a strategy of “Go Global Again” and expected to form a “two-wheel-drive” strategy by combining this strategy with “product + service” and “smart + Internet” to better boost TCL’s development. Li Dongsheng said,
“TCL’s international strategy is not limited to product sales only. It also focuses on shaping the image of Chinese brands with the strength of ‘state-of-the-art manufacturing enterprises’ around the world.”
