Seoul conglomerate changes brand from GoldStar to LG

SEOUL (JP): Upon arrival at Kimpo airport in Seoul, you are welcomed by hundreds of baggage carts beaming LG Group's new logo. LG Group is South Korea's third largest conglomerate after Hyundai and Samsung.

The new logo looks like a smiling face with the character G making the outline of a face and a smile while the L serves as a nose. The single dot on the logo makes the face look like it is winking. To the right of the logo is the company's new brand - LG

This logo is almost everywhere cross South Korea, from gas stations and hotels, to shops selling electronic goods and toiletries.

The group's old brand, GoldStar, has almost disappeared and can only be seen in a few places.

The LG Group, which was previously called the Lucky Goldstar Group, is a conglomerate involved in chemicals, energy, machinery, metals, trade, services, finance, sports and electronics.

People speculate that LG stands for Lucky Goldstar but the manager of LG Electronics (LGE) communications team, Paul Chung, denied this.

"LG is LG. It is by no means the abbreviation of Lucky Goldstar," he said.

LGE is the group's flagship company.

The LG Group launched "LG" (pronounced in English) as its new brand along with the new logo, which it calls the "Face of the Future" in January 1995. The brand was created by the United States-based Landor Associates.

All the group's companies, except LGE, quickly adopted the new brand. LGE started using the LG name in March last year.

Chung said it was hard for LGE to change its brand name because much money had been spent making GoldStar known globally and the promotion of a new brand requires a big budget.

But GoldStar was seen as no longer compatible with the LG Group's long term plan -- the Quantum Leap 2005 -- which projects the group to become one of the best global companies by 2005.

Although well-known globally, GoldStar is still perceived as a second-class brand for the middle-lower market, while the LG Group wants its brand to be a leading one.

The group decided to change LGE's brand with the expectation that LGE's success in giving the LG brand top status would benefit all the group's companies.

Chung said the company had allocated about US$100 million for the rebranding program. The program included inviting journalists from 120 countries to see its facilities across South Korea.

Chung said the rebranding program started last year and would be completed in 1999.

The program will take into account Goldstar's popularity in each country. A drastic change will be implemented in countries where GoldStar is not so popular, while in countries like Indonesia, where GoldStar sells well, the brand will be gradually changed.

The administrative general manager of PT LG Astra Electronics (a joint venture between LGE and Astra International), Herman Surjadi, said GoldStar TVs were the best selling in Indonesia accounting for 22 percent of the TV market with 2.2 million sold every year.

The company also makes refrigerators and washing machines, respectively controlling 13 percent and 5 percent of the Indonesian market. (jsk)