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Follow UsHANGZHOU, CHINA: The Japanese technology giant, Toshiba, is rolling out a nationwide marketing and branding plan in July in India to increase its computer laptop sales three times this year and is banking on its technological innovations to achieve this goal.
On the anvil are a series of competitively priced top-end product launches to demonstrate its technological edge.
The new strategy is riding on the back of the goodwill generated by the 25th anniversary celebration of the world’s first commercial launch of a laptop by Toshiba in 1985. Though IBM had demonstrated the first laptop, industry experts credit Toshiba for being first off the block with the commercial launch using the T1100 laptop.
“It was our dream at that time to make everyone carry their own computer around,” recalled Toshiba’s digital product division’s chief marketing executive, Hidehito Murato. He was talking to a group of journalists visiting the company’s showcase manufacturing facility in this Chinese city which produces the laptops from scratch.
It also released two path-breaking laptop models — Libretto W100 and Portege R700 — today.
According to the latest report by market analyst, IDC India, Toshiba has a 4 per cent share of India’s PC market, which is predicted to cross annual sales in excess of 10 million by the year 2015. The market has been registering 46 per cent year-on-year growth and a compounded annual growth rate of 21 per cent in the last five years.
Toshiba wants reasonable size of this pie. So the company is targeting three key segments: corporate sales, retail customers and institutional sales in the education sector.
Sivakumar N, GM of PC division of Toshiba in India, indicated that the company has planned a $10 million (Rs 46 crore) marketing campaign which will aim to increase its market share into double digits within a year.
Toshiba had just 10 laptop models in the market till recently. In May, as part of the sustained campaign, 11 new products were introduced in the Indian market.
Two more cutting-edge, ultra thin laptops were introduced on June 25, 2010. Seven more hit the market so that the company will have a wide range of 30 products by October-end, Sivakumar said.
Company officials said Toshiba’s computer division currently has 71 service centers in 45 cities. Within a year, this will be increased to 81 centers in 55 cities. To widen product availability, the sales outlets will also increase to 800 from 700. Toshiba products will soon be available in Reliance Digital outlets. It is also sold through Tata Group’s Croma stores. Toshiba is also in talk with another chain of large format stores to stock its laptops.
“We will also be enhancing the buyer experience at these stores using innovative designs and presence of knowledgeable sales people,” said Wu Tengguo, director of PC division of Toshiba India.
Education sector is another potential growth area identified for Toshiba and the push here is for institutional sales. Toshiba is also set to announce a new brand ambassador in the place of popular cine actor, Vidya Balan, to grab eyeballs in the market.