Have to live with virus, find ways to market and sell products: Fujifilm India
As of now camera manufacturing in India doesn’t make sense. The company has manufacturing in multiple countries including Thailand and Japan
NEW DELHI: Within days of lockdown curbs being relaxed in green and orange zones, electronics companies are back with new launches. Earlier this week Fujifilm launched its new mirrorless camera X-T4 in India, while last week Motorola released its Edge+ smartphone.
Though business has resumed it is no longer business-as-usual. Electronic companies are adjusting to the new challenges triggered by covid-19 pandemic and the consequent challenges. In a telephonic interaction with Mint, Arun Babu, general manager, Electronic Imaging and Optical Device, Fujifilm India, elaborates on how the camera major is tackling these new challenges.
How is Fujifilm engaging with customers during the ongoing crisis?
We have to live with this virus and find different ways to market and sell products. Before covid-19 we were doing exhibitions and workshops with customers. Now we are doing them virtually through social media channels. On Instagram we call professional photographers for Q&A session with public, onYoutube we have Pathshala sessions, a form of digital workshop, where we show camera features and educate people on how to shoot. The only thing missing is the touch and trial of products and for that we are asking channel partners to provide product demo to customers at their homes if they don’t want to come to stores. We have been getting 800-1,000 people in our Pathshala sessions, which is a lot more than what we used to get in offline workshops.
How has been the response to cameras since lockdown lifted?
Since the relaxations in lockdown, we have seen some sales happen in both retail and online channels. We ran an online campaign to see how many people are interested in buying a camera and got 400 positive responses. Our retail channels are taking appointment from customers and are attending to them on a case to case basis to avoid crowding in stores.
Will the prices of cameras increase post lockdown?
Dollar exchange rate has drastically changed due to recent events. The impact is going to be 8-10%. We are not planning to react to it immediately and will continue to monitor the currency fluctuation. We also have to keep in mind that we had no sales for two months. At present we are not thinking of any price changes in our products.
What would be the strategy to cut costs? Are job cuts on the cards?
As of now we don’t have any such plans. The best thing to do is to look where we can optimise resources. For example, a lot of marketing initiatives like offline workshops and exhibitions attended by hundreds and thousands of people are not happening. They might get delayed or not happen this year at all. So we will have to direct all the marketing investments to online and social media platforms.
India is being pitched as an alternative manufacturing hub to China as some governments and companies want to reduce dependence on China for imports. Does manufacturing in India make sense for Fujifilm?
As of now camera manufacturing in India doesn’t make sense. We have manufacturing in multiple countries including Thailand and Japan. It is not that we are entirely dependent on China. Different products and components are manufactured in different places. For instance, for sensors we depend on Japan.
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