LaCie vouches for Fantastic Design and Quality

LaCie might be a new name to the Indian consumers, but it has all the capabilities in its arsenal to capture their attention. Having made a remarkable name in the European and US markets, this European company has now set its eyes on the Asian market. For LaCie, its operations of the European Chapter have been very satisfying. It has earned many accolades and enjoys nearly 55 per cent of the market share with 60-per cent contribution to the company’s balance sheet, whereas the US operations contribute 40 per cent. The company wishes to replicate the success of both the continents in the Asian market. This market has been strategically divided into five regions. Out of these, India comes under region one, whereas China, South-East Asia, Korea and the Middle East are the other four. The greatest asset of LaCie is its design, quality and performance. All its products are designed by the world-renowned designers like Karim Rashid, Porsche, etc.

LaCie, to the professional circle of India, is not a new name, but in the consumer segment, it did not have any presence at all. A year back, the company tied up with Neoteric Infoway and subsequently this year with Transtek Infoway to focus on the consumer market. Recently, VARIndia had a chat with Archna Singh, Account Manager – India, LaCie. 

“It is a teething period of LaCie in India. We started with one distributor in India, but found it is a vast market and we need to work on other options as well to address the market. Therefore, we started working with Transtek Infoway,” says Archna. The clear focus of the company is to increase its market share in a few months’ time. LaCie has’a range of external products in optical DVDs with latest technologies like lightScribe, Toast, etc. – HDDs catering to various segments including mobile, desktop, NAS and monitors.

This is the initial phase for LaCie in India. Therefore, efforts are being directed towards getting feedback from the market. Based on the feedback, the company wants to change its strategy. So far, both the distributors are dealing in professional and consumer range of products. LaCie has also a few dealers. But, according to Archna, this strategy may undergo a change with the market feedback. At present, the company does not have any repair and RMA centre. However, the company is mooting over bringing one of its kind in the next quarter. All LaCie products carry one- year warranty, except in the case of a few high-end products the company provides two years warranty. 

With a mix of design and quality, LaCie stands out of the competition. Some of its HDD models including Brick, Rugged, Skwarim have been designed by renowned designers like Karim Rashid, Porsche, etc. A premium product definitely asks for premium pricing. For some, LaCie products are a little on the premium side. Archna maintains, “India is a learning place for us. We will adapt to the market conditions very soon. Depending upon the volume, we will work on pricing, but the quality will remain intact. Nevertheless, our price is very much competitive. Even in some cases, our price is lower than the competition.” 

As it is the initial stage, LaCie’s market strategy is’not to go all out to the market. The company prefers to focus on verticals. “We feel the education sector has a big potential. OEM is another segment where we will be focussing. Even corporate is another focussed area. In the corporate sector, most of the people are travelling. Therefore, their data has to be mobile as well. That is where external discs come into the picture. At the same time, the HR heads prefer giving a lot of gizmos to their employees as Deewali gift or Christmas gift,” says Archna. “Audio video market is our stronghold, but we want to expand in this segment as well,” she adds. 

From the channel perspective, the strategy of the company is to identify those channel partners who are vertical and product focussed. So, there will be named accounts for the channel partners, where there will be no cross-selling. Archna says, “We want people who understand the market.” Along with Transtek, we will have programmes for the channel partners soon, which will be vertical focussed as well. 

At the same time, LaCie’s efforts will be to educate the customers about what the company can bring to the table, what value addition that it can offer with the products design, quality and performance. Brand awareness drive will include road shows, seminars, technology talks, etc. The company will give test drives to the users so that they can evaluate and give their feedback – be it good or bad. The company will also run advertisements in print and online magazines. 

Finally…
The company’s concentration on the Indian market was very limited, but the things are falling in right place. LaCie is optimistic of capturing 25 per cent of the market share in one-and-a-half years’ time. 

Rajeev Sood, Director, Transtek Infoway: “We feel comfortable working with LaCie. We are gung-ho about the ranges of products that LaCie has. These actually complement our range of products. As far as our resources are concerned, we are present all across the country through the resellers, but directly we have offices in nine locations and C&F agents in seven locations. We have a very good support mechanism in place to service the customers.” 

Archna Singh, Account Manager – India, LaCie: “We are going to stay here. We would like the partners to work in close conjunction with each other and help both to grow in the market.”