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Konka to 'change Indian mindset' on CTVs

Indivjal Dhasmana in New Delhi

Konka Electronics India Limited or KEIL is working on a novel plan to market colour televisions or CTVs in India. It plans to change the 'mindset' of upper middle class and urge it to go in for bigger and more television sets.

The company plans to target rural and urban areas where people want to upgrade from a black-and-white television set. The company will begin by marketing its 14-inch CTVs in these areas, said Benjamin Li, KEIL senior vice-president.

Li, who was heading Konka's strategic business unit or SBU in Beijing, has been sent here to 'aggressively' market the company's products in India. He joined KEIL just 15 days ago.

Relating his experience about his visit to some Indian homes in north India, he said even the upper middle class has only one TV set and that too a 21-inch set. In contrast, in China there are normally three to four TV sets in each home: while a 34-inch TV set is kept in the sitting room, 21 TV sets are kept in other rooms.

Li's agenda is to change that mindset in India so that the upper middle class people keep a 29-inch TV in the sitting room and 21-inch sets in other rooms. He claims that within three years he will change the Indian habit. India then will be the second largest market after China for Konka.

"This mindset implies that there is a huge untapped market for CTVs in India. I will not have much difficulty in changing the behaviour of customers here. Twenty years ago, China too faced a similar issue."

Li's endeavours in his home country have helped Konka sell 400,000 CTVs last year, thereby clinching over 30 per cent of Beijing's market, KEIL managing director Ronald Zhang said.

"Wait and see. We are going to sell the idea of bigger CTVs in India and capture the existing black-and-white TV market for our CTVs," he said when asked about the company's strategy.

KEIL is currently present only in north India and Gujarat with nine models starting with 14-inch sets to 42-inch flat plasma TVs. The company is going to launch them in Madhya Pradesh on March 15 and has plans to introduce the products across the country by end-August or early-September.

The company, which sold 50,000 CTV units in the Indian market in the first five months of its operation ended December 31 last, expects to capture five to seven per cent of market this calendar year, said R B Tandan, KEIL vice-president.

The total CTV market in India was five million in 1999 and the company expects that it will increase by ten to 20 per cent this year. The expectation is quite contrary to consumer electronics and TV Manufacturers Association's or CETMA apprehensions that the market may suffer negative growth because of the 2000-2001 budget proposals.

When fully operational, the company's Greater Noida plant will have an installed capacity to produce 500,000 units annually in two shifts, Zhang said. However, he did not give any timeframe in this connection.

The company's plans to invest Rs 5 billion in India over a two-year period starting this calendar year. He denied earlier reports that the company will invest only Rs 1 billion this year, stating that the level of investment will depend on the market response and the company's future plans.

KEIL plans to export CTVs to countries in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation or SAARC region, Africa and West Asia as it is logistically prudent to export to these markets from India than from China.

UNI

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