HCL is facing challenges in the growing Indian laptop market. Research was conducted through interviews with retailers and customers to analyze HCL's position. The findings showed HP and Dell have 29% and 24% of the laptop market share respectively, while HCL only has 11%. Reasons for HCL's low popularity included a limited product portfolio and less spending on marketing compared to competitors. The research recommended HCL focus on metro cities with fast growing laptop sales, leverage its existing desktop distribution channels, and invest in new design variants to appeal to youth customers.

1. HCL facing challenge in the
laptop market
By
Aditya Chaturvedi
Nikita Baheti
Nikita Sapra
Priyanka Dwivedi
Teena Bansal
Shradha Sethi
Varun Kumar

2. Market research includes:
• Identify research
• Literature research
• Research methodology
i.
Research design
ii.
Sampling
iii.
Data collection method
• Data analysis
• Findings

3. Defining research
How to consolidate their position in the laptop space and
to build its laptop sales in 2010-11 to survive the major
structural changes that were taking place in the rapidly
growing Indian computer marketplace

4. Literature research
• HCL’s business in desktop market
• Consumer behavior
• Marketing strategies of hcl

5. Research methodology
• Research design:
Exploratory research and qualitative research used Since
there is no specific course of action. The objective of this
research is to analyze the market for the popularity of
HCL laptops

6. Sampling
• Probability sampling is used
Sample size :100
Stratified samples are taken
Two samples made one of retailers and another of
customers of sample size 50

7. Data collection method
Types of data being collected
Primary data through structured questionnaire
Secondary data through company and internal
reports,government records like
IMRB,VIKALPA,Advertising agencies

8. Data collection techniques
•
•
•
•
Observations
Interviews
Documents and reports
Audio visual materials

9. Data analysis
• Percentage of customers
using particular brand of
laptop
Sales
Reasons for low popularity
OTHERS
15%
SONY VAIO
8%
HP
29%
LENEVO
13%
DELL
24%
HCL ME
11%
• Limited portfolio
• old-fashioned practices,
• problems of spending on
marketing and communication
compared to its multinational
rivals

10. Reasons to choose particular brand
Analysis
• People gives more preference
to good service when buying
laptops
• Faster delivery is a low-cost
(for HCL) but high-value (for
consumer) proposition.
• HCL can offer over Dell is a
quicker delivery time of the
finished product using local
manufacturer

11. Percentage showing most popular brand
• HCL, being a company with
strong functional credibility, is
quite unsuccessful in the
laptop category, because each
and every competitor is
constantly trying to compete
• The company cannot reap
expected profits out of its
strong market position as the
category is highly
commoditized

12. Percentage showing better after sales service
• Laptops are purchased more
on brand image, style, and
entertainment than mere
functionalities and durability
• If HCL can assure the delivery
in a week or ten days against
Dell’s three to four weeks lead
time, this will definitely
become a strong decision
making criteria in favour of
HCL.
• To fight with the prominent
player, Dell, HCL needs to play
in the platform of Service
Differentiation

13. Observations
• Dell, in spite of doubling its ad spend and higher
saliency of ad spends, lost market share in 2009.
• Lenovo, in spite of reduced ad spends, gained
1.3 per cent share
• Laptops have a better acceptance and are
growing faster in the metros
• HCL is struggling on ROM and the multiplier
and is certainly not among the front-runners

14. Findings
• HCL is growing at a healthy rate in the laptop
segment but has not been able to leverage the
network for laptops.
• MNC brands like HP and dell have a wider range
in the valuefor-money entry-level laptops with
more variants, as well as being perceived better
on quality
• Both Acer and Dell have a wide product portfolio
in the entry-level segment

15. Recommendations
• It is apparent from the Case that the future scope for laptops
lies in the top 4 cities (which grew by 73%) followed by the
rest of India (48%); hence HCL should focus primarily on
these geographies.
• HCL should use its strong desktop distribution infrastructure
to increase its laptop distribution width in traditional channels
• It needs to consistently appeal to the youth with new design
variants so as to build a strong pull
• HCL needs to make sharp choices between investing in
R&D, design, product portfolio, innovation