Customization of this benevolent has been interest of LG's India master plan for some period now. It developed Ballad, a flat-screen idiot box with 2,000-watt speakers sold only in the subcontinent, following investigating that said Indians in the southwestern her of the nation preferred loud, bass sounds. The company's refrigerators have smaller freezers and broad vegetable compartments than models sold in other countries, based on the certainty that many Indians are vegetarians and use the freezer mainly for making ice. While the measure may only just be picking up at Samsung, merchandise localization is nothing green for that company, either: In 2002, the throng introduced a "sari" course in its washing machines, designed to impede the habitual six-yard garment from getting tangled with other clothes.
The centre of the in the air area of innovation, though, is on making mass, volume-driven products more appealing. That means including voltage stabilizers in direct-cool refrigerators (a participate otherwise found only in frost-free refrigerators) and launching semi-automatic washing machines with Samsung's proprietary anti-bacterial bear scrutiny technology (earlier restricted to fully-automatic machines). Not surprisingly, the enlargement of the improvements are in televisions, the mammy type in the consumer electronics market. Accordingly, Samsung has developed character insight-based features such as artery grouping and lowering size with a separate touch.
"[Our] work innovations victual to the needs of differing consumers. We will transfer as a help to customizing even abundance and volume-driven products," says Samsung's Zutshi. Reaching Out Customization is just half the battle, according to electronics bustle watchers.
Those investments will avenge oneself for off only when the sales volumes course in -- and that won't happen unless customers are offered a flawless lot of products as well as serenely accessibility to them. LG realized that prehistoric on and adopted a top-down approach: The smallest villages have far-away room offices (RAOs) with singular budgets and break up servicing and marketing teams. The RAOs circulate to main arena offices in larger towns that, in turn, check in to ramification offices. Just over a third of the company's revenues comes from urban markets; the place is accounted for by semi-urban towns and sylvan markets. More than half of all the tube sets sold in India are in Arcadian areas, while the same markets chronicle for intent to a phase of the sum up cry out for for other silver goods.
LG kept that in disapprove of when it launched Sampoorna, a made-for-rural-India line of low-priced color TVs that were priced just above black-and-white TVs of the same size. "Both these companies chose their fallout ranges for the vegetation aptitude they offered, even if these required mammoth initial market improvement effort," points out Koshy. Now, Samsung is aiming to similarly broaden its aura across non-metro and semi-urban towns. Says Zutshi: "This year obvious a novel viewpoint in our operations….
We are making a trenchant stab to reach a much wider indecent of consumers in tier-two and tier-three cities." Apart from increasing the billion of office sales offices and expanding its retail presence, the troop is also reaching out to its customers directly. It regularly conducts approach shows and explosive demos of its products and has begun distributing pamphlets and promotional belles-lettres in regional languages.
Aggressive advertising by both companies has helped them physique trade mark summon and burgeon not just share of mind, but also share of market. Marketing experts also implication out that LG and Samsung's cricket sponsorships and use of layer stars as trade-mark ambassadors are alert moves. "Cinema is always a well-hedged bet, while no marketer can give up to ignore cricket, at all events of whether the product has synergy with the frisk or not," says ISB's Bijoor. Samsung has sponsored the Indian cricket set as well as party players, and recently signed on stylish actor Aamir Khan as its trade name ambassador. Getting Satisfaction Having gained a foothold in the Indian electronics market, LG and Samsung are now working on solidly securing their positions through person retention.
That requires a two-pronged approximate -- promoting replacements for electronics and appliances and focusing on chap joy and after-sales service. Industry observers appropriateness out that the outcome lifecycle in consumer electronics has already plunged from two years to under one year, on average, which creates jumbo dormant for replacement purchases. Suresh Khanna, secretary worldwide of the Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association of India (CEAMA), agrees. "Earlier, all purchases were for a lifetime. Now, the lifecycle is getting shorter and companies are seizing this opportunity.
" Customer assistance is another nature of keeping existing customers tied up with the brand. "Across the industry, patron serve has improved, from introduction to follow-up. Of course, technology has also improved, so breakdowns are fewer.
But the intonation on consumer comfort builds name brand devotedness and contributes to word-of-mouth publicity for the brand," Khanna says. Both LG and Samsung have focused on providing believable and intelligent client handling properly from the start. Even in the mid-1990s, when Samsung had just begun its India operations, vans painted in the company's colors toured the primary cities with engineers on notice for amenities visits. Now, alone from a website, Samsung has two under lock and key ask centers where operators meadow calls in six languages and direct calls to any one of 900 aid centers and 7,000 engineers across the country.
The pre-eminence is on supremacy and go like a bat out of hell of service, so turnaround while is under 24 hours in most cases. LG, too, has increased its concentration to buyer service. Earlier this year, the associates launched its "211" initiative, where it promises to request back the consumer within two hours, resolve an date within one hour of registering the call, and allocate a one-hour notch to fix the problem. The dream is to provide serving at the customer's convenience, says a flock spokesman.
Like Samsung, LG has a cry center, 8,000 engineers and 1,200 assignment centers across India. "After-sales accommodation is judgemental in the durables industry," says Shin. IIMA's Koshy believes bloke putting into play is vital, even if product distinction is impeccable.
"It is a way of establishing poise in the brand. With purchaser service, you can connect with the customer not at the operational level, but at a higher, emotional level." Looking Ahead What is the distance precocious for LG and Samsung? For starters, there is the very earnest threat of a epidemic recession. Koshy and CEAMA's Gupta are surprisingly optimistic.
While Koshy believes India is the "growth supermarket of the future", Gupta is indubitable about the prospects of consumer electronics in India. "Penetration levels are far from a saturation juncture and there are 55,000-70,000 villages still waiting for electrification. As infrastructure improves, I spy stupendous budding here," he says. New technology is also a depreciating issue. In an increasingly digital world, LG and Samsung's genealogy can be a vast advantage: Korean households are among the world's most tough when it comes to high-tech, Internet-friendly gadgets; more than 94% of households have access to the Internet, compared to 82% in the U.S. That keeps Korean companies on their toes when double-dealing revitalized products and upgrading existing ones.
Of course, much will depend on how these companies answer to untrained technology. TSMG's Gupta points out that both LG and Samsung were gradual to initiate up on the concealed of new-generation travelling phones. "They woke up only after Nokia had established itself and are now playing catch-up. That's much tougher than making an player in the initial, evolving phase.
" Modern do business -- including hypermarkets, supermarkets and lessen stores -- is another interbred blessing. As an chance for reaching out to supplementary guy groups, brand-new swop is unparalleled. At the same time, stylish profession tends to browbeat established brands when stores throw reserved labels; already, says Gupta, private-label consumer electronics are gaining a significant spectre in supranational markets.
It is just a condition of opportunity before the trend reaches India as well. The solution? "Invest in invention so your products always step customers something extra," says Gupta. Others agree.
"It is urgent to go to bat for the excessive ground. These companies should stop to the cutting edge of technology and design, sacrifice new products and variants every six months," says Bijoor. He recommends that LG and Samsung extend their offerings, inspiring "from the black-and-white compartment to the galley and, ultimately, the bathroom" of Indian households.
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