The Hindu Business Line : Samsung bets on washing machines to boost sales

“With more and more consumers clearly showing their preference for fully automatic washing machines, we have considerably enhanced our fully automatic product line and are looking at this segment to drive not only our washing machine sales, but overall revenues as well,” said Mr Ravinder Zutshi, Deputy Managing Director, Samsung India.

In fact, according to industry figures, the washing machine category saw a growth of 23.8 per cent to touch 8.27 lakh unit in the five month period from January-May 2007.

While the fully automatic segment grew at a steady 44.5 per cent, the semi-automatic segment saw a growth of 17.5 per cent in the same period.

The company said that while it held 15.3 per cent market share in the fully automatic segment, it was looking at further increasing its share by over another five per cent, in the current fiscal.

“Our strategy for achieving this growth is to aggressively expand our range in the fully automatic segment, also channel expansion and aggressive marketing activity,” said Mr Zutshi.

The washing machine market, which was estimated at 1.7 million units in 2006-07, is expected to grow at around 15 per cent to about 1.95-2 million units this fiscal.

The segment’s contribution to the overall market was around 31.8 per cent in 2006-07 and is expected to be about 33 per cent in 2007-08.

“At Samsung, we expect the contribution of the fully automatic segment to our overall revenues to increase from 32 per cent in 2006-07 to about 36 per cent in the current fiscal. In terms of overall washing machine sales, we expect revenues from the category to increase by over 40 per cent on a yearly basis,” said Mr Zutshi.

On the company’s marketing strategy for the washing machine segment, Mr Zutshi said, “Some of the ways in which we are generating interest in this category, besides the regular above-the-line communication through a television and print campaign, are through several below- the-line activities.

“We are doing several activities such as display contests for our dealers, training our in-shop demonstrators at multi-brand outlets and the on-going ‘Dream Home’ road shows.

“Also, the silver nano technology in our fully automatic washing machine range will give us the unique differentiation in the marketplace.”

More Stories on : Outlook | Washing Machines

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Shoppers’ Stop net dips 57%

Omega upbeat on branded jewellery biz

Samsung bets on washing machines to boost sales

Madhukar Kamath is AAAI President

Naethra Tech unveils product