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Sensing huge demand in India’s teaming towns, Japanese air-conditioning major Daikin is going aggressive on tier-3 and tier-4 towns.
The company hopes to break into these markets with appropriate pricing and an aggressive advertisement campaign.
“When Daikin arrived in India, we focussed on the metro cities; then we moved to tier-2 cities,” Kanwal Jeet Jawa, Managing Director of Daikin Airconditioning India, told BusinessLine .
“Now, we are going into the tier-3 and tier-4 levels as there is a huge untapped market in these emerging cities.”
“There is a lot of spendable money in these cities. People would like to live in comfort,” said Jawa, who was in Kochi to launch its new inverter air-conditioners in the Kerala market. By March 2016, there would be 30 Daikin showrooms in Kerala, a State where the brand was not much heard of.
Manufacturing plantHe said Daikin was planning to step up manufacturing in India and was looking for the right place for its second plant.
“We are considering Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat or other Eastern and Western States. The first plant in Neemrana, Rajasthan, which was at its optimum production, might be expanded, too. Daikin India would be investing ₹330 crore for stepping up its Indian presence.”
Changing perceptionsEarlier, there was a perception in India that the Daikin AC was expensive,” he said.
“Now we have rationalised prices,” he said. “Now we have the right prices, the right technology and the right product range to capture the market, including the semi-urban markets.” Jawa said an aggressive marketing campaign was on to take the brand to more States and regions. Hoardings and posters would come up all overt to familiarise the brand. A pan-India advertising campaign was also on. Poaching marketing talent from big companies was also part of its strategy.
He claimed that with a turnover of ₹2,400 crore in the last fiscal, Daikin was No.2 in the HVAC (heating, ventilating and airconditioning) market in the country.
However, in the room AC segment, Voltas, LG and Samsung had taken the lead.
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