HP will continue to evolve with market trends and customer demands

Ranjivjit Singh
Head-Marketing 
PPS, HP India

HP started as a serious computing company. HP's genesis as an organization is based on commercial solutions and products. HP products have gone through a transition to more sleek and stylish designs and it is continually proving market leadership. 

HP has the right product mix with the best-of-class products in every category – from desktop PCs and AiOs to notebooks and hybrid devices. HP is India’s PC market leader with a 34.1-per cent overall market share in Q2, 2013. HP also leads the market for every single category – from consumer notebooks to commercial PCs and workstations. Combined with HP’s industry-leading support services, it is uniquely positioned in the market to sustain its market leadership and grow with the partners profitably. 

As per IDC, India’s PC shipments registered a strong growth in the second quarter of this year, growing 24.5 per cent compared to the corresponding quarter last year. India remains a growth market with specific market segments like young consumers and small businesses driving the market demand. Within the PC markets, specific categories of All-in-One desktops have seen growth over the last few quarters. 

VARINDIA recently caught up with Ranjivjit Singh, Head – Marketing, PPS, HP India, to explain more about HP’s current going in the market and some recent strides it has taken to strengthen its presence in the market. 

What are the marketing activities that you undertake to build your brand? What is your media mix?

We, at HP, are focussing on building consumer- and customer-centric marketing programmes. We are continuously looking at driving new consumer behavior – be it the driving Touch and new form-factors such as detachables with a complete range of devices which are more affordable. 

In the PC market, we have been able to build youth connect with initiatives like HP Connected Music service which provides free, unlimited downloads of original, CD quality music from a library of more than a million songs for a year, exclusively to HP Windows 8 notebook users. 

Also, we have added more than 200,000 fans to our FB community in India through initiatives around HP Connected Music. Almost 85% of the users of this service are in the age group of 18–24 years and 91 per cent of the users recommended HP because of this service.    

In the consumer printing segment, we have been consistently engaging parents with pre-teen kids to drive print relevance with affordable printing that enables their child’s educational excellence as a key proposition to expand the market.  

What is your strategy to remain at the top position in personal computers and improve profitability?

HP has recently run a big campaign on the counterfeit on cartridges. How is the response? 

As the industry leader, we have the responsibility to protect and safeguard our customers from the fake cartridges. HP’s global Supplies Anti-Counterfeit Programme (ACF) is a worldwide programme run by an independent team within HP. The primary objective of the programme is to safeguard our customers and protect HP’s brand from parties who deal in counterfeit supplies. However, the initiation of an action is the prerogative of the law-enforcement agencies. HP stays committed to safeguard the interests of our loyal partners and look forward to their support in dealing with the issue of counterfeits.

We have seen a positive impact of this programme in spreading awareness about the originals, which has eventually helped us safeguard our investments and those of our loyal partners and customers.

Keeping the economic volatility in mind, what is the biggest challenge today for marketers?

In times of economic volatility, consumers look for value-for-money the most while purchasing. People turn to brands they trust, they search out good quality and highly reliable products, and take after-sales service more into account. HP has built its reputation on delivering high-quality products, offering best onsite warranty with a vast service and support network across India and is recognized as one of the country’s most-trusted brands. 

satinder@varindia.com