Panasonic, one of the legacy players in the consumer electronic segment, which planted its roots in India in 1972, has recently been working to level up the game in its omnichannel front as the demand for ACs, refrigerators, etc. has soared in the season. The company has also been bringing various changes to its business strategies to cater to various market changes. 

Fumiyasu Fujimori, Managing Director, Panasonic Marketing India stated, “As a part of our robust omnichannel strategy, Panasonic has been continuously working towards upgrading its online and offline channels to provide a better purchase experience to consumers. Although the online channel has grown, the offline channel continues to play an important role in consumer durable sales."

Omnichannel marketing is very important for a brand because through that organizations can provide a unified experience to their customers and build more trust in the process. According to a report by analytics firm Neustar, marketers understand that omnichannel marketing has the potential to have a high or extremely high impact on their key drivers of success: increasing online sales (6 percent), increasing customer satisfaction or similar metrics (59 percent), and increasing profitability (55 percent) and deliver engaging customer experiences.

"Indian consumers strongly believe in doing pre-purchase research across online/ digital mediums and then having a ‘touch and feel’, product experience before purchase,” Fujimori added.  Also, in India, omnichannel sales have mostly been explored in cosmetics and fashion. It would be interesting to see how this would turn out in the case of consumer electronics.  

So far, if we look at the figures for Panasonic India, AC’s registered an impressive sales growth of nearly 45 percent in FY 2021. Similarly, they’ve seen a growth of 11 percent for its refrigerators as compared to FY2019. Currently, the company is strengthening its refrigerator line-up and planning to introduce new models to expand its market share. The company is looking at a 30 percent growth this summer for its AC division. 

Demand For Connected Living Experience

If you look at the consumer demand in the consumer appliances segment, people are looking for appliances that can take care of their comfort needs and help them multitask. 

Understanding this consumer demand, Fujimori said: "Our appliances offer a connected living experience to our consumers via our in-house Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) platform – Miraie." Through Miraie,  users can have access to all Panasonic devices nat one place. The software also comes with an in-built intelligent diagnostics tool that can detect performance issues in advance and potentially increase the lifespan of products. 

Business-side, through Miraie platform, the company wants to grow in the connected home portfolio segment in the country. 

Focus On Health and Hygiene

Another key deciding factor now is whether a particular appliance can take care of consumers’ health and hygiene concerns. Taking cognizance of the health and hygiene concerns of consumers, Panasonic air conditioners (ACs) are equipped with their proprietary nanoe-X and nanoe-G technologies that inhibit bacteria and viruses, enhancing indoor air quality and promoting healthier lifestyles.

At the start of the season, the company introduced its campaign 'AC for Healthier Homes'. The campaign emphasized on the importance of a healthy indoor environment. “The campaign was designed keeping in mind the new-age consumers who aspire to live a healthier lifestyle and are ready to explore the technologically sophisticated, connected, comfortable, and convenient experience. With an expertise of over 60 years of manufacturing Air Conditioners, here in India, our ACs are manufactured at our Technopark, Jhajjar, Haryana plant. Consumers can avail themselves of the complete range of Panasonic ACs from both online and offline channels. Plus, e-commerce has made our ACs accessible across every part of the nation and, we are receiving a great demand for our inverter ACs,” Fujimori further stated. 

Also, with an expertise of over 60 years of manufacturing air conditioners, the brand introduced innovative technologies like nanoe™ X and nanoe-G in the products. The nanoe™ X and nanoe-G technologies ensure a healthier indoor Air Quality Index (AQI) and inhibit bacteria and viruses, both suspended in the air and adhered to surfaces. Thus, the ACs maintain healthier air within homes.

Furthermore, this summer, buyers are preferring energy-efficient items. As a result, the company has recorded sales of four and five-star air conditioners to have increased and this can be attributed to better awareness among consumers.

Inflation has been a major challenge for manufacturers particularly at this time when the country is facing an economic slowdown. India’s fourth-quarter GDP growth slowed to 4.1 per cent which is the slowest pace of growth in a year owing the two main factors: the impact of the omicron variant and the war in Ukraine worsened fuel and food inflation. 
 
Fujimori stated, “In line with the market and increasing commodity prices, we had to increase the price of our Air Conditioners by around 6-8 percent in January 2022. We are evaluating the input cost changes before we take a decision on another price hike.” 

According to various sources, Panasonic in India has reportedly garnered 18 percent growth in FY 21-22 over the previous fiscal. The Panasonic team did not confirm the figure. 

Future Plans

Panasonic India’s midterm plan for the next 3 to 5 years is to drive sustainability and continue to focus on revenue growth while continuing to invest in India. 

“We aim to continuously increase customer value proposition with appliance products, and by expanding the software developmental capabilities in the country at our India Innovation Centre in Bengaluru. In the last few years, we have developed a lot of solutions to expand our business, like Miraie, which is the future of connected living (consumers) and manufacturing (for Indian manufacturers),” Fujimori said. 

Globally, Panasonic's B2B (business to business) business accounts for a significant part of its revenue. In India, however, the situation is different as Panasonic’s consumer appliances drive the major share. In the next five years, the company intends to balance the revenue and increase contribution from B2B. “Our focus will be on products, platforms, and services associated with energy, industrial, manufacturing, and systems solutions,” the company stated.