Daikin future is adopting the Indian marketing mantra

 

Daikin industries the world’s largest air conditioner maker, with annual sales of ¥ 2.3tn (£16bn), is depending on Kanwal jeet Jawa, head of Indian operations, for the next phase of its global expansion. They are trying to use a novel way and break new ground in East Africa after its success in China and India. In June 2018, Jawa became one of only two foreign executives to join the group’s board.

 

“The decision has been taken that for all the emerging markets, we should replicate the Indian model” Mr Jawa said in Tokyo

Mr Jawa joined Daikin to steer its Indian operations in 2010, the Japanese company was a minor participant behind Carrier of the US and Voltas of the Tata group., two companies for which Jawa had worked.

Within five years Jawa has positioned Daikin as the industry leader in India.

His future targets are Africa and Middle East, where Daikin will aim to raise sales from ¥ 66bn last year to ¥ 90bn by 2020.

 Daikin has started promoting its future on overseas growth, expanding rapidly in Europe, China and South-East Asia to become the world’s largest air-conditioning maker after facing a shrinking home market.

In 2006 a ¥ 232bn deal to buy Malaysian rival OYL, which had a strong presence in the US,. Still Daikin did not climb into the top   in the US until its £2.9bn acquisition of Goodman Global in 2012.

 When Jawa was headhunted, Daikin was perceived as a brand for rich people with industry leader LG Electronics of South Korea penetrating the market in India selling to the masses with pricing 40 per cent lower than offered by Daikin.

 Since then the price premium of Daikin air conditioners in India over top rivals has shrunk to 109-15 per cent.

“When we positioned the top Daikin product with discounted right price, customers leaped to buy it” Jawa said

From 2010 to 2017=, market share rose sevenfold to 14 per cent.