Spotlight

Brother India

With an eight-year presence in India, Brother International is now going the retail way to attract customers. Priya Jain reports

Document management is becoming an ever-increasing chaos in organisations, which is why they are looking for ways to solve this problem. Not surprisingly, vendors are more than eager to provide solutions and products since the market for these are huge. Though this segment is very profitable, the competition is equally tough.

Brother International is one such company that entered the Indian market eight years back, and after gaining enough ground is looking to expand its operations. With a number of distributors as part of its Indian establishment, this company is now planning to go in the retail direction and attract more consumers for its lifestyle range of multi-function devices (MFDs) and fax machines.

Headquartered in Nagoya, Japan, Brother initially had just two products: sewing machines and fax machines. But today the company has a range of imaging products that includes fax machines, MFDs, laser printers, label printers and stamp creators that are manufactured at its factories in USA, Britain, Malaysia, China and Japan.

"Although the major marketshare is with stand-alone inkjet printers, one can already see an upward trend in the laser and MFD market" - Vishal Sriwastv Country Manager Brother

For a global company selling products in a market that is not its turf, having a strong distributor chain is very important. Says Vishal Sriwastv, Country Manager of the company, “In the beginning we worked with the model of appointing national distributors for our products to penetrate the market. Our range is available through distributors in the IT, office automation and supplies channel. We have continued working the same way.”

Brother’s partners in India include notable companies such as Kores, Godrej, Lipi Data Systems and Accel ICIM. It has appointed Accel ICIM as a national service provider. “With a direct presence in about 34 locations and reach across 100, Accel ICIM will be able to enhance the satisfaction of and effectively service Brother customers,” states Sriwastv.

To give a boost to its Service First programme, Brother will work with Accel to launch service weeks across the country. Customers in each city can bring in their Brother machines for free service at the local Accel centre.

From the time it came to India the company has maintained good relationships with its partners, each of whom has a distinct customer base.

For instance, Lipi, which is also its national corporate partner for laser printers, looks after service for the same products. Explains Sriwastv, “Lipi is a leading player in the printer segment with a focus on corporates and institutions, and it has extensive service reach. From day one, we are working with Lipi to provide service in over 100 locations across the country. This company has built a reputation for its vast range of high-speed, heavy-duty line printers, dot matrix printers, fan-fold laser printers, and printer supplies. Lipi already services top Indian OEMs, various government houses, and verticals such as banking and finance, airline, insurance, and automobile.”

Opportunity India

Sriwastv is of the view that the Indian market has a lot of potential when it comes to document management products. “The printer segment in the country is estimated to be about 1.1 million units, with stand-alone inkjet comprising 50 percent, document management platform about 30 percent, and lasers and MFDs having 10 percent each. Although the major marketshare in the printer segment is with stand-alone inkjet printers, one can already see an upward trend in the laser and MFD market.”

Speaking about the growing market in India, he feels that customers are being wooed through factors like price, value, ease of use, quality of output and usage of graphics in presentations. He expects that with PC penetration increasing, the printer market will also pick up in India. “The printer-to-PC attachment ratio is quite low in the country, and this offers a great potential for vendors to target the market,” says Sriwastv. He is also of the opinion that since MFDs have caught up with stand-alone inkjet printers, and lasers are also picking up globally, people are now concentrating on factors like total cost of ownership (TCO), rather than just plain asset (printer) ownership.

Considering this potential of the Indian market, Brother has come up with a portfolio of document management products and platforms. In 2002 the company launched P-Touch label printers, in 2003 MFDs, and in 2004 laser printers.

Brother has a wide range of laser printers for the Indian market. “India as a market offers immense potential for the growth of laser technology, and the company is confident of leveraging its technological edge in the laser space. It is already a leading player in the laser space in US, Europe and the Middle East. With the launch of these machines, the company also completes its global portfolio in the country,” says Sriwastv.

He explains that Brother’s objective is not just to offer a product in the form of a laser printer, but a printing solution that translates into an overall cost benefit for the end-customer. “We are keen to spread awareness of this concept and spur the adoption of this technology. Brother Inter-national’s laser printers are not only priced competitively, but are effectively positioned on the TCO and value-for-money concept, thus providing customers with a win-win proposition.”

It’s the technology

Brother has various differential technologies incorporated in its printers. These include exclusive printing enhancement technologies in colour printing, network-ready connectivity, and duplex printing.

Colour printing incorporates the company’s exclusive printing enhancement technologies such as Colour Advanced Photoscale Technology and High Resolution Control, a process that integrates the finest image components, constructing the data to produce a smooth and balanced print of the original document.

Through network connectivity there is access to an interface, built-in password protection that prevents unauthorised users from changing printer and print server settings, the ability to view and change different printer and network information, and instant awareness of the status of your consumables.

In duplex printing, the printers automatically print on both sides of the paper.

According to Sriwastv, “Brother machines are equipped with separate consumables that lower the TCO. These all-in-one machines utilise a four-cartridge printing system where the colour ink cartridge can be replaced individually. In addition, Brother’s capillary tube delivery system provides ink from separate cartridges directly to the print head. This makes for smoother operation, and ink cartridges that are easier to replace. Brother supplies a number of software applications as well.”

Growing focus on retail

Looking at the opportunities, Brother plans to tap the retail route in India to specifically offer a range of MFDs and fax machines. “The aim is to tap the retail route which is emerging as an effective channel for selling IT peripherals in India,” says Sriwastv. To achieve this target, Brother has chalked out an elaborate programme by which the company proposes to make its presence felt in 10 cities (metros and major mini-metros) in the first phase by tapping existing IT retail outlets.

In the second phase the company expects to augment its presence in these cities, with an additional outlet in each of the 10 cities, and in the third phase to double its presence and spread to about 20 cities through multiple format outlets. Sriwastv is sure that this initiative will provide Brother with a significant national footprint in terms or reach and penetration to the end-customer.

Brother has a range of seven inkjet MFDs to cater to the home and business segment. Four machines are for the home segment, and are positioned on lifestyle, while three are targeted at the business segment and are positioned on workstyle.

Concludes Sriwastv: “Our thrust will be to tap corporates, SMBs, SOHOs and the institutional market. We plan to conduct focussed end-user, channel programmes through the use of above-the-line and below-the-line promotions. As Brother has completed the launch of its global portfolio of products in India, given the potential of the country in the field of imaging devices we shall keep augmenting the range of laser printers and MFDs.”