'Logitech products are a combination of technology, innovation and design'

Marcel Stolk was here to launch the MX 700 series of Logitech cordless mice.
In an exclusive interview to DQCI, he firmly expressed his views that India has
great potential for cordless devices. His belief comes from the success that he
created for Logitech in a highly price-sensitive country like Spain. He
successfully managed to sell Logitech’s premium products in the midst of
Taiwanese invasion with low-priced products. Marcel is also responsible for
worldwide  product support and Logitech’s supply chain from manufacturing
toend-user.

India amounts to 13 percent of our APac revenues and we are targeting a 15 percent CAGR in the country

Marcel Stolk, Sr VP, Worldwide Sales and Marketing, Logitech

How good is the acceptability for cordless products in India?

Selling a cordless device has always been a problem worldwide. The same
holds true for India as well. Cordless is not something that is new. We are in
the cordless business for the last 10 years. It is only in the last four or five
years that it has become affordable. But it is still considered to be a product
with a premium on its price.

Why should one go for a cordless device when a corded alternative exists
at just one-tenth of its cost?

Many people want to have a nicely-designed product on their desk. Cordless
products are well-designed and look appealing on your desktop, without the
jumble of cords. Design is also getting important now-a-days because the PC is
moving into the living room, especially with flat screen monitors becoming
popular. If you look at my desk today, there are no cables, except for the one
attached to the monitor.

Cordless devices carry a premium today. Yes, there will always be a market
for entry-level products for those who are not willing to pay for premium
products. Like in the car market, there are people who just look for four wheels
and a steering wheel to go from place point A to B, and some people look for
something extra. It is the same with our product range too.

Do you think cordless products are ready for mass market?

Yes, it is already gaining wide acceptability across the world.

What about India?

In India also the sales of cordless devices is picking up gradually. We have
also seen that customers here are becoming quality and style-conscious and are
going for the latest and trendiest of products.

What is your strategy for competing with the large number of similar
products that are available in India?

Competition no doubt is there as there are so many ‘Taiwan Inc’ products
in the market. However, 12 years ago, when we started operations in the European
countries, we faced a similar situation. I was very much there at the start of
the Dutch operations in 1989-90.

Holland was very price-sensitive country, and that was a time when lots of
Taiwanese companies were ruling with very low-end mice. We promoted a very
high-end mouse, educating customers about the message of user benefits. In a
short span of time after that, the Taiwanese products disappeared from the
market. Of-course, they are still there in the entry-level market. But, now it
is more a game between reputed brands.

What percentage of business comes from cordless devices?

I don’t have the exact figures, but I can tell you that we have sold
around 27 million cordless products so far. Most of the sales have happened over
the last four years. So the cordless business share could be around 20 to 30
percent now.

In the mice segment, we have shipped around 400 million units, including OEM
supplies, till now. One of the points that need to be highlighted is that we
reported an 84 percent growth in the sales of cordless desktop in the first
quarter of the current fiscal.

Who is your nearest competitor?

On the mice side we have two competitors. One is, what we call, the
"Taiwan Inc" and the other one is Microsoft.

And what is Logitech’s marketshare?

We don’t have the exact numbers as nobody is tracking these figures, not
even IDC. But from our own figures we can say that we are at #1 position with
around 40-45 percent. We have also been recognized as the top performer in the
list of fastest growing tech companies released by the US publication Business
2.0.

How much of Logitech’s business comes from OEM sales?

On a worldwide basis, our OEM business contributes to nearly 20 percent
revenue-wise.

How much is India’s contribution to Logitech’s overall business?

India contributes around 10 percent in the APac region and has the potential
to become a larger market. We feel our customer base includes everyone who owns
a PC. Presently there are seven million users in India.

India is a cost-conscious market. How do you plan to address this market
with premium products?

It is true that India is a cost-conscious market. But where does price count–Take
for example a country like Spain, which is also very price-sensitive. Spain has
the same sort of installed PC base as in India. But we sell four times more
dollar per installed base PC in Spain than we do in India. At the same time
India has got a much larger population compared to Spain. And so we see a big
potential in India to be successful in this product range.

Who are you target customers for this product range?

We have the home office, people on-the-go those who are traveling with
mobile products and the living room PC users.

What is Logitech’s overall USP?

Overall, it is technology, innovation, reliability and design. Design plays
an important role. People want to have something nice, so in brief it is a
combination of all. You can’t have a nicely-designed mouse that doesn’t
work.

There are many other cordless mice with RF technology in the market. What
is so unique about the patented technology call Palomar that is being used in
Logitech cordless mice?

It is true that there are many RF mice in the market, but the way we use our
RF technology in culmination with battery consumption is quite unique. With our
patented Palomar technology batteries run longer on our products with no effect
on performance.

NELSON JOHNY in Mumbai