NEC major push to reassert ICT credentials in Australia

Peter Dinham
Thursday, 03 September 2009 05:54

IT Industry - Market

NEC Australia has taken to the hustings to ‘reignite’ its brand awareness in Australia following a restructure of its business to focus on unified communications, managed and integration service, broadband access and digital signage.

NEC’s Australian general manager, Craig Norton, today unveiled the company’s first major advertising campaign and marketing push in Australia in five years, saying that the company didn’t want to be the “well kept secret anymore” and wanted to remind the market why NEC had been successful in Australia for 40 years.

As reported by iTWire in March, NEC unveiled its restructured Australian business, with the organisation divided into four business units - Unified Communications, Managed Services, Network Solutions and Display Solutions - and also the restructure of its R&D operation to focus on commercial ICT technologies for both the local and export markets. The restructure resulted in the shedding of some 153 staff, and followed NEC's previous announcement, in January, that it would exit the whitegoods and consumer electronics markets with the loss of some 200 jobs.

Norton said the advertising campaign would roll out over the next six months as the company continued to reassert itself as “one of Australia’s leading ICT companies.”

The aggressive campaign by NEC will see advertisements at Melbourne and Sydney airports and in key business and IT publications across Australia, and Norton said the advertising, aligned with “better marketing and effective PR” was aimed at rebuilding NEC’s brand awareness in Australia.

Norton said the advertising and marketing push would build on existing business success, with the company’s success to date based on the “quality of our products and we haven’t been that good at shouting about it.

“The campaign will focus on reigniting brand awareness as well as articulating NEC’s offerings around unified communications, broadband access, cloud computing and digital signage.