Smart TVs have become delicate medium of entertainment in recent times for people due to incredible innovation in this segment. Some of the innovations like screen size, internet connectivity, high-end features and high definition video quality attracts consumers to buy smart televisions. This industry has seen astonishing growth in recent couple of years. To have more light on this market growth, DT interacted with Mr. Arjuun Bajaj, CEO and Founder at Daiwa. He revealed growth factors and also his marketing strategies to leverage such opportunity in Daiwa’s favour.
DT: How is the growth of smart television market in India? How do you see this sector by 2020?
Mr. Arjuun: From luxury to necessity, Television has become an integral part of day to day life. With increasing innovations from major players especially the Home Grown players in India, the television market has witnessed growth in the last decade.
Robust growth over the period due to the growing disposable incomes of the households, favorable tax environment, and declining prices of LED components, cheap labor availability and changing preferences of the consumers for high-end products has defined the trends of TV Market in India.32 inches to 40 inches LED television segment has accounted for a lion’s share in the overall sales in the LED market. However, now the Trends to move to Bigger TVs.Value for Money, Quality and Value Added features shall be the key outlook when it comes to buying TV – Market to grow 2.5 times by 2020. It has been obvious in the sales that growth in the Smart TV fragment has been consistent yet slow. The contribution of the Smart TVs to the entire industry in terms of sales is only 10%. So in the years to come by 2020, considering the progressive internet usage, Smart TV share is expected to even surpass the 30% sales. Emergence of strong distribution channels of the television manufacturers and availability of wide variety is also expected to drive the television market in India. Apart from screen sizes, resolutions & high-end features are catching consumers’ attention leading to uptick in Smart TVs, UHD/4K LED TVs.
DT: What are your plans to boost your service support?
Mr. Arjuun: We plan to strengthen our go-to-market strategy which will help us leverage in terms of reach and better delivery. To bring the best in Service support Daiwa very recently has launched ‘My Daiwa’ Service app to provide the best in class customer experience with 24/7 on – demand after sales service to the end consumers, among various other utilities. We have appointed a team of our young energetic and experienced service engineers in major cities to attend the customers’ calls, solve their queries and take feedback. Not only this extension assures a peaceful buy but also brings a stronger connect with the consumer. With this Service app, Daiwa becomes the first TV Brand in India to build an online approach to service.
Apart from this, we are also working on establishing a stronger network among channel partners, an important part of our growth, as they do contribute to our brand image. Right now we have 650+ services Touch points along with 700+ for real purchases at Pan India Level as they shall play the key role of consumer feedback and also help us cover the key Markets of India.
DT: How has been your journey so far in India? What are the prime challenges you often face?
Mr. Arjuun: Incepted in the year 2017, Daiwa has undoubtedly established a strong hold in the industry with quick expansion, operations and technology. Started as an Online Brand, now the brand has established a strong foothold offline too. With the key aim to offer groundbreaking technology with unmatched quality at the most affordable prices Daiwa products are exclusively Made for India and Made in India. Our journey has been very exciting and we are overwhelmed with the response we received from the Market;the walk wherein, everyday learning about something new, was to the head-on challenges. Since we have received a phenomenal response from the audience for our wide array of TV products, we have entered a new domain, consumer durables with the introductory product being washing machines.
Speaking of the challenges, we chiefly have faced the issues with changing policies. Not just it affects our marketing strategy but also we had to come up with equally robust solutions so that our deliveries do not reflect any changes. Furthermore logistics and decreasing prices, caused by the importers and grey market has been a hurdle.
Our products are the testimony to the Brand value we hold, being the first timer in India to bring TV which suits Indian power consumption patterns, Box Speakers in Smart TVs& also the first to have the entire back end integration to manufacture TV, Daiwa is set to revolutionize TV Market in India.
DT: How do you channelize your business in smaller cities? What are your Go-to-Strategies within these cities?
Mr. Arjuun: The Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cities are known as the wave cities in India. As India grows economically, its rising purchasing power has naturally made its emerging cities (wave cities) promising, yet untapped markets. To get a hold on the masses in the smaller cities, we follow a channel of distributors and dealers. Also, as a fragment of offline marketing and branding, we have started advertising locally to spread awareness through digital campaign and activations.
With Daiwa, we begun as an online brand but penetrated offline markets soon, and started with smaller cities. Among the smaller cities, Daiwa enjoys immense popularity in states like Punjab where the brand has also launched Washing Machines and is enjoying strong market share. Our presence among the retail stores and outlets helps us connect to the consumers at the ground level. Our go to Market strategy is to build a connection with the customers and achieve competitive advantage. We aim to become a channel friendly company & consider channel partners as the future of our growth.
DT: What is the significance of ‘Make in India’? Tell us about your R&D centres and manufacturing facilities.
Mr. Arjuun: India though is pacing towards ‘Make in India’. A lot of materials are still strongly supported from china such as components, led bars etc., where the Chinese Brands have a strong foothold. We have established our R&D centre in China to design the components used in the TV for the India market with our team; as china has more resources, and India is still emerging with the solely manufacturing of the entire list of components.
Currently we have 3 manufacturing units in Greater Noida, Ludhiana and Himachal Pradesh. Own R&D centre and design house is in Shenzhen, China. We manufacture our motherboards in India and also have full backward integration setup – SMT, MI, FA, Clean Room and Moulding.
DT: How do you see the recent hike of customs duty from 7.5% to 15% on LEDs?
Mr. Arjuun: The recent hike on the imported panels is beneficial for local manufacturers. Having said that, they have basically an advantage in terms of finance and costing. Nevertheless, companies which introduced open cell separately, and had installed hygienic rooms to assemble panel would have gained advantage if the duty on open cell would not have hiked up to 10%. On the other hand, this has bridged the gap and affected ‘Make in India’ vision.
