WHILE one consumer electronics manufacturer based in South Korea obsesses with positioning itself as a much-coveted brand in manner of, say, Sony, Apple or Nokia, engineering all sorts of embarrassingly fashion-driven exposure in newspapers and magazines, another Korean company has been quietly but aggressively wooing and winning consumers with compelling products made even more compelling by aggressive price points.

Based in Busan, South Korea, LG Electronics may have appropriated the term “Life’s Good” as its promise to consumers of its various technologies, but that is pretty much reflective, as well, of the health of its business.

Globally, LG has become one of the most successful consumer electronics companies, emerging as the market leader in air conditioners in 2006 and now ranking second in the LCD TV business. Moreover, according to LG Electronics Philippines marketing head Raymond Hernandez, mere months after the company reentered the local mobile-phone space reenergized, it has already captured 5 percent of the market, no small thanks to its wildly successful touch-driven LG Cookie KP500 handset. (Globally, according to a Gartner report ranking mobile-phone manufacturers in terms of worldwide market share, LG finished a solid third.)

---

NOW ranked No. 3(top left) in orldwide mobilephone sales, LG’s Arena KM900—with a stunning, smooth-asbutter touch-driven 3D interface and lots of tech goodies—should further entrench the brand among consumers. THE new LG Scarlet(above) Full HD LCD TV has been engineered to provide maximum viewing pleasure—while consuming 69.5-percent less electricity.

---

Under its groundbreaking Health+ (“Health Plus”) campaign, with the slogan “Caring for Your Health in Every Way,” LG has leveraged its expertise in health-oriented technology to bring to market a comprehensive suite of home appliances aimed at helping consumers maintain healthier homes and, consequently, healthier lives.

The suite includes Health+ top-loading washing machines with a smart cleaning feature which uses a special sensor that measures residual detergent and adjusts accordingly the duration, temperature, water level and intensity for each of the washer’s four rinse stages. There are also Health+residential air conditioners with the Five-Step Advanced Filtration System that provides fresher, cleaner air and creates a healthier home environment free from allergy- and asthma-inducing viruses, bacteria, dust and other contaminants.

Then, there are the Health+ top-mount refrigerators with a three-way cooling system that cools food faster than any conventional model, while creating a consistent interior climate; the so-called Vitamin Plus technology, which supplies vitamins to fruits and vegetables to keep them fresh and to extend their shelf life; and a unique Green Ion Door Cooling System, a ventilation system coated in catechin, a green-tea extract, to deodorize the refrigerator, while a negative ion generator kills food-spoiling bacteria and fungi.

Needless to say, the LG appliances bannered in its Health+ campaign are also among the most energy-efficient in the market as these consume less electricity.

It is a quality that is shared by LG’s new range of Scarlet Full HD LCD TVs, which are touted to consume 69.5-percent less electricity than standard-issue LCD televisions, according to TÜV SÜD, a prominent European testing, inspection and certification organization. This eco-friendly quality is on account of LG’s Intelligent Sensor, a unique technology that senses color temperature and illumination of the surrounding environment and then automatically adjusts the TV’s settings. This not only enhances viewing pleasure but also saves power by reducing the intensity of the TV’s backlight.

Of course, evident along with this push toward energy-efficiency and healthy living is an apparently unwavering and keen focus on aesthetics, as both the new range of Scarlet LCD TVs and Healthy+ white goods are among the most gorgeous consumer electronics products to come to the local market.

“We are very pleased to roll out the Health+ campaign in the Philippines,” said Hernandez during the recent launch at the Makati Shangri-La. “We believe healthy lifestyles start at home. Our products are designed to make it easier for homemakers to maintain a healthy home in every aspect—whether it is about eating healthy, keeping the air clean at home, or washing your babies’ clothes in the most hygienic way possible. We hope it will provide our customers peace of mind knowing that the household appliances they use every day can contribute to the well-being of their loved ones.”

As for its latest entries in the mobile-phone landscape, the company has put out handsets even more compelling than the wildly successful Cookie. Now available in tech stores near you are the LG Renoir KC910 and the LG Arena KM900, both touch-driven phones packing mobile-technology heat, including 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, plus Dolby Mobile for awesome music playback, 8-megapixel camera (for the Renoir; the Arena is equipped with a 5-megapixel shooter, both with Schneider-Kreuznach optics), gigs of built-in memory (8 GB for the Arena), along with a brand-new, smooth-as-butter 3D interface for the LG Arena.

Much more will be said in our upcoming dual review of the LG Renoir and Arena.

All in all, LG Electronics appears robust and resolute in making life good for consumers—and increasingly in ways more tangible and beneficial than the psychic benefits one gets out of exquisite aesthetics.