A late entrant in the Indian B2B space, Panasonic has set ambitious targets to capture the market. Toru Hasegawa – Divisional Managing Director, System Solutions Division, Panasonic India, talks to Pupul Dutta about the company’s plans
What are your offerings in the B2B segment and what is your go-to-market strategy given that you are a late entrant in the Indian marketplace?
Panasonic has a plethora of offerings in the B2B segment, divided in categories like security and surveillance, projectors, imaging and printing, enterprise telephones, display panels, PBX/KTS, fax machines, Toughbooks, etc.
We have a large and diversified set of products. Our go-to-market strategy is based on customizing them to the requirements of customers and supports our sales strategy, providing us with greater agility. With an extensive network of highly committed and qualified channels, equipped with the right framework, tools, and resources to capture the enormous opportunities, we make all possible efforts to provide our customers with a seamless experience right from the time of the first walk-in, till sales, until the after-sales service points.
Our go-to-market strategy primarily depends on the type of product that is on offer in addition to the target consumer that we aim to reach out. For example, for the product range in the security and surveillance segment, our strategy is more enterprise driven, instead of reaching out to the target market directly. Also, in order to deliver the finest of our product and services to our customers, we empower our partners and provide them with adequate training time and again, so that they can cater to each and every need of the consumers. We do periodic technical trainings for our partners and their sales teams on product and application skill sets so as to keep them updated on technological upgradation.
Panasonic has solutions in security and surveillance as well as products like Toughbooks. How is the market response for these products in India? Also, how do you plan to boost the sales of the same?
The Indian market has a humungous scope for all products, be it security and surveillance or the toughbooks. Despite being a price sensitive market, the acceptance of security and surveillance products is increasing. The country is witnessing strong demand for high-end security solutions from both public and the private sector. Recurring terrorist activities are necessitating round-the-clock intelligent surveillance of public infrastructure, sensitive installations of enterprises as well as residential communities. Today, due to advances in technology, video surveillance cameras are better than ever and can be used along with computers to handle complex situations.
India is a high growth market for us globally and we are making aggressive investments in this region on products, talent, marketing, service support, R&D and manufacturing. The key strategy for growth in India is to accelerate product developments and business promotion to meet the local needs. In order to keep the customer count increasing, we intend to develop versatile technology for the modern-day users which would enable them to multi-task easily.
What kind of solutions do you offer for video conferencing and how can companies customize the same?
Panasonic has introduced a true high-definition 3D video conferencing solution which is easy to setup and use for its consumers. We have infused 3D technology with HDVC. Under this range we have two models – Panasonic KX-VC600 and KX-VC300.
Of late, there is an upward trend in utilization of video conferencing in order to not only reduce travel and accommodation cost or time, but also to increase overall productivity of the business through enhanced collaboration. SMEs can use video solutions for different tasks such as job interviews, meetings, product demonstrations, trainings, remote healthcare etc.
For the healthcare industry, the availability of specialized full HD or 3D secondary camera (along with main PTZ camera) can be used to view human body part images and videos which can be transmitted to a health specialist sitting at any remote location. Similarly, manufacturing companies can deploy this solution to show minute parts of their equipment designs at high resolutions to customers sitting at other locations.
