TP-LINK is a global provider of networking products and the World’s No.1 provider of WLAN products. Founded in 1996, TP-LINK are committed to intensive R & D, efficient production and strict quality management, aiming to provide high performance, high quality and high value SOHO networking products to global end users. In an interview with Jason Xu, Director, TP-LINK India about the marketing strategy and the promotions of brand in India. Excerpts of the interview:
What’s the overall performance of TP-Link in globally as well as in India?
After nearly seven years’ penetration into the international market, we have made our way to the largest supplier of networking products in Germany, the UK and many other countries. Meanwhile, TP-LINK has established 29 overseas offices around the globe, spreading our business to over 120 countries and regions. We now cooperate with more than 400 distributors worldwide with annual sales volume of over 100 million units. According to IDC, in Q1 2013 TP-LINK maintained our dominance in the global WLAN market by unit shipments with a market share of 42.6%, for the 13th continuous quarter.
As a big nation and a large market where we see rapid growth, India occupies an important position in TP-LINK’s global strategy. We established our India subsidiary in 2010, focusing on the supply of high quality, high value and reliable networking products to the end-users. While we began from zero, we are growing very fast. We look forward to an increase of 80% by the end of this year, which is very inspiring. This rapid growth would not be possible without the support of all of our business partners and end-users. Without their support and trust, we couldn’t have achieved such impressive success.
What are the reasons behind the TP-LINK’s has a remarkable presence around the world?
TP-LINK’s remarkable global presence is a result of several aspects of what drives our company. I think this can be concluded like Professional Research and Development; High Class Supplier; Powerful Manufacturing Ability; Continuing Product Improvements and Experienced Sales and Marketing Team.
What are the major challenges before you in increasing sales and how are you addressing these challenges?
The Indian market shows great potential, as well as challenges. For example, the depreciation of the Rupee is being used as an opportunity by local Indian export-oriented enterprises, while to us who focus on importing; this is quite a big challenge. To ensure the stability of our MSRP, we have taken several of measures to reduce our operation and logistic costs, meanwhile we flattened our channel and reduced the cost of sales, which has led us through the shock. Secondly, India has a vast territory and a large population, which has been an obstacle for us to promote the Flattening Strategy. We made an effort to improve our coverage in the channel. At present we have already established cooperative relationships with over 60 regional distributors in all major cities. However, there are also a lot of vacant regions in B and C class cities remaining to be developed. TP-LINK has always been striving to provide our end users with a high quality product experience, and have achieved remarkable success in that. That said, there have been certain circumstances wherein our products have not lived up to our own standards and the demands of our customers.
What is your market strategy in India? What are your future plans?
India is an emerging market with high potential, to which TP-LINK holds very high expectations. In the aspect of marketing, with reference to advanced experience from some mature markets such as USA and UK, and also the understanding of the Indian culture by our local team, we are able to deploy scientific and detailed marketing strategies. With regard to our products, we won’t change our attitude of serving customers with high quality yet affordable products and friendly user experiences. From a channel perspective, we aim to build win-win relationships and create value for our partners. We have achieved very good results through a series of effective measures. In the future we will go on with our strategy and carry it out thoroughly.
What efforts has TP-LINK made for branding? What’s your plan in the near future?
Branding is one of the major missions of our Indian subsidiary. Based on the information we have gathered about the Indian market and experience from Europe and America, we have made several plans elaborately and carried them out. We cooperate with online retailers for promotions, offering end-users affordable, high quality products; we cooperate with media partners for advertising, press outreach and product testing to make ourselves known to end-users; we cooperate with business partners and introduce various activities, such as schemes and dealer meetings, to motivate the channel. All these plans are now in process and will be continued in the future.
