A legacy of 50 years tells a tale of success for LG. After conquering the CDMA market, LG has forged ahead to become a key player in the GSM market. Globally, LG is the number three player in the overall mobile market and the leader in the CDMA market. Their rich global experience helped their entry into the UAE market 10 years back, under the leadership of Andrew Song, General Manager, GSM Products. For the initial 6 years the Middle East markets were overseen by Song from Korea however, he shifted his base to Dubai four years ago.

LG launched its mobile phones in the UAE in 2002 and saw dramatic growth in 2003. At present it occupies 7-8% of the market share. According to Andrew, “The market share gets divided based on the availability of products in the right segment and the coverage of segments each competitor offers.” LG came into the market with twenty models and Andrew spoke at length about the Renoir, an 8 mega-pixel, full touch-phone launched this Christmas.

While LG was extending its GSM operations in the UAE, it also recognized the increased need for merchandisers to handle their counters in around 100 outlets. Name all the big powered retail outlets, such as Carrefour, Jumbo, Plug-ins, Axiom, Virgin - LG is there! Although the need to outsource staff arose from increased demand and the regions labour law, LG realized that the outsourcing option is appropriate in a market like this. “There is so much one can do with outsourcing. To start with, merchandisers can help you to increase coverage and outsourced staff can also help in other retail level activities such as managing displays, monitoring, etc.”, says Andrew. Dulsco was a natural choice as a partner because it was recommended by LG employees. At present LG engages 40 merchandisers, of which 30 are handling GSM products in the UAE.

LG’s data reveals that 60% of the consumers walk into the store with pre-determined decision on the brand and model of mobile phone they want to buy. Andrew mentions “The challenge is to influence the other 40%, and merchandisers play a critical role in this. Merchandisers from Dulsco are our extended arm and our front-line soldiers. We work very closely with them and provide them withregular training so that they do complete justice to our brand”. LG also utilizes methods such as mystery shopping and formal evaluations with the help of score cards to ascertain the performance of merchandisers.