Iphone-not so "happening" in India

When Apple set 100,000 as its sales target for the iphone in India for the period till Dec 2009,they thought they are being humble because of the fact that in India around 120 million handsets are sold every year of which 4 to 5% are smartphones.

But now they realise that it will be very hard to reach this modest target.Livemint.com reports that only 11000 iphones have been sold so far out of the 50,000 of the initial shipment.

So what went wrong? Is it the price? not really...because Nokia's iphone killers are doing well although they are priced same or even more(30k+range) than the iphone in India.Its too early to quote numbers of the N96 but sales is brisk according to sellers.

Two main P's that Apple got wrong are Promotion & Place-that is they did not communicate properly to the Indian consumer why they have to pay three times more than the US price.Also only the service providers  promoted and not Apple despite its retail presence. And Airtel and Vodafone thought since its The Iphone it will sell by itself and only a low level of promotion was done(only some printads ands billboards that iphone is available)    

Then Place i.e. distribution, when retail is growing in India,Iphones are sold only through the service provider outlets and not through other mainstream retailers.Meanwhile the availability of Nokia phones is much much greater in the Indian Marketplace.

If sales of iphones is to be pushed it should be done immediately by collaborating with other organised retailers  because the time is running out and before you know it consumers would have forgotten the iphone.

LCD-LG's Conspired Dealing

LG Display Co Ltd, Sharp Corp, and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd have pleaded guilty in a price fixing conspiracy of Liquid Crystal Displays between the period from September 2001 to June 2006

ZDNET reports "The price-fixing conspiracies affected millions of American consumers who use computers, cell phones, and numerous other household electronics every day," Thomas Barnett, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's antitrust division, said in a statement. 

Electronic majors like Apple, Dell & Motorola are the most affected companies due to this price fixing conspiracy.While Chunghwa is paying US$65 million and Sharp a fine of US$120 million,LG Display has agreed to pay a US$400 million fine, which is the second-highest antitrust fine ever imposed.

Observers say that during 2000 Korean & Taiwan companies were producing excess LCD glass which forced sellers to sell US$5-10 below the cost . So the companies agreed to a price fixing collusion which resulted in the increase of prices.

Whatever the reasons may be now LG, Sharp ,etc might lose many of its valuable customers like Apple ,Dell etc unless they do a intensive damage control.

Is Quality only @ Premium Price?

Recently I had the chance to discuss with my marketing classmates about 'Is Premium Segment Marketing the only way to establish product quality'

The logic behind the point is that the consumer may raise the question that 'if it is a high quality product then why is it priced lower' because  the consumer has a perception that if it is low priced then it is a 'cheap product' & if it is costly then it must be good. Does that mean is it necessary to have premium products to justify that the brand has a higher quality? Not necessarily, companies might charge premium price for a similar  product by enriching the marketing offer with value added services.

Of course catering to the premium segment will help the brand to establish its product quality when it moves to the mass market. There are companies who have established quality in spite of their products priced lower.  For example,Dell came with the low price tag than HP or Sony for laptops of the same configuration. Of course there are differences in the product design,service etc,but Dell has earned its trust among consumers that it offers quality.Dell is now  tapping the premium segment with its  XPS series which has a price tag around Rs.1 Lakh.

It is necessary that brand of the product or the company should have a good reputation among consumers regarding quality & not as a "cheap brand"

Fiat 500 Cinquecento-the Costly Cute Car

Its a car ,a classic,its cute and its also costly. Meet the Fiat 500 Cinquecento a blast from the past,originally introduced in 1957-50 years ago.

Its got great style bringing the cool retro look to the Indian roads.Its got the 74bhp, 1.3 multijet diesel (same engine as Swift diesel in India) which reaches 0 to 100 in a decent 16 .81 seconds and tops a good 155km. Well its definitely not a speedster but sure can find its way through the narrow Indian streets.It weighs only 980 kg but at the same time sturdy enough to be handled in Indian roads.A huge list of customisation options are available from stickers to body kits.

All this is good except for the price tag .Its priced at a whopping Rs 14.85 lakhs (ex-showroom Delhi-Almost 18 lakhs on road). Now that's too costly for Indian roads!!(one of the main reason is that the car is imported from Europe )

If your pockets are deep enough you will definitely will love this stylish small fun ride.

Or you can wait for the VW Beetle which is set for its Indian launch 2009