The inception of Kingston is very interesting. During 1980s when there was acute shortage of surface-mount memory chips in the high-tech marketplace, Kingston entered into the market with a single product. Nobody knew that the founders - John Tu and David Sun are going to redefine industry standards with that single memory module.
In 1989, Kingston brought in one of the most extensive and stringent testing processes in the memory industry, an exceptional 24/7 free tech support center and a consistent roll-out of innovative technologies, Kingston Technology has continually set industry standards of quality and reliability throughout its history.
Reliability is the cornerstone of the Kingston product strategy. It has played a key role in maintaining the long-term relationships developed over the years with customers. Kingston remains committed to exceeding industry standards with every new development while maintaining the signature reliability of its products.
Today, Kingston has grown to be the world's largest independent manufacturer of memory products. With global headquarters in Fountain Valley, California, Kingston employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. Regarded as one of the “Best Companies to Work for in America” by Fortune magazine, Kingston’s tenets of respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity create an exemplary corporate culture. Kingston believes that investing in employees is essential and that each individual employee is a vital part of the company’s success.
Today, Kingston is the absolute global leader in the memory module manufacturing. They not only have the memory products but also have SSDs, Flash cards and USB drives. They have served an international network of distributors, resellers, retailers and OEM customers on six continents. The company also provides contract manufacturing and supply chain management services for semiconductor manufacturers and system OEMs.
As far as DRAM is concerned, they are the absolute leader in this space. SME Channels spoke to Ana Bai, Sales Director, DRAM Products, Kingston.
What is your vision in India as far as Kingston DRAMs are concerned?
We need to see double digit sales growth in the market as well as to expand our customer base.
Are you a market leader in DRAM segments?
Yes, Kingston is the market leader in memory modules and largely surpasses the second place supplier. According to iSupply, Kingston’s market share is up to 51% in 2010. At the same time, Kingston’s global revenues in 2010 soared to a record USD$6.5 billion.
How many categories of products you have in DRAM?
Kingston offers three main categories in DRAM, they are:
• System Specific Memory, which are designed and tested to the specifications of each brand name computer system.
• Value RAM Memory, which is among the best memory module for industry standard server memory
• HyperX Memory is specially designed for gamers and PC enthusiasts, who aim to look forward to high capacity and high performance modules.
Which are the best selling products?
It all depends on customers’ requirements; we have a wide range of products for customers to choose from.
How are these different from others in the competition?
Kingston offers different products to satisfy different consumers and their different wants. Being a premium brand, reliable, high product quality, and great performance all these make Kingston different from their competitors. We bring out innovative features to our products as well so that consumers can benefit from their use. For instance, Kingston HyperX Plug-and-Play memory (PnP) increases speed without changing system settings which provides the performance along with convenience which other brands cannot afford. All Kingston memory modules come with lifetime warranty.
What is your structure and focus of marketing in India?
Kingston focuses on getting customers aware of Kingston’s world No.1 brand and our high quality products.
Kingston invests immensely to enhance the brand and product awareness. For instance, in this year, Kingston had cooperated with some hottest movies to launch special edition products and got lots of exposures with billboards of Kingston in many places in Delhi and other big cities. In retail shops, we also provide decoration sponsor to enhance the image of Kingston in IT shops.
You have got so many distributions partners, is there any specific reason to have the number?
Our distributors have their strength to help us penetrate the market in different segments.
How are you keeping the partners in good humor?
Kingston provides channel partners plenty of product training, marketing support and pre/after sales service to benefit their sales. Kingston values relationship, that’s why most of our partners have been in business with us for a long time.