India market entry strategy for home care provider

Abstract

A global homecare company based out of the U.S. plans to make a market entry into India. This is part of the strategic plan of the company to expand its operations across various countries. Its recent foray into the Chinese markets has not shown the response as expected. Therefore, before entering into Indian markets, the company seeks to understand the market potential, demographics, homecare cleaning habits and the value proposition required for Indian consumers. The Indian market for vacuum cleaners is relatively small at INR 1.9 bn in 2011 when compared to market potentials of various developed economies. The floorings in Indian homes are hard and usage of carpets is very rare. The Indian homes predominantly employ servant maids to clean the house every day. As more and more nuclear families are emerging and both couples go out for work, there is a possibility of having to clean the homes themselves as there would be no one to supervise the work of the maid during the day. Hence the people in the home may have to clean the homes themselves. However, these working couples are more focused towards their career and less down time, a convenient alternative to cleaning homes may be an attractive segment to target. The secondary research on the Indian vacuum cleaning industry shows that the growth potential is enormous. The potential industrial earnings is expected to be INR 24 billion. Given the attractiveness in the market, primary research through focus group discussions, surveys on floorings & focus group discussions and home visits were done. Based on the insights received from the primary research we find that the value proposition to the Indian consumers must be around convenience. The product must be supplement to the traditional cleaning. As usage of chemicals in home cleaning was not observed as a deterrent, the company can investigate entering the market with cleaning liquids. The product must be a versatile & durable and it should be usable for multiple purposes to clean hard floorings in India.