Distribution Strategy of a Global Firm in an Emerging Market: The Case of 3M India

Debasis Pradhan and Niladri Kundu
Additional contact information
Debasis Pradhan: Xavier School of Management, XLRI Jamshedpur, India
Niladri Kundu: Lenovo India, India

Asian Case Research Journal (ACRJ), 2016, vol. 20, issue 01, 219-251

Abstract: 3M had an entire portfolio of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) targeted at the large industrial customers. These were high priced, premium quality products which 3M India enjoyed a dominant market share in this segment. The demand for such products was facilitated by the fact that big clients were more aware of the Occupational Health and Environmental Safety (OHES) implications at the workplace.3M traditionally capitalised on its business strategy of differentiation. This helped it charge a premium on its products to its customers. Having catered to large industrial customers since its entry into the Indian market, 3M had developed its marketing channel to improve its revenues from this target segment.With economic liberalisation, the smaller B2B customers who belonged to the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) category also became aware of OHES. This segment was very price conscious and did not have preference for any brand. PPE was another overhead for them and they would opt for any product that addressed the safety concerns and at the same time keep costs down. In order to build a presence among them, it was necessary to build an intensive distribution network with a strong sales force. Ubiquity of the brand was essential to gain market share. Another important consideration was competitive pricing compared to prices to the existing players. Both the factors together were expected to help 3M consolidate its position as a supplier of PPE for this segment.3M had never been a player on the price front. The price war that 3M had to constantly indulge in while targeting the SME segment was not its forte. The decision on whether to go for a comprehensive rollout was itself questionable. Introducing low price products in the Indian market would lead to cannabilisation of the high end PPE. A pertinent question was how much of this inevitable cannibalisation would be acceptable without impacting the revenues.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0218927516500085
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:acrjxx:v:20:y:2016:i:01:n:s0218927516500085

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0218927516500085

Access Statistics for this article

Asian Case Research Journal (ACRJ) is currently edited by Lau Geok Theng

More articles in Asian Case Research Journal (ACRJ) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().