Asian Purchasing Intentions for Household Appliances

Asians rank air conditioners as the number one household white goods product they intend to buy in the next twelve months. This is according to the latest household products research from AMI's regional omnibus survey AsiaBUS conducted across 14 key markets in the Asia Pacific region.

The only exception to the supremacy of air conditioners as the most wanted item is in Indonesia, where only 8% of households in the region want to purchase an air conditioner in the next 12 months, while the intention to acquire a refrigerator or a washing machine is much stronger.

Further results from the AMI survey indicate that a high majority (80% and over) of Asian households already own a washing machine. However, only 24% (less than one quarter) of Indonesian households own such an appliance.

Further variations exist with regards to vacuum cleaners, with an ownership level of 83% found amongst Korean households and 76% amongst Singaporean households. Ownership in the Philippines is significantly lower (13%) as it is in Indonesia (6%).The survey results also showed that more than 20% of Taiwanese and Korean households currently have the luxury of a dishwasher. This compares favourably to the levels found in Thailand (2%) and Malaysia (4%). In Indonesia, none of the sampled population actually owned a dishwasher.

Nine out of the twelve surveyed cities have more than 90% ownership of rice cookers, with 98% of Thai households owning one. In general, households across Asia are much more likely to own a rice cooker than a stove or a microwave oven.

In terms of white good brands, the survey shows that, if current trends in ownership continue, it is likely that the Japanese brands Sanyo, National/Panasonic and Toshiba will benefit from any uplift in sales of refrigerators. The Korean brands, LG and Samsung, already dominate brand share in its home market for washing machines, whilst the Japanese brand National/Panasonic leads washing machine sales in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines.

AMI managing director Tim Balbirnie commented, " At AMI, we were a little surprised at first to find that the numbers for air conditioners were so consistently high for the markets we sampled. One of the factors which may have contributed to this is that the survey was launched in the summer months."

AsiaBUS is a regional omnibus survey conducted once a month across key markets in Asia Pacific. It examines household white goods ownership using a sample of 9,480 respondents aged 15 to 64 across China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan), Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.