Mobile accessories brand Energizer enters India, aims big

Energizer is a renowned mobile accessories brand which has just entered the Indian market through their parent company - Avenir Telecom. Dataquest spoke to Manish Prasad, India, South Asia and South East Asia Sales and Business Development, Director, Avenir Telecom to understand the dynamics of this latest entry, given there are already several accessories brands in India. 

What is Energizer about and what makes the brand different in its domain?
Energizer is a global power solutions provider with a complete portfolio of products including Energizer battery products, rechargeable batteries and charging systems; portable flashlights and power connectors, inductive chargers. The brand provides portable power solutions to fulfill daily lifestyle needs with USB Cables, chargers for rechargeable portable devices, charging systems for wireless video game controllers, and specialty batteries for hearing aids. Energizer brings consumer focused products that power the essential devices that help people stay connected throughout the time. Indian mobile accessory market is overwhelmed with low quality accessories. Energizer has lined up a number of products to fill the gap in the market and offer the best products to the Indian consumers at the best possible price.

 Why does the brand plan to enter India after 100 years of customer trust?
We have done R&D on the Indian market for a considerable time before entering in the market, the mobile accessories market in India is highly fragmented and there are hardly any organized players in the market here. This showcases a huge opportunity for Energizer. For years, Energizer has brought consumer focused products that power the essential devices which help people stay connected throughout the time providing a complete solution to fulfill daily lifestyle needs. Energizer is going to continue the same legacy in India providing their customers with superior quality products, eventually increasing penetration rate in Indian market for the technology sector. Now is the accurate time to provide the same technological skill to our Indian customers which Energizer has been satisfying the international customers with. We are positive regarding Energizer’s powerful accessories will take the market by a roar.

 Since the power solutions market is already infested with players (small and big), how will you stand out?
Customers today are looking for a brand with durable and quality products, especially when it comes to durable mobile accessories. We are confident that Energizer’s top quality products with a competitive pricing will give it a definite edge over other international brands, ultimately forming a strong customer base for itself. Our range of products is priced between Rs.399/- and Rs.2999/- respectively. The brand provides 2 years of warranty along with USPs such as: an additional 20% cable length for the standard 1 meter cable, Energizer pocket cable for I Phone and Android, ultra-premium stainless steel stretchable cables with lifetime warranty and universal tempered glasses. In Addition to this, Energizer products come with major international certifications, namely: CE, REACH, ROHS and Anti-Shock Case with US Military drop test up to 2&3 meters. Owing to our global failure ratio which is only 0.3% and the unparallel quality, creating a niche for our products would be effortless.

Where does Energizer aim to reach in the next 5 years?
Presently, the major players in the Indian mobile accessories market almost have equal share in the market. We seek it as a great opportunity to be the first choice of the customers who prefer to buy and invest in quality accessories. We look forward to emerge as a leader in the Indian market in next 5 years by launching the most innovative and dynamic products for which there is unmet demand. We are expecting a business of 3 million USD in the first year and we intend to double it by 2020 with the complete portfolio of products.

Which sectors does that brand focus on for Investment in India?
We are here for long term business and look forward to expand our spectrum of products. We have lined up numerous product launches to fill the gap in the market, in order to offer the best products to the Indian consumers. We put justified amount of emphasis on investments in the Energizer accessories business and plan to take a step by step approach towards investments in distribution, Marketing, PR & Digital marketing campaigns. To begin with, we are investing in marketing and promotions for accessories which only handful of brands do in our country. We are focusing on PR & Digital marketing to reach out to the maximum number of customers in India and make the retail channel be confident about us.

What is the current plan of action of the brand for increasing distribution and reach in India?
With the current market trends, we believe, integration is the key to success. We plan to target all channels for the sales including e-commerce where we have listed our products on all top platforms or brick and mortar stores. We will be doing business through RDS channel partners and distributing them across India. We will also cater to the regional power retail market, brand stores to expand our reach and are associating ourselves with popular platforms like IIFA to connect with the youth.

How do you plan to compete with lower priced goods offered by other brands in India?
Energizer is a global brand, which comes with 2 years of replacement warranty. Our products offer such quality that our global failure ratio is only 0.3%. The customers surely want the best price possible but Indian customers value quality as much as price. According to our study in the market, the goods Indian brands offer are priced similarly to our goods, where these brands offer 6 months to an year of warranty. Also we have segmented our range into Classic/High tech & Ultimate to ease up the process of choosing the products as per the need and budget. Classic is the basic product segment and Ultimate is the topnotch segment we offer.

Which products do you plan to launch after mobile accessories in India?
Being a brand that seeks to solve the problems which consumers are facing every day, we always believe in bringing something new for our customers. We will soon launch a complete range of surge protectors, wireless charging solutions and external SSD’s.