The Indian IT peripherals market is witnessing healthy growth owing to the rising demand for IT products. The demand is increasing due to the hybrid work model adopted by organizations as well as rise in the e-learning model. On the other hand, products in consumer accessories such as Bluetooth speakers and TWS headphones are also getting good response from customers. Quantum is one of the prominent brand in the IT peripherals and consumer accessories market and serving the customers with its wide range of products. Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal recently talked to Mr. Arnav Mutneja, Director at Quantum Hi-Tech. Mr. Arnav talked about the overall performance of Quantum, latest trends, product offerings and channel plans to accelerate growth. Read below the excerpts:
Rajeev: Please tell us about the performance of Quantum in the CY 2021. How are you positioned in the Indian market currently?
Arnav: We can say that the latter half of year 2021 came as a sigh of relief for the industry as a whole. This is primarily because while the pandemic and induced lockdowns spiked the demand, the supply chain disruption resulted in acute shortage of semiconductors. However, we managed to maintain a steady YoY growth rate of nearly 25% and plan to clock nearly 130cr in revenue in year 2022-23.
In the Indian market, we have always been positioned as a pioneer in the consumer electronic space. We have, however, reinvigorated our audio portfolio in TWS and Bluetooth speaker segments. We have known the intrinsic preferences of Indian consumers since decades, for example they love a deep impactful bass, and the same is helping us craft products on a need based proposition. This is in addition to our foray into office stationary and other consumer electronics and accessories segments.
Rajeev: What are the latest trends in the IT peripherals market? What are your plans to ride on these trends and accelerate your growth?
Arnav: The standardization of Type C platform has given a major push to the high wattage all-in-one accessories market, which encompasses IT peripherals as well. Universal products with interoperability are more preferred in the market. We too have already forayed into the all-in-one accessories market and plan on expanding the IT range all through 2022, phasing out older models and bringing about new and enhanced products.
Rajeev: What differentiates Quantum from its counterparts? What will be your marketing strategy for this year to keep up with the competitor brands?
Arnav: Quantum has for the past three decades been minutely tailoring products more suitable for Indian consumers. With R&D as well as manufacturing tie ups across India, we ensure product development and diversification only on need based proposition, thereby making quality and premium products in desirable price range. We understand that use cases for different products are different in India than in other countries. We want to cater to a more aware audience who appreciate technology and wants a class leading product.
Regarding marketing strategy, we work on strategic communication with both our B2B as well as B2C consumers.
Rajeev: Tell us about your distribution model. How do you see the ever increasing dominance of online platforms over traditional offline sales models?
Arnav: We are amongst those few brands who actually cracked a hybrid distribution model including e-commerce, D2C sales through our website, B2B and also pan-India offline distribution. This provides us with enormous opportunity to reduce downtime in case of any disruption and maximize sales of different product categories through best suited channels.
Rajeev: How have you strengthened your service support infrastructure across India? What are your major commitments regarding after sales support for customers?
Arnav: The backbone of any brand or business in the current times is service and support. We have always focused on services after purchase, so that our customers have peace of mind with regard to quality a reassurance that we are here if anything goes wrong. Our pan-India service network is ever expanding and getting better equipped to serve the customers faster and in a better way.
