Brother International to tap Indian market

Brother International to tap Indian market

From being one of the first of companies to have introduced high-speed dot matrix printers way back in 1971 to releasing the globe’s first dot matrix laser printer HL-6050D in 2004, Brother International represents a 100 year-old legacy built on offering innovations that are in-sync with consumer needs.

Monday, February 25, 2008

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Headquartered at Nagoya in Japan— Brother International (India) Pvt. Ltd, producer of imaging solutions - Laser and Inkjet devices - plans to expand its presence in India. Recently it announced plans to invest Rs 400 million in India over the next three years.

The company has already invested over Rs 160 million in India. With this fresh infusion of funds, the company plans to increase its product catalogue this year and focus on channel expansion and brand presence.

In a tête-à-tête with Prasad Ramasubramanian from Cybermedia News, Toshikazu Koike—president and representative director, Brother International, spoke about the company's roadmap and its performance in the Indian sub-continent since debut last year.

The Indian masses are more aware of brands such as Canon and HP in the printing business. How does Brother International fit into this market?

We have been raring to come up in this market. HP and Canon are up there and we are a challenger and we are increasing our brand awareness with the help of advertising and we are not looking at Canon and HP as our competitors.

Soon, we would be coming out with a TV ad and other similar initiatives to take this process further. We are focusing on our own category and we would like to be the number one player in that.

How do you pamper your partners?

I wouldn't call it pampering. Today channel partners are smarter, more exposed and knowledgeable. When we approach them—we have to explain the commercial sense.

Second, we provide better margins and comfort level in handling the products. Third is the after sales support, which we offer.

We also sell our consumables to those who sell our hardware and so that he gets good revenue. The main aim for us is to engage the customer again and again. The approach has always been to offer stable and proper support!

What are the plans that Brother International has for its partners for India in the channel front?

We have what is called the short-term engagement that is done and followed on a quarter-to-quarter basis. Then, we have the longer-term engagement with our partners where we create a pool of loyal channel partners with whom we engage for longer period.

Our partners are lesser than that of HP but those who are present with us have been by our side for the last 15 years. We are not focused on quantity but on quality.

How do you tackle the logistics and infrastructure challenges that our country presents?

If you compare India to other countries—logistics is a big challenge. We have four national distributors who take care of the logistics.

It does not make sense for us to put logistics facility in 50 locations. In terms of documentations such as road permits etc these are issues that are present to everyone out here. We hope these things would change in the next few years.

What differentiates Brother International with the rest of the herd?

Today the partners consider all brands in terms of the product offering. What they however question is our commitment for India. They want to know whether we are serious about India.

When we say--yes we are serious and we are putting investment in the country, investing in advertisements etc---these acts as the hygiene factors for them and the comfort level, which they desire.

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