As the senior marketing manager at lighting producer Lumileds, Ann-Marie Hines is responsible for the implementation and execution of the product and marketing plans for United States, Canada and Mexico. She also oversees product strategy and planning, marketing communications, brand management, digital marketing, promotions and maintaining a close partnership with the sales organization.
Hines recently answered a series of questions pertaining to the global automotive lighting market:
Q: What is the origin of Lumileds, and how does it relate to Philips?
A: Lumileds is a global lighting solutions company serving the automotive OEM and aftermarket, as well as the mobile, IoT and illumination market segments. It was originally founded as division Royal Philips and became an independent organization in July of 2017. Royal Philips still owns a percentage of the company, but the majority of the shares are owned by Apollo Global Management LLC.
Lumileds is the exclusive supplier of Philips automotive lighting products. As the world’s leading supplier of lamps to the automotive industry, Lumileds equips one-in-three cars across the globe with lighting that meets the highest performance, quality and safety standards.
Q: What are some of the nations within your global manufacturing and marketing reach?
A: Our products are manufactured and marketed in over 32 countries throughout Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and Asia. Lumileds provides a wide range of forward, interior and exterior lighting products for our OEM and aftermarket customers in accordance with specifications that meet the regulations of their particular countries. We have over 100 years of innovation and pioneering in the lighting industry, developing, manufacturing, and distributing groundbreaking LED technology and advanced lighting products.
Q: What does your fraud prevention program entail?
A: The Philips Anti-Counterfeit Program is designed to eliminate fraudulent Xenon HID headlight bulbs. We started this initiative to help protect both our distribution partners and our consumers against Xenon lamp piracy.
As you may know, Xenon HID lighting is one of the most frequently counterfeited products in the automotive replacement lighting market. These fake bulbs often deliver poor illumination and create excessive glare for oncoming traffic, putting drivers and passengers at risk. Counterfeit bulbs can also severely damage the vehicle’s headlamps and electronics.
Our program offers a quick and easy way to check the authenticity of a Philips product and avoid counterfeits. Our packaging features a Philips Certificate of Authenticity (COA) and a special QR code that allows customers to verify authenticity. In addition to the Certificate of Authenticity, Philips OE replacement Xenon HID product packaging now features tamper-evident seals that show if the package has been opened. The outside shipping cartons also feature tamper-evident packing tape.
We are also creating awareness and spreading the message to all distribution channels through advertising, public relations, a dedicated website and social media.
Q: Do you offer training programs for industry professionals?
A: To make sales and service customer channels more aware of the advantages and benefits of lighting service, Lumileds has created a very ambitious training program called the Philips Automotive Lighting Training Academy. The primary focus of this program is to train, inform and educate our partners and their service customers on lighting sales and service so they can grow their lighting business and maximize their profitability.
The program features a series of modules that cover everything our retail and service shops will need to know in order to create the best lighting selling experience. It features lighting basics, performance, product technology, installation, maintenance and merchandising. The program is conducted online and is open to both distributor and professional technicians. Participants can access it at their convenience.
Q: What are some of the new products that you’re releasing this year?
A: We’ve just launched a new line of Philips Ultinon LED lighting for a wide range of interior and exterior vehicle applications. This is an advanced generation of automotive LED lighting built to deliver brilliant, high-tech lighting in a variety of colors, so that drivers can easily see and be seen. These LEDs are direct replacements for conventional bulbs used in stoplights, turn signals, backup lights, taillights, position lights, emergency flashers, trunk lights, glove compartment lights and interior floor lights.
Along with our Ultinon LEDs, we have added the new Philips X-tremeUltinon LED fog light, a powerful, performance upgrade designed for H8, H11, and H16 halogen fog light bulbs applications in popular import and domestic vehicles. This remarkable lamp is brighter, producing up to 200 percent brighter white light compared to standard minimum legal requirements in fog lamps.
We have also dramatically expanded the Philips Commercial Lighting portfolio by adding new exclusive SKUs from our OEM lighting program. We are the only ones who have these bulbs in an aftermarket program. The program offers a full line of Philips-branded standard OE replacement lighting along with a full range of upgrade of headlight bulbs, halogen and incandescent sealed beam headlamps, and miniature bulbs for interior and exterior applications.
Q: You are also addressing the issue of lighting safety? What are some of the particulars of this program?
A: Last year we launched a new safety initiative built around the overall theme of changing headlight bulbs in pairs. Most motorists only replace a headlight bulb when it burns out or goes dim. This is not a good practice, because replacing just one failed bulb can result in an unbalanced headlight beam pattern and potentially present a safety risk. The road ahead will not be properly lit, and the driver will not get the full benefit of the vehicle’s headlights as originally intended by the carmaker.
The idea of replacing parts in pairs is not new to the automotive market. Professional automotive technicians and driving safety advocates alike are constantly recommending that tires, brakes, shocks and wiper blades should be replaced in pairs to make sure the vehicle is properly balanced and functioning safely. We believe that because lighting is an important safety feature, it clearly belongs on that list.
Q: This also ties in with increasing lighting maintenance sales opportunities for installers?
A: Absolutely. And auto parts stores as well. There are many selling opportunities available for lighting because it is an underperformed vehicle service. That means the market is ripe for selling more lights and encouraging professional techs and do-it-yourselfers to install more lights as well.
The spring and fall seasons are typically ideal for promoting and increasing lighting sales. These time periods usually coincide with national car care events designed to support vehicle safety and maintenance awareness. They help create great opportunities to promote lighting, so drivers can be ready for safer vacation travel in the spring and easier driving under inclemen, winter weather conditions in the fall.
That’s why we are very aggressive with our promotional activities, especially during the National Car Care Months in April and October. We support the Car Care Council’s “Car Care Aware” efforts and are reaching out via advertising, PR and social media to get our message to all of our distribution channels.
Q: What are some of your initiatives for increasing the visibility of the vehicle lighting market?
A: We are working very hard to up the awareness of lighting maintenance. A recent report from the Car Care Council listed the Top 10 auto repairs, and lighting maintenance was not on the list. We feel it should be. Lighting is one of the most important active safety systems in a vehicle and should be maintained accordingly.
Headlight bulbs wear out and get dim over time. To make matters worse, drivers become accustomed to the reduced lighting and fail to act on it or mention it to their technician when they bring their car in for service.
We are also reaching out to the shop level and encouraging technicians to engage in more lighting service, which they can do as part of the routine safety inspection they usually conduct when a vehicle is in their shop. This will help increase their service work and add parts sales.
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