CASE ON MARKET DEVELOPMENT RESIDENTIAL AIR

CONDITIONERS

In a highly competitive and matured market like India for the residential Air
Conditioners (Split ACs), an US based MNC called ABC ltd., who has a good
market share in countries like US, Middle east & China for residential market,
wants to promote their line of imported split air conditioners and develop their
market presence with aggressive and cost effective marketing plans in India.
It may be noted that while ABC ltd. is new to Residential market in India & is
not a well-known brand in Residential market, it has got a good presence in the
commercial Air conditioning market segment in India (like Large Hospitals,
Large Hotels, Infrastructure projects like Metros, Airports, Industries, IT Parks,
etc). ABC Ltd. has been doing direct sales and service in the above commercial
segment space.
In the Residential market, the current Indian market for split ACs is highly price
sensitive. Popular brands from China and Japan and the local Indian
manufacturers hold a higher market share. Most of the competitors to ABC ltd
have dedicated channel partners (dealers) and good connect with local multibrand retailers to promote their products. The dealers/channel partners are loyal
to their respective parent brands. On the other hand, multi brand retailers are
highly price sensitive and promote mostly low cost ACs.
ABC Ltd has sound technology and high quality products but does not have an
established distribution network in India & is a late entrant in the market. As the
split ACs manufactured by ABC are imported and of higher quality, they are
priced higher than the other existing brands. Since there is no dedicated network
for distribution, the company at present is promoting sales through multi brand
channels.
Although the split ACs from ABC continues to lead in markets like America
and Middle East they are unable to create the desired pull and gain target market
share in India due to premium price, lack of proper distribution network and low
visibility in the market.
Refer exhibit 1 to understand the market share of key players of Split ACs in
India.
You are expected to give out of box marketing solutions which should be
efficient, implementable and cost effective to address the key challenges and to

gain market share in India. Also identify the target groups and mention the
promotional activities to be carried out to attract and retain the target groups.
The solution should be in such a way that it develops ABC brand equity in India
and also it should improve ABC market share in Split ACs.

Exhibit 1: Market share of key players in India in %

Competition
LG
Voltas
Samsung
Daikin
Blue Star
Fujitsu
Mitsubishi
Electric

Market Share
in India
18.1%
15.6%
11.1%
10.6%
8.6%
1.5%
1.0%

What to Submit:
One-page slide highlighting the solution addressing all key challenges
Rules of Participation:
The team must consist of 3 participants
All participants must be from the same campus
In case the approach gets shortlisted, we would share the detailed case
and the team would require to make a detailed face to face presentation
All information provided in the case is proprietary and must not be used
in any other form (Classroom case study etc.,) on the campus or outside