Tobacco(Cigarette Industry)

India is the world’s third largest producer of tobacco and a very large consumer of tobacco products. Over 40 per cent of the tobacco consumed in India is in the form of bidis. Cigarette accounts for 15 per cent, while rest is divided between chewing tobacco, pan masala, hookah, snuff and other mixes. Around 80 per cent of smokers are located in urban India, while rural market continues to be dominated by bidis.

The free trade pact among SAARC nations led to easy availability of foreign cigarettes. Cigarette market consists of premium brands like Marlboro, Rothmans, State Express 555, Benson & Hedges, Dunhill and Camel.

Cigarettes is a highly concentrated sector with very few companies engaged in this business. ITC, the largest Indian tobacco products manufacturer, alone controls about 82 per cent of market share. Followed by other major companies like Godfrey Phillips India (9.7 per cent), VST India (4.9 per cent) and GTC Industries (2.4 per cent).

The industry is pre–dominantly domestic, exports being a small proportion of production. Cigarettes are classified as filter cigarettes and non–filter cigarettes. Filters help to remove 90 per cent of the nicotine content and 75 per cent of tar and other toxic materials. It also ensures no change in the original
flavour of the cigarette.

Office Automation

Source: Various Sites and Research reports
IT hardware, primarily the desktop, has been driving for the new economy. Starting from wealth creation to improving quality of life for all sections of society, it has been one of the major contributors to the Indian electronics hardware. The computer segment is one of the fastest growing segments of the electronics industry.

The copier market in India is valued at Rs. 850 crore and is a highly competitive one. The market offers huge potential as the overall penetration of copiers hovers just around 26%. The market is dominated by a few but strong players like Xerox, Canon, (Ricoh) Gestetner, and HCL Toshiba.

Demand Drivers: The demand for paper oriented office equipment products like facsimile, photocopiers, and printers is considered to be on the decline with the advent of Internet and efficient electronic data transfer, marketers are ruling out the possibility of a paperless office in India and see a huge potential for their product range.

The drivers for demand are: -

Government: Government organizations are large buyers of copiers, as the bulk of their daily work requires complex documentation. Most of these organizations are over staffed, and thus generate large quantities of hand-written paper, copies of which have to be stored in multiple locations. Also Government organizations haven’t yet responded in earnest to electronic documents and thus have not seen a considerable decrease in copier demand. The potential for copiers is relatively high in this segment as a typical Government firm seems to have a need for decentralized copiers (a separate copier for each department).

Service Industry: Among the non-government organizations, the most paper oriented is the service industry, like banks, which requires a greater degree of documentation. However, this market is declining steadily.

Jobbers: This is the segment of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It comprises both corner shop photocopying services and full-fledged documentation management centers, servicing retail customers. Metros and active business areas have a high concentration of Jobbers, who service the retail customers. Copier companies consider this segment as steadily growing in size, and hence are setting up business centers and franchisees to meet the documentation needs of the retail customer.

Corporate: This is an important segment for any marketer (comprises IT and non-IT companies: both MNCs and non-MNCs). This segment is characterized by a comparatively higher penetration of the Internet. Therefore, to survive in this segment, any marketer needs to be customer service oriented as well as quick enough to introduce the latest technology to meet ever-changing end-user requirements. This segment, typically, seeks for a multi-task device that can design, transmit, store, retrieve, colour, print, copy, merge, scan, and fax etc. The Digital range of copiers (multi-task / multi-functional ones) are likely to have a great potential in this segment. Increasing market pressures have led to slicker advertisements, brochures, user’s manuals, and proposals, which in turn have influenced the demand for colour copiers. As against the rest of the user segments, both the colour and digital copier segment are growing in this segment. Though the small office segment (SOHO – Small Office Home Office) is largely a Printer-oriented one, it offers a good potential for combo machines that can print and copy, and multi-task / functional copiers.

Long-term value, superior technology and comprehensive customer support are the universal themes for any marketer to survive in this market.
Superior quality of copy/print, high levels of network compatibility, and higher speed are other key factors one would look out for in a copier.