Toshiba aims big

The Japanese technology giant, Toshiba is rolling out a nationwide marketing
and branding plan in India in July this year to increase its computer laptop
sales three times. It is banking on its technological innovations to achieve
this goal.

On the anvil are a series of competitively priced top-end product launches to
demonstrate its technological edge.

The new strategy is riding on the back of the goodwill generated by the
twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the world's first commercial launch of a
laptop by Toshiba in 1985. Though IBM had demonstrated the first laptop,
industry experts credit Toshiba for being first off the block with the
commercial launch of T1100 laptop.

"It was our dream at that time to make everyone carry their own computer
around," recalls Hidehito Murato, chief marketing executive, digital product
division, Toshiba.

It also released two path-breaking laptop models-Libretto W100 and Portege
R700. According to the latest report by market analyst, IDC India, Toshiba has a
4 percent share in India's PC market, which is predicted to cross annual sales
in excess of 10 mn by the year 2015. The market has been registering a 46percent
y-o-y growth and a compounded annual growth rate of 21percent in the last five
years.

Toshiba wants reasonable size of this pie. So the company is targeting three
key segments: corporate sales, retail customers and institutional sales in the
education sector.

Shivakumar N, GM, PC division, Toshiba India indicates that the company has
planned a $10 million (Rs 46 crore) marketing campaign which will aim to
increase its market share to double digits within

a year.

Toshiba had just ten laptop models in the market till recently. In May, as
part of the sustained campaign, eleven new products were introduced in the
Indian market.

Two more cutting-edge, ultra thin laptops were introduced on June 25, 2010.
"Seven more will hit the market so that the company will have a wide range of
thirty products by October-end," Shivakumar says.

Company officials say that Toshiba's computer division currently has
seventy-one service centers in forty-five cities. Within a year, this will be
increased to eighty-one centers in fifty-five cities. To widen product
availability, the sales outlets will also increase to 800 from 700. Toshiba
products will soon be available in Reliance Digital outlets. It is also sold
through Tata Group's Croma stores. Toshiba is also in talks with another chain
of large format stores to stock its laptops.

"We will also be enhancing the buyer experience at these stores by using
innovative designs and the presence of knowledgeable sales people," says Wu
Tengguo, director, PC division, Toshiba India.

Education sector is another potential growth area identified by Toshiba and
the push here is for institutional sales. Toshiba is also set to announce a new
brand ambassador in the place of popular cine actor, Vidya Balan, to grab
eyeballs in the market.

Narayanan Suresh

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

The author was hosted by Toshiba in Taiwan