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Fujifilm India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Fujifilm Corporation was�set-up two years back, in 2008, to strengthen its operations in the market. The iconic photographic company was in the limelight with the shutterbugs grabbing their technological advancements recently with the launch of 14 new models of the digital cameras, at once, taking the Indian market by storm.

Talking to Media Mughals, Fujifilm India’s Country Manger for the Digital Imaging business, A. Rajkumar, discussed about the 75 years old company’s new digital business with focus on the business model being adopted by the company to have a firm foothold in India.

Q1. How do you perceive the word, "Technology", as in the digital cameras?

If at all we have to rephrase the word technology for the consumer – it is what is delivered to them. Technology is generally more of an appealing word to Research & Development (R&D), but for a consumer it is more of what is being delivered to them. That is what Fujifilm is also about with their 75 years of experience in the photography industry. We are, first, trying to�develop intelligent technology and eventually make that technology look very simple to the consumer. The consumer is not keen to know what the technology is and how it works; he is more interested to enjoy the outcome of the technology.

Q2. In the 75 years of experience, Fujifilm initially began with the production of the “films” that�are used for mastering in movie-production. So is the vertical still in operation?

Obviously we are still continuing with the Film business, maybe we’ll be the last company to exit that brand because it is the core of the Fujifilm Corporation’s business and we are the inventors of this product line. We would like to continue with it till as much as possible and there are still some markets where it’s still very active and very alive. We would like to be present there.

Q3. Being in operation for the digital cameras segment for two years has Fujifilm India set up R&D centres in the nation or they still are limited to Japan?

As of now the R&D centres are based only in Japan and as far as operations in India are concerned we don’t need production facilities in India. As the world of economies work out, we have pooled in all our resources in one place where quality people are working with the raw materials to converge everything. The idea of operation in India is to gather all the market intelligence and provide it to the factory in Japan in order to derive feasibility of numerous products based on the requirement of the consumers.

Fujfilm has been regularly collecting the customer feedback since the beginning of the digital camera business in India. The product development team works to get the feedback from the target audience here, then the feedback is fed into the R&D team in Japan where they start to develop the product accordingly. When you have R&D at a centralised location and the pool of information you are able to create more interesting outcomes, we believe.

Q4. Fujifilm India started with the digital business when recession was wounding the economies globally and industries facing the brunt with falling revenues. How has the company fared during the time?

If you go back, there are two industries that never got affected by the recession – mobile and digital camera. Why!, because these were never thought as an optional or a high-lifestyle product. Digital cameras have become almost as a standard or a basic product today.

For instance, in earlier days, one camera was owned by the entire family, today, I think almost each family member possess one camera. The reasons influencing this habit is a combination of two factors�– one is the purchasing behaviour and other is the change in the global trend. A digital camera which once used to cost around Rs 20,000, today is available at around Rs 5000 being more reachable for the consumer.

Q5. How has been the journey for Fujifilm during the past two years in India, which actually is a cluttered market with veteran players like Nikon, Sony, Canon already having a more firm foothold in the digital camera segment?

We’re finding it very interesting, at same time it is, of course, very challenging, but there is enough potential in the market. So, we are focusing on "how well we are able to communicate" to the end-customer of what we have and definitely the customer is going to be convinced as well. I think that’s how it happens with every brand which is new in the market and the progression starts.

As for the Indian market is concerned, consumers are highly appreciating our technologies and products. We are getting lot of referral customers as well as channel partners. Eventually "word of mouth" is expanding our market in India. After two years of operations in the digital camera segment in India we have garnered 5% market share already.

Q6. What are the distinctive features being offered by Fujifilm to the Indian customers that you would like to highlight?

In this quarter we are trying to highlight a couple of things. One is that all our range is HD movie or HD image, from low-level camera to a top-end, which is a big advantage to our consumers. Second, we are talking about a range of cameras that have resolution varying from 12 megapixel to14 megapixel. Third, we have a range that offers optical zoom that of 3x, 5x, 10x or 14x. At same time we are trying to incorporate different intelligent features such as Pet Detection, Blink Detection, Motion Mode, Scene Detection, Tracking AF, etc., in our product portfolio.�We are also offering a range of digital cameras that have been devised to deliver the experience of that of a professional DSLR or SLR camera to the professional photographers.

Q7. The current portfolio of digital cameras being offered by Fujfilm is in the still format. Is the company planning to roll-out video cameras sometime in near future?

Talking about the video cameras, we have integrated the feature of HD video-capture in all of our product line. So, nowadays customers need not look at still camera and video camera separately. With one investment they are able to capture both in the same gadget.

Q8. How do you see competition from the smartphones which are emerging as the new-age photo-capturing gadgets?

Taking digital camera into picture, the technology has not opened yet. While, there is a difference between the photo-capturing capabilities of that of a camera integrated in the smartphone and a dedicated digital camera. Besides, Fujifilm is investing in the R&D putting the 75 years of expertise in use to deliver intelligent technology which is consumer friendly, simple and safe.

Q9. What are your further plans for expansion in the Indian market?

India is still a virgin market with huge scope and large consumer base. We have already made investments in the first phase of establishing the infrastructure with our sales office.

This year we would be making up to Rs 22 crore of investments for brand communication by having aggressive consumer promotion. The focus would be to be highly communicative with attractive products specs and value for money for the consumers. We will be making use of ATL & BTL activities, online promotional tools as well as plan to launch a TVC by year-end.

We will also be conducting training programmes for our channel partners so that the consumers have a more enriching knowledge before making a purchase.

We garnered 5% market share by the end of the fiscal year 2009-10 and we look to double it by the end of next fiscal with having a presence in almost 6000 stores across the country.