INSPIRING INNOVATION

Asus is a multinational Taiwanese company which leads in the world of electronic gadgets like
computers, laptops, mobiles etc. It is currently 4th largest PC seller in the world. Asus is currently
positioned in 32 nations with 400 service partners around the world. In every different product
profile Asus faces a huge competition like in laptop and PC it has HP, Dell, Apple’s Macbook, Acer
as its rivals.

Asus has the policy to focus on innovation as the whole future lies with it. Their famous products
are ZenBook series, VivoBook series, Republic of gamers, ZenBook Deluxe series, EeeBook series,
Asus gaming series and ZenBoom Flip series. The ZenBook series are premium thin and lightweight
and the prices start at Rs. 74990. The Republic of gamers products are used for high-end
performance and it is the thinnest gaming laptop in the world.

The current market share of Asus in consumer laptop division in India is 11 per cent which it aims to
increase to 15-20 percent by the end of 2019. The brand is well known for its gaming laptops which
could be seen by its market share of around 23 per cent in gaming laptops division in the country.

Asus should follow the following marketing strategy for gaining edge over its competitors and
increasing its market share :

1. Product innovation strategy : Asus has made its name in the market as a company that
brings innovation with its products. With its wide range of gaming laptops, this brand has
differentiated its product from others. The company should invest more in its research and
development and keep adding innovative features to its products, in order to maintain its
differentiated product status which allows the company to price its product higher than its
competitors.
2. Diversifying its products : The company should come up with more mid priced models as
product price differentiation is not a major factor in electronic goods industry. Following a
penetration strategy during the launch of these new models and then providing different
variants with higher specification at a higher price can be adopted. This strategy will help
the company gain more customers who prefer mid price ranged laptops and also cater to its
existing customers who demand high specification laptops .
3. Promotion strategies : For promotion of its products Asus should focuses on age
segmentation like laptops users are mostly youngsters going out to college or schools,
working population or is a home asset. So every advertisement should be focused on this
age segment only. Generally Asus doesn’t spend much on its product promotion it more
relies on their quality for sales. In order to reach out to the shoppers with a mass
communication Asus can upload video on social sites explaining all about its product and
features whenever it launches a new product. This helps Asus to reach out more and more
audience without even spending much. Along with this Asus can also use traditional
methods like flyers and banner advertisement in their store rooms. Also techniques like
pitching their products on e-business sites and giving more discount in order to increase the
visibility of their new products.
4. Come up with affordable 2 in 1 type laptop : By type, the market is bifurcated into
traditional and 2-in-1 laptops. In 2017, the traditional laptops segment represented over
90.0% of the overall market revenue owing to its increased adoption by end users,
particularly gamers. Traditional ones offer advantages such as more storage space, powerful
processor, bigger screen size, and increased Random Access Memory (RAM), among others.
Meanwhile, the 2-in-1 laptop segment is estimated to post the highest CAGR exceeding
1.0% in terms of volume during the forecast period. This may be attributed to continuous
innovations in design, which is leading to reduced size and easy portability. Moreover, this
type integrates capabilities of a laptop and tablet into one device, offering benefits such as
energy efficient processors, light weight, and increased number of ports
 iNFORMED, iNNOVATIVE & iNSPIRED. THEY ARE GENERATION ‘i’

Introduction

iBall is an Indian company and has spread its network to reach consumers in most parts of India. It
has its headquarters base at Mumbai in Maharashtra. iBall has twenty-six branches and its products
are available in nearly seven hundred and fifty towns and cities. The company has developed a very
strong distribution network that includes a workforce of more than three thousand employees. It has
a robust sales-system with the well-trained sales force to create a positive impact on the sales figures.

Products are easily obtainable from either small neighbourhood shops or high-profile retail outlets. It
includes a hypermarket, superstores, electronic goods outlets, discount stores and convenient stores.
The brand also has one hundred and twenty-five service centres that are self-owned to offer after-
sales services to its consumers.

When it comes to market share in laptops market in the country, I ball has a very low market share of
less than 6% where other firms such as Lenevo and HP lead with a high market share of 22.5% and
21.7% respectively.

Being a company with low market share in the market and with a large number of competitors such
as Asus, Acer, Dell, etc ,I ball should formulate its strategies in the following way to gain market
share :

Defining strategic objectives and opponents : I ball should consider competing with firms of its own
size whose performance are at par with I Ball.
Choosing general attack strategies : Adopting Flank attack technique to compete with such
competitors would be best suited to the company as this is a side attack rather than front attack,
particularly suited to companies with less resources than competitors. I Ball should keep prices
realistic and affordable ranging from low price to mid price so that one can easily make a purchase.
Since most Indians belong to the middle-class section of society and in order to make a successful
penetration the products must have good quality along with pocket-friendly price range. Higher its
sales figures greater will revenues be and hence the company should cut down its basic profit margin
in favour of higher sales.

It can also be seen that the most popular models of I ball are mid price ranged laptops

Choosing specific attack strategy : After adopting a flank attack technique, the company should
decide a specific attack strategy. A mix of Price – Discount Strategy and Cheaper good strategy
would be best suited as per the current market scenario. As per these strategies the company offers a
comparable product at a lower price (in case of price discount strategy) and an average or low quality
product at a much lower price(in case of cheaper good strategy).

I ball has adopted the cheaper good strategy by launching the iBall CompBook laptop;s two variants
– 11.6” Excelance and 14” Exemplaire. iBall CompBook Excelance with 11.6” (29.4 cm) was
launched at just Rs. 9,999 leading the revolution. iBall CompBook Exemplaire 14” (35.8 cm) was
also presented at an extremely appealing price of Rs. 13,999 only for the user.