The Indian IT distribution sector is thriving well and has immense growth opportunities for the distribution houses who are into this business since long time. Ingram Micro has performed really well in recent years and has built a strong distribution infrastructure. Today, Ingram Micro is one of the leading distribution houses serving the industry through its continuous efforts and expertise. The company has strengthen it’s footprint across all regions in India which help them to deliver products much more faster. Its huge success in India can be attributed to its strong channel network which contributes a lot for its growth. Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal recently spoke to Naved Chaudhary, Head of Marketing and Public Relations, Ingram Micro India. He is a very dynamic leader with rich industry experience. He talked about his strengths, the company's growth roadmap and more. Read the excerpt below:
Rajeev: How did your two decades of rich industry experience helped you in navigating through the challenges, especially during existing pandemic?
Naved: The COVID-19 crisis seemingly provides a sudden glimpse into a future world, one in which digital has become crucial to all interactions, driving both businesses and individuals to accelerate their adoption curves virtually immediately. The marketing approach and campaigns need a highly skewed digital approach, which we did successfully. Also, we were supposed to be doing things differently in order to be relevant and making the desired moves. Our experience across varied industries and the evolving workforce prepared us for the ‘adapt to change’ approach and utilization of the right strategy. One need to have the right decision making and approach, which helped overcome the complex situation.
Rajeev: How are you planning to take the business up in the new FY 2022-23?
Naved: Understanding the consumer buying patterns and preparing marketing plans accordingly helps our go-to-market strategy. Helping partners and running integrated digital campaigns is at the forefront of our marketing strategy. Adapting to newer approach and tools make the journey easier and we are at it. One strategy doesn’t fit all is well understood by us and hence we have regional approach too.
Rajeev: India has a very diverse market hence what will be your marketing approach to achieve your set targets?
Naved: India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies with a high density of opportunities and untouched markets. Today, marketing is driven by data-backed research and customer information that can be captured at every stage in the buying process. We adopt business intelligence solutions to help users conclude insights and put predictive analytics to discover patterns forecast future patterns and take plausible action.
A Digital-First Strategy helps to transform businesses in many ways and drive them forward into the all-digital future that is clearly on the economic horizon. In order to be agile and responsive to this new consumer, a digital transformation strategy is required for marketing growth. It entails incorporating technology into every area of the marketing model, including what it delivers, how it interacts with customers, and how it operates on a PAN India basis through customization of campaigns at the regional level. Different media vehicles do behave differently and hence adopting digital-first approach helps us to achieve our set targets
Rajeev: How do you ensure for better communication & visibility across India?
Naved: It’s a part of our marketing strategy to be a leader in industry speak forums, and participate in major industry events. Visibility is a key too as per larger PAN India plans.
Rajeev: How do you see the role of partners in getting tremendous success in Indian market? How do you take care of their growth & profitability?
Naved: We devise marketing campaigns for our partners which are integrated in nature, apart from that we are focussed to providing Training, Conducting monthly Webinars, Support lead generation activities etc. We always believe that partner eco-system is super critical to us and we need to grow together. Our marketing strategies stem from this stand point.
