Growth of smartphone market has helped accessories market to grow exponentially in last few years. We saw huge demand of Power Bank, headphone and portable speakers across all set of consumers. But providing best quality products at an affordable price point remains key challenge for this market. Ambrane, one of the leading Indian brands, has always valued this vision and offered best quality products to Indian customers. Making it’s presence already felt in the market, Ambrane this year has strong offline plans to further escalate its growth. In an exclusive chat with DT, Ashok Rajpal, Managing Director, Ambrane India revealed his upcoming product and channel plans.
DT: How has been the year 2018 for you?
Mr. Ashok: Our journey in the Year 2018 has been an exciting one. We have firmly once again, established our position as being one of the leaders in the Power Bank space. Taking an aggressive roadmap, we have diversified to several new Product categories which include Wearable’s and Audio which has received a very positive response. We have also bought several new technologies such as wireless induction charging. Catering to the increased consumer demand, we have added over 20 new products in our basket and also focused on bringing the balanced Online and Offline Reach. Today, Ambrane is available at leading General Trade and Modern Trade stores, and are available in over 16 states which is twice of that last year. The year has brought several new developments, and as a Home-Grown brand we have firmly surpassed every challenge.
DT: Please brief about your channel ecosystem in India. How are you currently working with your partners to strengthen your market position?
Mr. Ashok: Our Main aim has always been to support the Channel partners. Our Channel Partnerships are extremely important to us as they help us to have a direct connect with the consumers. Today, our Channel Ecosystem comprises of both Online and Offline Market. For the Online Market, we sell through E- Commerce Giants like Amazon, flipkart, Snapdeal and Paytm. These Platforms have strongly helped us to connect with the Millennial and GenX Generation, building Trust, Credibility and stronger reach. However, in sync with the changing times, we also feel Offline is as important as Online Market. Understanding which, we cater to the top retail stores across India. We have been rapidly expanding offline presence and have established our outreach to over 70+ cities in India. Overall, we are a very channel driven Brand and our eco-system has the right mix to the cater to the diversified needs of today’s audience.
DT: What is your overall road-map to escalate your growth further in CY 2019?
Mr. Ashok: A key highlight to our vision for the Year 2019 is Technology, we believe it is the Technology that shall bring disruption in the Minds of the audience, market and also to your brand. Currently we have been working on several First Timer Technology for the Indian Markets. Having said that, functionally we intend to increase our presence in the Tier-1 and Tier 2 Cities as we wish to connect better with our audience and introduce our brand to a new segment as well (apart from the Online). Currently we are also having over 400+ support/service centers across India and we are focusing to build best in-class service support infrastructure for our customers. Our attention will also be on introducing and adding more categories to our product portfolio to give our consumers good quality products with a clear vision to become a leading brand in mobile accessories.
Continuing with that, we plan to come up with unique and trendy designs for our upcoming gadgets to make it more appealing to the Market. We are very positive about 2019 as it will be competitive with Tech having an edge over all.
DT: What are your suggestions to policy makers to counter any existing business challenges in ICT market?
Mr. Ashok: We have seen in the recent times that there have been frequent changes in law that makes it difficult for on ground working for the Brand. We believe the officials should grant a certain period of time before changing the law as it would help the manufacturers and the officials to function accordingly. The officials should also work on building up structure for successful usage of ICT’s strategies which would in turn help the manufacturers. Also, the responsibility of following rules should fall on both Manufacturer’s and officials equally as we have witnessed there is not equal balance divided and as of now the main responsibility is on Industry Manufacturers. We believe the few Challenges in the ICT Markets will be looked upon and it will be smooth sailing for Manufacturers and Officials to achieve their goals in the Coming Years.
