Andrea Ragnetti speech at launch of Simplicity Advisory Board

Speech delivered by Andrea Ragnetti,
Chief Marketing Officer,
Royal Philips Electronics,
Launch Simplicity Advisory Board,
Paris, December 8, 2004.



Ladies and Gentlemen,

It's a pleasure to have you here as Philips takes another important step on our journey to become a market-driven healthcare, lifestyle and technology company.

 

I'm taking the place of our chairman and CEO Gerard Kleisterlee, who is unfortunately unable to be with us because of his involvement in the EU-China Summit.

 

What we are really celebrating today is the commitment that Philips has made to Simplicity.

Through our ongoing brand campaign, Philips has made some important promises about bringing Simplicity to the world. At the time, we also said that we were at the beginning of a journey and that we would keep you updated on the steps we have taken and will be taking. Now it is time to start showing you our progress on how we will deliver on those promises.

Our purpose today is two-fold:

  • We want to give you a brief update on the progress of our brand campaign.
  • We are delighted to present the Philips Simplicity Advisory Board, another important milestone along the path of brand renewal.

 

In just a minute I will introduce our Board Members one by one. But first I want to give you a very brief update on the Brand Campaign and our marketing activities.

There may possibly be some of you who over the last three months haven't turned on the TV, haven't read a single newspaper or magazine, haven't looked at a billboard, haven't surfed the internet. If so, you wouldn't know what campaign I'm talking about. But somehow I doubt it.

Since September, all these media channels have been telling the world that Philips has a new Brand Promise: Sense & Simplicity. And our branding campaign is working. In those seven countries where ads are being shown, we're seeing greater awareness and a strong linkage between Philips and the space marked Simplicity. It is still too early to give you any firm facts and figures. But I can give you a general flavour.

We had three very clear objectives at the beginning of this campaign:

  • To change the existing customer image of Philips
  • To establish our brand positioning
  • To increase sales over time.

 

The campaign message is being enthusiastically received by customers. In all the target countries we see a positive change in spontaneous public awareness of Philips and awareness of our Lighting and Medical Systems businesses is improving. China, for instance, has proved fantastically receptive to our messages. And customers agree with us about the need for Simplicity in the modern world - so they're beginning to strongly associate the Philips name with ownership of the Simplicity space. For instance, spontaneous recall of 'sense and simplicity' is already very high in the Netherlands and encouragingly high everywhere else.



As for the third objective -- it's too early for all this to translate into sales. But we are seeing extraordinary interest in some of the featured products - notably the 3-D Ultrasound and the HeartStart home defibrillator.

 

To summarize: we have started a big buzz - and we'll continue to make a big buzz through further investment in our brand renewal. This means we are looking at expanding the number of countries where the campaign is running.

 

So what's this all about?

At Philips, we are convinced that no matter how complex and advanced a product or solution is, it should make sense and be comfortable to use. This is our Brand Promise and the essence of Sense and Simplicity.

 

We are committed to delivering products and solutions that are designed around you, easy to experience, and advanced. These are the three pillars that guarantee everything we make and do supports this Brand Promise.

 

Sense & Simplicity is also a theme around which to organize ourselves - I mentioned that Philips plays in three big interlocking areas we define as Healthcare, Lifestyle and enabling Technologies. And we're actively pursuing new categories and new growth markets.

Ladies & Gentlemen:

Today we're presenting you with another important step in our journey toward Simplicity.

 

The Simplicity Advisory Board is conceived as an innovation factory, a think-tank or sounding-board - and as an 'open window' for ideas and creativity. It makes sure our inputs reflect the widest possible diversity of gender, age, geographical or cultural spread, and areas of interest.

 


Which is why we are so excited about the Simplicity Advisory Board, and our five talented friends, who are themselves icons of Simplicity. Importantly for us, they also have their antennae tuned to pick up the "next big thing" across a broad range of industries and markets.

So it gives me huge pleasure to introduce our panel of advisors. I'm going to ask our members to come and join us on stage, one by one.

 

First please welcome........ Dr Peggy Fritzsche.

Peggy is a healthcare specialist with a mission - to ensure that the feelings and comfort of patients don't get overlooked in the complexity of the modern hospital radiology suite. Her quest for Simplicity prioritizes human-to-human communication and the patient experience in tomorrow's hospitals. She's president of the Radiological Society of North America.

 

Our next panelist is ..... John Maeda

John is a Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a prophet for Simplicity in the worlds of design, new media and academic research. He co-leads MIT's Simplicity Design Workshop. He's an author, computer scientist and artist.

 

Our third Board member is...... Gary Chang

Gary is an architect who heads the Hong Kong-based practice called The Edge. He's famous across Asia and beyond for projects such as The Artists' Commune on China's Great Wall. Also a highly regarded designer, Gary was the only Chinese to be featured in "40 under 40" -- the index of tomorrow's most influential architects.

 

Next please welcome ....... Ken Okuyama

Ken is an automotive designer working as a director of creative design at Pininfarina. As you'll know Pininfarina is a design house in my native Italy working with the world's most sought-after automotive brands including Ferrari and Alfa Romeo.

 

Our fifth and final member is ....... Sara Berman

Sara is a young fashion designer whose career has taken off like a rocket, with her collections on view at some of the most prestigious stores in London and beyond. Sara says she knows Simplicity forms the basis of her most successful designs.

Ladies and Gentlemen: I think you'll agree we've assembled a truly eclectic, creative, multi-skilled, innovative bunch.

 

So what are they going to do? They're going to advise Philips through ongoing dialogue with counterparts in the Company. And as the Chairman of the Simplicity Advisory Board, I will hold quarterly meetings with them.

 

Our Board members share with us the belief that technology should improve the quality of people's lives. We will be given insight by them on how to better serve our customers as we design the next generation of applications.

The SAB is a clear demonstration of the action we are taking to introduce simplicity into everything we do at Philips. We aim to use the collective expertise of the SAB to help drive creativity and thought leadership that will enable Philips to become a leader in healthcare, lifestyle and technology.

 

Above all, our Board members keep closely in touch with evolving customer needs and consumer behavior across a broad range of markets. So the Simplicity Advisory Board brings us a breath of fresh air and an "outside-in" approach. This will keep us focused on the needs of customers, both now and in the future.

 

Over the next 12 months each Board member will contribute a tangible piece of research or thinking that can support Philips as we design or develop future applications or processes in the Simplicity arena.

 

As you can see, the creation of the Simplicity Advisory Board is a clear sign that our Brand Promise is transforming Philips and inspiring a new generation of products and solutions.

 

We know we are on the right track. We have touched upon a universal theme that makes the Philips brand relevant for the whole world.