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LUNCH WITH BS: Ravinder Zutshi

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Bhupesh Bhandari New Delhi
Last Updated : Jun 14 2013 | 4:04 PM IST
 
Have you heard of Samsung?" Pradeep Kumar Dhoot had asked Ravinder Zutshi, in 1994. The Dhoots were planning a joint venture with the South Korean company and introduce its brand in India.
 
Before taking a final call, Dhoot wanted to know the opinion of his head of marketing for north India..
 
Zutshi vaguely remembered hearing the name in 1982, during the Asian Games rush when some Samsung TVs were flown into the country.
 
After that, there had been nothing to report. In spite of his lukewarm response, Dhoot asked Zutshi to carry out a market research to check whether or not the brand stood a chance in India.
 
Little did Zutshi know that for the next 11 years, he would do little else but sell Samsung TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, air-conditioners, IT products, microwave ovens, mobile phones and home theatre systems in the country.
 
Though Samsung's turnover in India is smaller than that of arch rival LG, Zutshi, the deputy managing director of Samsung India, looked a satisfied man as we sat at a corner in Empress of China, the Chinese restaurant at Hotel Parkroyal at Nehru Place.
 
"Our aided brand recall is over 95 per cent. Discerning customers such as Amitabh Bachchan buy only Samsung," he said.
 
I had little reason to doubt the claim, having seen Zutshi on television a few days ago at the Samsung IFFA awards at Amsterdam along with the Bollywood superstar.
 
"We also had a cricket match there; I was part of the Shah Rukh Khan XI. We lost by 26 runs to the Hrithik Roshan XI."
 
The company of stars was still showing on his beaming countenance.
 
"How did you ensure that everybody who won the award remembered to thank Samsung and not LG in the excitement," I got curious as soon as the soup was served.
 
"That couldn't have happened," Zutshi laughed, "In fact, Karan Johar said he would faint if he had to say Samsung one more time."
 
Talk to people in the consumer electronics market about Zutshi and they will tell you that he is an excellent human relations man.
 
This started coming across as we moved on to the starters: golden fried babycorn, steamed fish and chicken.
 
Samsung, Zutshi claimed, had lost only two people to LG in the past 10 years, while the reverse flow was far greater in numbers.
 
Also, he claimed to know, on a first name basis, over 75 per cent of Samsung's 2,500 dealers in the country. "In the northern markets like Punjab and Haryana, I know 95 per cent of the dealers by their names," he said with quiet pride.
 
To understand how Zutshi's mind works, it is interesting to know where he spent his formative years. After working for Philips for 11 years, he was approached by Dhoot who had just launched Videocon and wanted to expand to the north.
 
Zutshi knew that though Philips had excellent systems in place, it was constrained by various restrictions that were then on multinational companies.
 
At the same time, he was captivated by the raw energy and entrepreneurial drive of Dhoot. But it was an unknown company. Still, he decided to take the plunge. (Nabankur "Nabi" Gupta, his boss at Philips, who tried hard to stop him, himself followed Zutshi a few months later.)
 
Videocon, at that time, was up against BPL that had a huge brand equity. The Dhoots then decided to play the game differently "" work on the dealers to push the products.
 
In 1989, Videocon created history by taking all its dealers to Singapore. This was the first time an Indian company had taken its dealers abroad.
 
The Dhoots had taken special care to take a vegetarian cook along. In 1991, Videocon chartered two Cathay Pacific flights and took 650 dealers to Japan.
 
A caterer with hot vegetarian food followed the party wherever it went in Japan. In 1995, select dealers were given Mercs to drive.
 
The strategy paid off and Videocon grew from strength to strength. In fact, in 1991, it had come close to acquiring Philips' lighting business.
 
Zutshi has carried on with the strategy ever since he joined Reasonable Computer Solutions Ltd in 1995, a Dhoot company into which Samsung first bought a 51 per cent stake and, subsequently, the entire 100 per cent.
 
"When we launched Samsung in December 1995 at Agra, we took 120 dealers there by air. For the first time, spouses were also taken along," he said.
 
Since then, he has flown hundreds of his dealers to Cricket World Cup finals at Johannesburg and London, the historic India-Pakistan series and various other expensive overseas locations.
 
"How do you work it out financially? Of course, airlines and hotel would be giving you fabulous discounts for such large bookings," I asked as we dug into the main course of crispy fried lamb, fish in oyster sauce, vegetable noodles, and a gravy of corn seeds.
 
"It is simple. We start holding back some of the other incentives. Dealers just love these overseas trips," he said.
 
Still, he counts the formation of "Team Samsung" as his biggest marketing coup. "LG had bagged the World Cup. We had to do something desperately. That is when we thought of Team Samsung. All nine players we had chosen were in the team," he said.
 
For all the inspiration, I wanted to check how well he understood the Dhoots. "How do you think they will take the Electrolux Kelvinator acquisition forward?" I asked.
 
"They will use the Kelvinator brand in the north and the west and Allwyn in the south. Electrolux will have a premium positioning." The surety in his words was unmistakable.

 
 

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First Published: Jul 12 2005 | 12:00 AM IST

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