Frost & Sullivan Reveals: Saving Energy a Cool Factor for APAC

APAC Region Environmentally Friendly About Air Conditioning

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, announces the results of the end-user study, Voice of the Customer: Perceptions and Behaviors toward Air Conditioning. The research measures APAC consumers' brand awareness, brand perceptions, current brand ownership, and features deemed important in air conditioners. This research surveyed air conditioner owners within Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

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Although this research surveyed air conditioner owners within seven countries of the APAC region, many manufacturers/brands of air conditioners distribute across APAC and beyond, whilst some do not distribute their products within all surveyed countries. There are some brands that heavily influence the entire region findings by individual country awareness, preferences and ownership results. For instance, consumers within Indonesia and South Korea are most aligned; predominantly owning either LG or Samsung brand air conditioners.

LG is the brand of air conditioner most known (via unaided awareness), most preferred (via brand preference), and most owned within APAC. The largest proportion of LG owners reside in Indonesia and South Korea.

Tonya Fowler, Global Director of Customer Research for Frost & Sullivan, notes that other top brands like Panasonic, Daikin and Mitsubishi are known, preferred, and owned by specific country analysis, but not necessarily across the entire APAC region. "Panasonic has lower ownership rates by country, but their ownership rates are more consistent across APAC countries. Mitsubishi and Panasonic are more highly recalled by consumers in Thailand and Malaysia respectively, whilst those in Singapore are most aware of Daikin. Beyond these top brands, top-of-mind awareness is low among other air conditioning brands" she comments.

Amongst important air conditioner features surveyed in this study included design, cooling capacity, energy efficiency, affordable price, reliability, operational ease, noise, service and spare part availability. Overall, consumers across APAC consider the various air conditioner features surveyed similarly, as most features are perceived as being at least 'somewhat important'.

Despite the similarity in importance, the survey found that consumers consider energy efficiency as the most important feature of an air conditioner. Interestingly, this feature is rated higher than a key function of air conditioners: cooling capacity. "It appears that APAC consumers are 'environmentally conscious', and air conditioner manufacturers should consider this as they continue to develop and market their products," observes Fowler. "Consumers are more informed nowadays and realize that long-term costs are a principal consideration and being environmentally conscious is a more significant criteria than modern or innovative design which weighed in as least important to consumers."

The survey revealed consumers are fundamentally concerned with the function of the product. "Even other feature areas such as service appear to be less a priority, as consumers may consider service (and other secondary features) only when there are flaws/failures with the primary function of their air conditioner." Fowler explains.

Frost & Sullivan's survey also measures participants' brand perceptions of air conditioners and offers a summary of feature importance by countries surveyed as well as by home type demographics. Customer satisfaction across air conditioner brands showed to be similar. Analyses of satisfaction by country as well as reasons for satisfaction/dissatisfaction are also explored in the survey.

This survey was conducted by Frost & Sullivan's Customer Research Team, working in conjunction with Frost & Sullivan's Environment & Building Technologies Team. Specifically, the Customer Research Team conducts independent, unbiased research among end-users to evaluate and measure companies and trends in the market. Frost & Sullivan will announce the results of four additional related studies on Air Purifiers, Water Filters, Bottled Water and Building Illumination.

For more information, please send an e-mail to Donna Jeremiah, Corporate Communications, at donna.jeremiah@frost.com, with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company web site, city, state and country. Upon receipt of the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 35 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com.

    Contact:
    Donna Jeremiah
    Corporate Communications - Southeast Asia
    P: +603 6204 5832
    F: +603 6201 7402
    E: djeremiah@frost.com

    Carrie Low
    Corporate Communications - Southeast Asia
    P: +603 6204 5910
    F: +603 6201 7402
    E: carrie.low@frost.com

http://www.frost.com

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan