“ We are planning for more service centres”
Chang Seng Hock , General Manager, Head, Consumer Business Group, Sony Singapore Marketing Company was in Kathmandu to launch the ‘SMILE Campaign’ of the latest Cyber-shot camera of Sony. Excerpts from a brief e-mail interview:
Could you briefly explain the purpose of your visit to Nepal?
I am happy to be in Nepal and together with our official distributor, Nepa Hima Trade Link Pvt. Ltd, to launch the latest Cyber-shot “SMILE Campaign”.
What else will you be doing after the launch of Sony Cyber-shot?
Besides the launch event and meeting with the members of local media, we will visit the market and have business discussions.
What is the main feature/specialty of the Cyber-shot? Why should a customer choose Cyber-shot among other brands?
Cyber-shot allows customers to take effortless beautiful photographs with the help of 3 main features:
Face Detection Function – the camera detects and focuses on the faces of subjects, ensuring that the faces will be sharp and clear.
Smile Shutter – the camera will automatically snap a photograph when the subject smiles. This allows the user to always capture the most beautiful and candid smile for natural-looking shots.
Intelligent Scene Selection – the camera will detect the surrounding conditions of the subject and auto adjust the camera settings (be it flash, ISO etc) to ensure that the subjects are always beautifully taken.
What is the current market share of Sony Digital Cameras in Nepal?
Sony’s Cyber-shot is the Asia’s No.1 best selling compact digital camera (Source: GfK Retail Audit Report, Compact Digital Still Camera, Jan 2007 to Mar 2008 (15-months cumulative) for 11 Asian countries , namely, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam). Although there is no independent report on market size and share for Digital Still Camera, our market study has shown, Sony is the clear market leader in Nepal.
What will be the target customers? Have you done any research or any market survey before launching your product?
There is a Cyber-shot to suit everyone. The T Series is for the fashionable, sophisticated and stylish. It’s for those who demand a camera that is high-tech and trendy at the same time. The W Series is for families looking for a reliable camera. The H Series is a ‘prosumer’ camera that straddles the line between DSLR and compact camera. It is for people who want to get more out of their camera, playing with effect and creative shooting styles. The S Series is a basic camera for anyone on budget.
Sony does qualitative and quantitative studies in key countries to get consumer insights, which are used as inputs in our product planning and design cycle. That is why we are the first to realise that SMILE Shutter will be very handy for our customers to always get the perfect smiling shot!
How are you planning to facilitate after sales service? Are you opening any service centre or anything as such?
Consumer satisfaction is of utmost importance for us. Our Sony distributor, Nepa Hima Trade Link Pvt. Ltd. has a well-equipped service centre at Kantipath, just above the Sony showroom. We are planning for more service centres to make Sony customers in Nepal assured and have a peace of mind that there is service support for official Sony products, unlike consumers who purchase from unauthorized dealers.
How are you planning to increase the current market share of Sony Cameras?
Besides the successful launch of the ‘SMILE Campaign’, we will hold road-shows at different locations to create awareness among consumers. We will let them try our latest Cyber-shot cameras and make them familiar with our unique technologies that make photo taking easy.
“ Construction works will pick up in Nepal”
Kamdhenu Ispat Limited is a leading supplier to the construction industry of India. Listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange, it has an annual turnover of around Indian Rs. 370 crores. As part of its global business expansion plans, it has recently made foray into the Nepali market by entering into technical tie-up with Maruti Nandan Rolling Mills Pvt. Ltd. of Nepal. To announce the partnership, Satish Agrawal, Chairman and Managing Director of Kamdhenu Ispat was in Kathmandu and talked to NBA about his evaluation of business scope in Nepal and his company's plans for this market. Excerpts from a brief interview:
How is the business of Kamdhenu ?
Kamdhenu is a well-known brand in India and we have 32 manufacturing units producing steel products with an annual capacity of 1.3 million tonnes. With this strategic tie-up with Maruti Nandan Steel Rolling Mills Pvt. Ltd., we are trying to expand our business globally starting with Nepal. We have been working as a service provider to the construction industry. In our portfolio, we have several products like TMT Steel Bars, Structural Steel products (angles, channels, sections etc) and Binding Wire. Apart from steel products, we are now having the exposure in PVC Pipes, UPVC Windows, Sections and Plywood. By the end of July, we are also coming up with decorative paints (emulsion, exterior-interior distemper, pressure paint, industrial paint) with our own manufacturing unit in Rajasthan, India.
What’s your evaluation of the business scope in Nepal?
We think in the near future, lots of construction and infrastructure development works will start in Nepal. And when you think about construction, steel is the fundamental requirement, so its demand will rise accordingly. When it comes to quality, Kamdhenu will be providing the best quality products in Nepal based on Tempcore technology from Centre de Recherches Metallurgiques (CRM), Belgium. Nowadays, Kamdhenu products are ahead of any other brands.
What’s your comment on the rising steel and other commodity prices? How will it affect the construction business in Nepal?
The rising price of steel is definitely a concern, especially as steel is required in high quantities for construction industries, and the already rising price is expected to get even higher. But you can’t stop the process of price hike as steel prices are going up across the world due to rising prices of fire, ore and many other factors like rising transportation costs due to the hike in crude oil prices. You can’t avoid that or protect this particular area from price factor. So, steel prices in Nepal will definitely go up due to the global impact in the market. However, through Kamdhenu, we would like to provide products of higher strength with minimum weight to economise the cost. The cost saving factor will be 5-10 percent and that we can ascertain.
There is a possibility of India stopping steel and cement exports to Nepal as it did for some time recently. How can your company’s presence in Nepal help in such eventuality ?
Right now, we are just talking about Kamdhenu brand in Nepal. I am not in the position to comment about the exports of cement and many other things. However, you will see lots of other products of Kamdhenu in Nepal in the future. We will strive as much as we can to give the best quality and a good network to cater to the needs of individuals as well as of big business firms.
How is it more profitable to set up a factory in Nepal for steel-based business while the raw material comes from India and also the processing expenses (e.g. power and labour) are cheaper there ?
The bottleneck in Nepal is that it doesn’t have iron ores. So, the primary project of manufacturing iron ore through blast furnace is not practically viable in Nepal. Ultimately, if you want to establish an integrated plant in Nepal, you have to bring iron ore and coke either from India, China or somewhere else. This will be too expensive affair. The best option is making TMT Bars in Nepal by importing billet. You can import billet either from India or from anywhere else where the price is competitive. Due to transportation cost, it is better to import it from India.
Many steel rolling mills in Nepal have closed down complaining lack of business. How will your manufacturing unit in Nepal get sufficient business ?
In the past, there were a lot of complications—labour unrest and political uncertainty, which hampered many other projects. The infrastructure development was not up to the mark. However, with the new elections and the new government, we hope that Nepal will speed up infrastructural growth. And when there is growth in infrastructure, quality steel requirement will be there. So, I don’t see any problem in selling quality steel products in Nepal.
