BHUBANESWAR: France’s Technicolor SA-owned consumer electronics brand Thomson, which was a household name in the early 2000s, is readying itself for a more aggressive on ground execution strategy this time around in the smart television category.
The latest to join the fray, it re-entered the online television market after almost 16 years in April, through a complete online retail route with an exclusive partnership with Flipkart. The French TV manufacturer expects to dominate the television category soon with its pricing strategy to attract the price-conscious
value-obsessed consumers.
“In the current age, to acquire market share in India one can’t burn money for long, so all these funded companies don’t have a very bright future in consumer durables, especially televisions,” said Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO SPPL, exclusive brand licensee Thomson India. With a focus on delivering televisions with state-of-the-art technologies and disruptive prices, the television brand aims to capture 6-7 per cent market share in this financial year, he added.
At a time when the market is already cluttered with over 30 brands, including Chinese major Xiaomi with its ambitious plans, Thomson’s aggressive pricing can trigger a fresh round of price war in the Rs 22,000-crore television market.
Top brands such as Samsung, LG and Sony could face a similar situation which the mobile phone players faced years ago when the Chinese brands ventured into the country with handsets that had the specifications of high-end devices but priced much lower than the dominating brands. Thomson has been selling its 43-inch ultra HD TV sets at Rs 27,999 unlike the other players which tout similar sets upwards of Rs 40,000. The French TV manufacturer has launched two more smart television models of 40-inch and 32-inch at one of the lowest prices in the market.
“We have gone exclusively online and will focus on online sales only for now as we tend to generate higher equity and visibility through flash sale than a regular sale,” said Marwah. For starters, Thomson was the first television brand to go on a flash sale in India. Others had then tried too, but for mobiles.
As far as TV technology is concerned, India is still maturing, Marwah said, adding that sales will grow at 11 per cent for the next three years at least. The company has lined up Rs 500 crore of capital expenditure this fiscal.