Nehru Place attacked by Koreans

Last couple of days witnessed Nehru Place experiencing a high voltage vibration, which probably has never hit the market ever before. It was a virtual attack by Korean majors. Top officials from LG and Samsung visited the market almost simultaneously.

First came Kwang-Ro Kim, MD, LG Electronics India Ltd, on last Thursday. He inaugurated the company's first ever IT brand shop in the country. Then on Monday, JK Choi, CEO (Storage Systems Division), Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Korea, who was in India as a part of his APAC tour, paid a social call to Nehru Place to take a pulse and feel of the storage market in the country.

The LG lances

Challanger Computers has been made the first ever brand shop of LG India, which houses the entire IT range by the company in the country. Kim said on the occasion, "We plan to grow 100 percent this year. This brand shop is just one step in LG's strategies lined-up for this year. I know that work at LG would double up as we have appointed regional distributors in place of national distributors, but that is what LG is all about. We love challenges. The revamped channel policies, the readiness to take the difficult tasks and the support of best of the dealers would surely take LG to places this year and we would see Samsung disappear from the market."

LG has also revamped its distribution policy as an effect of which it has withdrawn its distributorships from its national distributors--Aditya Infotech, Compuage Infocom and Priya International. From now on, it would have regional distributors in every city, which again are appointed from the old and established dealers. As of now, in past 30 days, the company has appointed 125 distributors all over the country, out of which 12 are in the capital. Challanger, Modi Peripherals and Kadam Marketing are few of the old timers who have been appointed as the regional distributors in the city.

Explaining the reason behind this move, Rajiv Kental, Zonal Manager (North and East), Sales and Marketing, IT Products, LG Electronics India Ltd, said, "I consider this as an aggressive step in the distribution process that LG has ever taken, or for that matter that any IT company in India has ever taken. We have discarded the conventional concept of national distributors.

This is done for a simple reason that if any of our national distributor suffers a setback for any reason whatsoever, the whole supply chain is adversely affected. Getting this new concept of regional distributors in place gives us many immediate and long-term benefits. We have become more approachable and have come closer to our dealers. Also since dealers have a better personal rapport amongst themselves, it provides them with better working environment. We see this step as a trendsetter in the distribution channel in the country."

LG has also come up with six authorized service centers in various parts of the city--Challanger being one of them. These centers boast of on-site support--at the customers' premises--for monitors, which is another never-before concept. In addition, these centers have LG certified engineers, who are capable of putting a faulty monitor in order-tout-de-suite-in case it is brought to the center. The customer can get the defective monitor repaired in working order while waiting for a mere 10 to 15 minutes, if there is no prerequisite of spare parts.

Sounding proud and confident about the newly formed center, Sunil Gupta, Director, Challanger, claimed, "Till now, LG could never really boast of a solid service ground, for a simple reason that it had just one service center in Okhla, which again was not very accessible. Nevertheless, opening these service centers in different parts of the city, it has covered this incomplete point as well. Moreover, I would say that it has been covered pretty much well. Now there is no stopping for LG in the country."

The Samsung spectacle

Choi visited the country as a part of his APAC tour. The field visits on Choi's schedule accounted for a brief stop in Nehru Place market. He visited the brand shop of Samsung, owned by Champion Computers and other two prominent Samsung dealers-Elcom Trading and Softech Computers.

Choi inquired about the monthly sale of Samsung drives and 7200 rpm in particular. In a close inspection of each shop, he was also apparently very impressed with the individual packing for Seagate hard drives, which he indicated to be implemented in the Samsung drives as well. He also in particular made an inquiry about the monthly sales volume and revenue of both Seagate and Samsung drives.

Choi commented on the occasion, "My prime motive to visit India was to touch and feel the pulse of the Indian storage market. It was a unique moment for me to be able to speak and listen to our partners who bridge the vital gap between our customers and us. I truly believe that understanding the reality facing our partners has added to my knowledge about this unique market. This visit reconfirms my faith in the potential of Indian personal storage market. I see this market growing manifolds in the coming months."

However, Somesh Narang, Director, Elcom Trading, who started trading in Samsung about a month back, believed something entirely different on Choi's visit, "Though the visit at each shop did not last anything more than 10 minutes, but it was seen as a promotional visit for Samsung 7200 rpm hard drives. Till now Samsung had an upper hand against Seagate for a simple reason as it offered a warranty of three years, but at the same time they were costlier by a hundred. But as Seagate has also started offering the same warranty period now, without increasing its price, Samsung is presumed to loose its share. So may be he was here merely to take a pulse and feel of the market, beforehand."

An interesting thing here to observe is that the decision to organize the LG show--or to inaugurate the first IT brand shop in the country--was an impromptu one. However, the celebrations for the grand opening stayed on for some months now, as it were first scheduled in August last year. And now when it was declared, the whole process from announcing till organizing to conducting till invitations happened with in a matter of two days. As none of the LG officials nor anyone from Challanger could give a satisfactory explanation to this, it can be easily made out that it had a lot to do with the Samsung show which was announced almost a week earlier.