Panasonic announces FY21 strategy at it’s first-ever virtual convention for Middle East & Africa region

The brand to focus on providing innovative solutions to tackle challenges in the New Normal with a focus on wellbeing and online sales

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Panasonic Marketing Middle East & Africa (PMMAF) commenced the new business year by reaffirming commitment to the overall wellbeing of its consumers. The company announced its regional business strategy for FY2021 at the annual convention held virtually between March 22nd and 24th. The first-ever virtual convention for the Middle East & Africa region themed ‘A Better Life in Every Home’ saw participation from 329 business associates, dealers & retailers from across the Middle East & Africa markets and 260 Panasonic staff members from MEA, India & Japan.

PMMAF’s Managing Director, Mr. Hiroyuki Shibutani unveiled the three pillars of focus for Panasonic’s regional business - Inner Wellbeing, Outer Wellbeing and Spatial Wellbeing. With these pillars, Panasonic aims to create a better life in every home by providing nutritionally balanced diets through kitchen appliances, improving appearance with its grooming products, and creating clean and relaxed living spaces through quality air and innovative connected home appliances.

With a major shift in consumer behavior due to the pandemic and people primarily focusing on lifestyle, Panasonic emphasized on bringing back the joy of preparing healthy and wholesome meals at home in an effortless way, uniting families and friends together through its Home-made Goodness concept of Kitchen Appliances offering a better way to cook delicious and healthy meals at home. To meet the increased bulk food storage needs of regional customers, ‘Experience Fresh’ concept of refrigerators was also introduced along with the ‘water dispenser with refrigerator’ models.

Addressing the personal care demands which were impacted due to the lockdown and still going on following hygiene concerns, the brand pledged to continue offering female beauty & male grooming products which consumers can rely on to facilitate their self-care routine. Panasonic’s patented technologies such as nanoe^TM in hair dryers & straighteners, Japanese blade technology in trimmers & shavers & industry-first i-Shaper trimmer design ensure exceptional quality to customers, so they can enjoy convenient personal grooming at home.

Panasonic also showcased ranges across home & garment hygiene such as Vacuum Cleaners, nanoe-X technology in Air Conditioners, ‘ABAYA WASH plus’ washing machines, Cordless steam irons & garment steamers & for convenient maintenance and improving daily living. Besides, the brand also highlighted home safety, AV and home entertainment products with IoT capabilities to further create soothing and relaxing ambiences. The company aims to offer new value in residential space and public space, combining hardware, software and services.

Responding to changing consumer trends, Panasonic is already investing on expanding its online sales channels; focusing on attracting online customers through digital campaigns and ensuring rich online shopping experience to customers.

In his keynote address, Hiroyuki Shibutani said, “We at Panasonic are determined to make contributions to improving lives through our Lifestyle Update initiatives, which offers solutions that cater to changing society. Strongly believing in the customer-first approach, we adapt our products and solutions to match the everchanging needs of our customers,” he said.

“As our founder, Konosuke Matsushita, stated, it is important to consider the coexistence and mutual prosperity of all partners as it would be the only real path toward long-term enterprise success; We aim to work together with our partners and to ensure a positive experience for the customers throughout our product and service offerings,” he added.

“In the New Normal, due to COVID-19 pandemic, there is an increased priority on health and hygiene, and our products and technologies are developed with customer’s wellbeing in mind.  At Panasonic, we faced the challenges presented by the global pandemic with a spirit of reinvention, accelerating digital transformation, establishing structures, and implementing agile operations.  Panasonic is committed to continuously working towards realizing “A Better Life, A Better World” and continues to take on the new challenges and support the society and every individual customer by providing “A Better Life in every Home” Hiroyuki Shibutani concluded.

Dealers and partners across the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan regions were addressed through dedicated sessions. The convention hailed the adaptability and resilience shown by regional businesses and society, in general, over the last one year during the COVID-19 crisis. It reaffirmed to provide innovations that solve the challenges of the new normal.

Ends

About Panasonic:
Panasonic Corporation is a global leader developing innovative technologies and solutions for wide-ranging applications in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, and B2B sectors. The company, which celebrated its 100^th anniversary in 2018, operates 528 subsidiaries and 72 associated companies worldwide and reported consolidated net sales of US68.72 billion for the year ended March 31, 2020. Committed to pursuing new value through collaborative innovation, the company uses its technologies to create a better life and a better world for customers. Learn more about Panasonic: https://www.panasonic.com/global.

About Panasonic Marketing Middle East and Africa FZE (PMMAF):
Panasonic Marketing Middle East and Africa FZE (PMMAF) is the regional Headquarters, all functions related to Sales and Marketing, Supply chain and Customer service solutions, and Advertising functions under the brand name Panasonic is handled by PMMAF. The vision at PMMAF is to be the No 1 Customer-centric Company and No 1 Customer-preferred brand in the Middle East and Africa region. PMMAF website: https://www.panasonic.com