Beetel, announced the launch of its new smart accessory brand ‘Flix’ – a Make in India venture. Beetel set forth this initiative distinctly around Independence Day, emphasizing the significance of home-grown brands and with a promise to give momentum to the Make in India move in the country. In an Interaction with DeviceNext Editor Jayanta Ghosh, Mr. Puneet Gupta, Business Head of Flix shared the roadmap and brand ideology.
Q. Congratulations for your new role, can you explain bit about your new role in Beetel
Thank you for the wishes team DeviceNext. In my new role at Beetel, I have been given the laurel of launching a new brand in India – Flix by Beetel. The brand and my combined efforts will be focussed towards the intersection of technology, fitness and music. I shall be focussing on implementing an omni-channel distribution network approach for Flix which will accelerate the aim of achieving 5% market share by end of 2021.
Q. You have a huge experience in the mobile accessories space, can you tell us what are the biggest changes in this category from consumer behaviour to products ( your analysis)
The Indian consumer market is one of the fastest growing markets and counted amongst the early adopters of new technology. The rapidly increasing penetration of internet even in the remotest areas has accelerated the use of smartphone and also mobile accessories. With these dynamic changes in the technology market, consumer consumption has also witnessed a multifold change.
Today’s consumers are active as well as tech savvy. They are constantly in the search for the latest technology and hence are willing to experiment. Consumer purchase decisions today weigh heavily on content, reviews and ratings, influencers and the cost factor. More and more new product discovery platforms are emerging in today’s digital world. Product that address the pain points of consumers will sustain in the market regardless of the brand name.
Q. Tell us more about Flix what exciting things we can expect from this new brand.
Flix is a new age lifestyle accessories brand for the masses that is based on three tenets:Technology to be friendly, Interface to be interactive and Design to be delightful. Our foundation is heavily laid on the #MakeinIndia ideology and we are working towards the same by manufacturing in India itself. For our Indian consumers, we have an exciting line up of truly incredible and remarkable products from Flix. Under our iconic brand Beetel, we have been operating in India for 33 years and with the strong grip on the pulse of Indian consumers I believe our products will be loved by the masses.
Q. What are the biggest challenges and opportunities for Flix in Indian market? As this is a new brand.* Can you shed some lights on the product portfolio for Flix.
The biggest opportunity for Flix is the vacuum for a truly Indian brand in the smart accessories space. With our experience and legacy we aim to fill that gap and fulfil the aspirations of the Indian millennials and the Gen Zs. In terms of challenges, given the time and the situation we are in because of the pandemic, the global supply chains are getting altered leading to higher lead times, the offline market is witnessing a tough time because of the strict lockdown and consumers are much more willing to buy from the online platforms. By the end of 2021, you will see 200 SKUs under Flix brand.
Currently we are all set to launch its range of smart accessories products in the Indian market. The wide range of products encompass the truly wireless stereo (TWS), neck bands, Bluetooth (BT) speakers, earphones, bar studio for home and mobile accessories such as chargers, power banks and cables.
Q. 2020 is a very challenging year for every businesses, how you are looking to expand you brand (online/offline/ marketing etc.)
Businesses have always been challenging. However, this year we have witnessed many unforeseen circumstances on top of the existing challenges. The large scale disruptions and the strict lockdown in Q1 had brought all the business to a standstill.
Analysing the current situation, the best suited method we have zeroed down on is the omni-channel approach. In a country like India where demographics change after every 100 KMS, a swiss-knife approach is required. We have an existing relationship with the e-commerce giants duo of Amazon and Flipkart. The offline market which consists of the modern trade and general trade – we expect our 60% revenues to come from offline and remaining from online. Our width of distribution (WoD) target is 10,000.
A product is as good as its distribution. And our distribution network will help us in our expansion.
Now, for most of the other Indian brands the revenue is heavily dependent on online sales (>65%) and general trade is the weak link in their business. We are going to follow a contrarian approach.
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