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Fujifilm India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Japanese firm Fujifilm Holding Corporation, is looking at a three-pronged strategy to boost its brand equity in India. Besides introducing new digital camera models, the company has earmarked Rs 60 crore for marketing expenditure, and is also tweaking prices to stay ahead in the business.
“Digital cameras have become personal devices like mobile phones. We are trying to create value around our brand and have priced our products competitively. Fuji has 7-8 per cent market share in the digital camera business and we want to take it to 13 per cent by the end of the current fiscal. Pricing along with new product launches will be a key area we will look at,” Mr A. Rajkumar, Country General Manager, FujiFilms India, told reporters here.
FujiFilms entered India in 2008. The company said it had sold 1.6 lakh cameras last year. This year, it plans to sell around 4.2 lakh units.
According to industry estimates, the industry has grown from 1.5 million units to an estimated 2-2.5 million. In value terms, the market is estimated at Rs 2,000 crore in India. Technological advances and fall in prices also have helped the market grow. The camera penetration in India is still about 5 per cent per household. The total number of digital cameras sold in India for the past 6-7 years is nearly 6-7 million.
Mr Kenichi Tanaka, MD, FujiFilms India, said the company is expanding its customer service points to 75.
“We have earmarked Rs 60 crore towards our marketing expenditure,” he added. Last year, FujiFilm had invested Rs 20-25 crore in its marketing initiatives.
The company said the increase in marketing spend is in line with its global trend of doubling marketing spend to $600 million in the next three years.
“We are doubling our marketing investment to $600 million. We have not been investing in the past years. We now plan to go aggressive with marketing initiatives,” said Fujifilm Corp Director, Mr Takeshi Higuchi.
Asked if the Japanese tsunami and earthquake had a bearing on any of its production facilities, he said one factory was marginally affected. However, it has resumed production since then.
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