Year 2017 has been very exciting journey for Kingston, the market leader in manufacturing memory products and brand owner of HyperX brand. Kingston maintained leadership position in memory business whereas HyperX successfully connected with entire gaming community by offering excellent product range for gamers and supporting all key gaming events across India. The company also celebrated its 30th Anniversary in this year with many more achievements adding to their feather. Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director, Kingston Technology, elaborates his journey, achievements and future channel plans with DT.
DT: What have been the crucial milestones of your company during year 2017?
Mr. Vishal: 2017 has been a year of excitement for our Memory, Flash and Peripherals business in India. Being one of the best lifestyle technology brands, we made some prominent changes in our business in terms of product line up and service. With these seamless changes to add more value to our customers, we have seen a much happier channel of distribution in 2017. Apart from success in our products, our focused investments in developing the gaming community has borne fruit.Last but not the least, this year also marked our 30th Anniversary globally – A true Milestone for a brand which made its humble beginning with just one product and which today leads the storage, memory and peripherals markets.
DT: What were the major challenges for your company? How do you fight those challenges?
Mr. Vishal: The Indian market is dynamic and has given us a good response for our products. The market here is vast and the demand is ever increasing at most regions. More and more people are getting aware of the benefits of the new technology. We are working on catering the spike in demand for Kingston and HyperX products. We are addressing the challenges with a better and dynamic strategy for 2018.
DT: What's your channel strength currently in India? How do you plan to boost channel strength in year 2018?
Mr. Vishal: Our business is distributed strategically in India to get maximum benefits in different regions. Developing a network is one of our surest strategies for growing and we have given the channel partners an utmost priority. Kingston has been increasing its channel strength to reach out to various markets. Part of the focus areas for channel partners involves channel engagement and empowerment activities. For instance, we have recently begun with Kingston Retail Super Star, which is an educative campaign for our channel partners.
DT: How do you assure your customer excellent service support?
Mr. Vishal: Innovation and quality are the undeniable pillars of an organization. Excellent service acts as a unified keystone, making Kingston stand out in keen competition. We have partnered with one of the best service partners, which is RP Tech, a part of Rashi Peripherals. Our service and technical teams work hard on solving the queries that come to us from all corners of the country. Not just that, we also provide free technical support to any one with queries relating to our products. This builds confidence in the customer’s mind and helps them make informed purchased decisions.
DT: What will be your key Go-To-Market Strategy for year 2018?
Mr. Vishal: Over the years, Kingston has been named in the top 5 spots in terms of market position, revenue and work culture. We even completed our 30th successful year globally this year. A good reason for our success pan-India has been our effective GTM strategies. We have always dealt with business from the consumer or the end user point of view, which gives us an edge in the market. Our GTM strategies involve a lot of information from our channel partners and end consumers. Our priorities are multifold and aim at maintaining our position as one of the best lifestyle technology brand, a position we have held for well over a decade. We will continue improving our reach beyond the metro cities, where the demand for value gaming products is on the rise.
DT: What will be major products to be launched in year 2018?
Mr. Vishal: Kingston believes in providing a better computing and gaming experience to its users and our upcoming product line up is strong for 2018. We have already showcased our Cloud Alpha headset at an international expo and we will be launching it soon. Most reviewers are eyeing the spot to experience what more we have in store. All Kingston products are engineered to bring the latest in technology at the most prudent prices. Keep in touch with media like Digital Terminal for these announcements.
DT: Please share your current revenue and market growth rate. What is target for year 2018?
Mr. Vishal: As most know that Kingston has grown in the market brick by brick. Today, with close to 60% share globally in the memory market, we look forward to continuing the good run. What has been important for our growth in the 30 successful years is our ability to facilitate technology driven inclusive growth for a wide band of customers. India is a key market for us and one of the fastest growing. For the upcoming product lines, our strategy will be for reaching corporates, enterprises and even the end users here. One can expect more revisions and upgrades to our existing portfolio of products and solutions.Moreover, India is moving towards becoming a hub for e-sports and we happen to be a strong player in the area. We are working with brands and partners to create a favorable ecosystem for gamer and the gaming market on a whole.
