“HTC Purely Focuses Offline”-Faisal Siddiqui, President, HTC South Asia

Faisal Siddiqui, President, HTC South Asia in talks with PC Quest discusses about leading the organization across South Asia to deliver World Class Initiatives.

Faisal Siddiqui, President, HTC South Asia

In terms of all the End Product lines, what is Current specific GTM and how are you approaching it?

Our GTM is 360 which is below the line as well as above the line. To have retail execution below the line we have promoters at the retail outlets, we work closely with the retailers and for above the line we do digital campaigns we are strong in digital campaigns because I think our target segment goes to internet and they are active on social media in addition to it we do the traditional digital media like hoardings, print etc.

How the different categories are segmented?

We have Low, Mid and High Segment. Low is which we do not play in 10,000 Rs and below than the mid in which we consider between 10,000 to 30,000 and 30,000 above is high end so this is how we segmented it.

In terms of portfolio how many within the mid and High End segments are there?

We do not play below 10,000; right now between 10,000- 30000 we have around 10 phones in the portfolio and above 30,000 we have 3-4 phones.

Is their any difference in strategies between Mid End and High End Portfolios?

We don’t allocate by segment it’s by product. So we launch a product like flagship so our campaign will go on the flagship product, so our campaign depends on the product.

What is the difference in terms of distribution of product between online and offline?

We do not do much online our distribution is purely offline; U11 is available online on Amazon and as well as offline but we do not do many exclusive launches online our focus is primarily online.

What is the offline distribution channel that you have?

We have National Distributors like Ingram Micro which do all the LFRs. We have MPS which does the distribution in North, South and West, These distributors further go to regional distributors in different cities and towns, We have presence in more than 400 cities in India and having 10000 points of Distribution.

From where HTC is getting more traction—Online or Offline?

Our traction is coming from offline; our online traction is less than 5% and we primarily do business offline. We focus purely offline but we may do some tactical believes with online but our focus is on Offline

What about you have some manufacturing facilities here that primarily does the entire portfolio assembled here or is it some specific products only?

Our maiden portfolio and some of the high end get assembled here and flagship phone which is U11 is imported we don’t assembled it here. So 90% of our portfolio is assembled in Noida.

In terms of the key focus strategies what will be the key areas you will be focusing on?

Our focus is to drive the High End and the premium segment because we are good in creating and Building phones that have innovation around design and technology, we have done many first in the industry whether its a first touch screen phone, first Smartphone, first android, first windows, first 4G might so we keep driving that our innovation in camera which is what HTC knows as the leader in design and Technology.

Between the Mid and high End currently what will be the proportion wise contribution?

It is a fair Contribution, if you look at the GFK reports than 30000 and above is 5% of the total sale that happened, less than 10,000 is 70% and the rest somewhere in between, we drive the proportional share in that segment.

Do you expecting any impact on purchase of Mobiles after the implication of GST?

The government announced the GST on smartphones will be 12% so if there is any benefit that gets transferred to the consumers is that what we all see. They haven’t announced the BCDM for imported phones that is what we all are waiting for that announcement.

If 12% benefit will be passed to the consumers would that translate into increase in sales?

I don’t know if there is a direct correlation between that but most of the growth is coming from less than 10,000 Rs mobile market.