Panasonic Corp.announced on May 7 its plan to establish the Global Consumer Research Center in its head office in Osaka by the end of March 2011, aiming to enhance its capability to design and develop products that meet with local needs.
The company has set a goal to become the No.1 Green Innovation Company in the electronics industry by 2018. To this end it has created a mid-term management plan called "GT12" that covers the next three years from April 2010 to March 2013. It is focusing on the high-volume segments in emerging markets rather than its Japan-centric business.
Panasonic will promote research for various lifestyles and customs by establishing lifestyle research centers in key emerging markets such as India and Brazil. In addition, the new Global Consumer Research Center in Japan is expected to play a central role among the lifestyle research centers all around the world.
The lifestyle research centers are intended to assess the rapidly changing customers needs and tastes in emerging markets and to have them efficiently reflected in marketing initiatives. Most importantly, the acquired data will also be used by the lifestyle research hub, the Global Consumer Research Center, in combination with knowledge and resources in Japan to assess an optimized balance between local standards and global standard. As a result, enhanced standardization of products for emerging markets can be achieved through these initiatives.
