BWI: Nikon India Revamps Retail Strategy

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Nikon India
Thursday, June 11, 2009 12:00 PM IST (06:30 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Business services, Electronic appliances & components, Retailers; Technology
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Nikon India Revamps Retail Strategy
Launches India's First COOLPIX Compact Camera Zone

New Delhi, Delhi, India, Thursday, June 11, 2009 -- (Business Wire India) -- With an aim to be `within an arm's reach', Nikon India has revamped its retail operations to strengthen its network. The Indian market has been especially significant for Nikon and therefore the company has adopted the shop-in-shop retail concept to reach out to its consumers. Today, Nikon launched its first COOLPIX consumer camera zone at Memories, Sarojini Nagar, New Delhi.

"Distribution is not just about a physical network, presentation of products is also very crucial. We decided to develop Nikon's exclusive COOLPIX Zones in retails stores which will improve the quality of the store and greatly enhance retailer-customer interface." said Mr. Hidehiko Tanaka, Managing Director, Nikon India, "We plan to start up more than 100 such exclusive zones in key markets like Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, UP, Maharashtra, Assam & Gujarat. Being vital and primary to Nikon's consumer outreach strategy, the company will invest over 60% of its marketing spend on this shop-in-shop concept.

At the exclusive COOLPIX Zone, consumers will get to touch, feel and experience the entire range of Nikon's compact cameras along with expert guidance and technical know how, all under one roof. For this Nikon has trained in shop promoters at Nikon's Head Office which is based in Gurgaon, before being deployed in the market. These promoters have been imparted an in-depth training on each technicality of a product. In addition to this the company has also put in place special technical team at its branch offices in Mumbai & Kolkata. The company plans to hire and train 200 in shop promoters by the end of the current financial year.

Most importantly, this zone empowers consumers to obtain first hand information on entire range of products and make an informed choice. Nikon exclusive COOLPIX zone is an attempt to provide customers with an interactive and informative shopping experience. The company is looking forward to a positive response to this retail enhancement from the consumers.

In the early part of 2009, Nikon had established its exclusive D-SLR Zones in Delhi and Mumbai for professional and armature photographers.

About Nikon India

Nikon India distributes markets and services the complete range of Nikon imaging products, including its Nikon D-SLR as well as its compact camera, the Nikon COOLPIX and a range of NIKKOR lenses and service and repair of Industrial products. These include microscopes and technical measuring instruments.

January 2009 saw the launch of Nikon's flagship D3X professional Camera with resolution as high as 24.5 megapixels which can be used for very high level photography followed with the introduction of eight COOLPIX compact cameras in April 2009. In May Nikon launched D5000 that is a 12.3 mega pixel camera which not only captures photos and high-def movies, but also sports a unique Vari angle LCD monitor. This is the world's first DSLR camera with a 450 degree rotating screen.

With offices in Mumbai, Kolkata and another one to be opened in the southern region, Nikon is strengthening its distribution network all across India. The company has established two new ASCs (authorized service centers) in 2009 in addition to thirteen existing in 2008, making it a total of fifteen, and is looking forward to further expand the service base so that our customers can enjoy our complete service support.

Nikon has also recently set up exclusive DSLR zones in Delhi and Mumbai which showcase the entire range of DSLR cameras, NIKKOR lenses and an elaborate COOLPIX range of compact cameras. The zones allow consumers, both professional and amateurs get to touch, feel and experience the Digital SLR Cameras with combination of lenses and other accessories providing expert guidance, technical know how all under one roof.

Nikon has achieved more than 30% share in the DSLR cameras segments and 5% in the Compact camera segment in India, which is way above the target set for the year.

Nikon has had an extremely successful tenure in India so far with increasing sales and fame. In 2009, Nikon has won twelve awards under various categories, with the recent being the NDTV Tech Life Award 2009.

Nikon Corporation: Japan

Founded in 1917 as Nippon Kōgaku; the company was renamed in 1988 as Nikon Corporation. Nikon has truly evolved as an institution of creativity in imaging arena, Semi conductors, Industrial Equipments and specialized in optics as well. Nikon technologies are active not only in Nikon's core products such as cameras, microscopes and IC steppers/scanners, but they also squarely support innovation in leading-edge science, and they contribute to the development of society and industry as a whole.

Nikon Corporation, Imaging Company announced the worldwide launch of Nikon Next (www.nikonnext.com). Nikon Next site will serve as a new type of imaging gallery for the exhibition of works taking electronic visual displays as the final means of expression in a wide variety of formats, including still images, movies, text and audio, and Flash files, by established artists in the photography industry along with up-and-coming photographers and imaging artists who will serve as the backbone of the photo imaging culture to come. Visitors to the site will be able to search works by artist name or shooting location.


CONTACT DETAILS
Namrata Bhalla, IPAN, +91 9873169803, Namrata.bhalla@ipan.com
Tanya Singh, IPAN, +91 9910085036, Tanya.singh@ipan.com

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, MARKETING, BUSINESS SERVICES, ELECTRONICS, RETAIL, TECHNOLOGY

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