One of these go to market strategies is its B2B model. D.P. Kim, Group Marketing Head - B2B Sales, LG India, spoke to SME channels about its B2B and SME market strength. Excerpts.

What is the core focus of LG in India?

We are leader in consumer electronics and ICT products category in India and we want to continue this position. In addition, we have introduced B2B business and are going to invest in new business area. And our IT products range will be strengthened with coming of LG laptops.

From the market vertical perspective, we primary focus on Education, Hospitality, BFSI, Transportation and Retail industries. 

Which product do you think will drive LG market?

LED TVs with 3D technology is going to be sold in the market aggressively. So we think 3D as a technology is going to be one of the drivers of growth engine for LG in future.

What about IT and telecom products?

In telecom, I think smartphone has huge demand. So, definitely LG is emerging as a major player in the smartphone area. Laptop and PC market is very huge in India. This is also another area which we want to grow.

How LG India is doing Vis-a- Vis other countries including China?

In China, there are so many local brands so the competition is very high. As compared to China, in India, we have our own manufacturing and good sales network infrastructure of. We have franchises for marketing and also a very huge network of logistics. 

What advantages LG offers vis-à-vis the competition?

The advantage is manifold. We have our own R&D and product planning group here. They develop customized products looking at the Indian customers. Therefore our products are different from that of the competition, which is the key differentiator to the completion. If we see other competition like Sony, they make common products all across geographies but LG India develops Indian consumers’ need based products whatsoever the products may be including TV, Refrigerator, and microwave, audio, etc. 

How do see Indian B2B market growth?

LG is building-up the business infrastructure for B2B segment. Three years back we had created B2B specific business unit within LG India. From there we have started studies in Indian B2B market as to what is the difference in the market and what consumers wants. B2B means business to business interaction but who is using that solution? It is finally the people are using the solution. So from the study, we have started to develop consumers need based B2B solutions. 

Based on our display, IT and networking technology we have developed customized solutions including interactive TV for hotel industry, digital signages, security cams with video content analysis, etc. We have identified five verticals including education, hospitality, BFSI, Transportation and retail. These verticals growing fast and a lot of investment is also coming into these verticals. So we have brought in solutions for these verticals. 

What about solutions for SME? 

We have been working with Indian SMEs since the end of 2009 as we had launched our SMB business unit at that point of time. We have lots of solutions for SMEs.

How LG is addressing SME market?

SME is very huge market and has a verity of verticals. As SMEs buying power is below the enterprise, we treat them like consumers. LG has very strong network in consumer channel. Through that, we make efforts to tap the SMEs.  The strong point for us is that we have various ranges of products including TV, refrigerator, microwave, IT, Telephony, etc., whereas other IT companies who address SMEs but they are not able to fulfil the entire requirement of the SMEs.

How about your security business? 

Security is one of the potential and growing businesses for us. We have started this business in India in early 2010. Almost spending one and a half years, today we have reached at 20% market share. In security, there are a lot of vendors. Despite that we have earned a respectful position. So we have a big growth from last year we have also full range of products. We are in this business for more than 15 years in other countries. We have brought in many innovations, for example we offer video content analysis that offers features like, motion detection, intruder detection, object counting, object removal and tampering, etc. We also have our own technology XDI 2 (eXtreme Dynamic Image processor), which allows best resolution in dark environment with vivid colour.