Published on November 22, 2021
The Textile Machinery Division (TMD) of Voltas, a Tata enterprise, has created a best practice of gathering market intelligence at trade shows and symposiums. Kalyan B Maiti, Senior Product Manager, TMD, Voltas, threw light on the practice in an EDGE webinar on November 17, 2021.
Voltas' TMD is an end-to-end solutions provider for the textile industry. It brings products and services of leading global brands across the textile value chain. Voltas brings over 15 brands as an agency to India's textile manufacturing domain. Over 70 per cent of India's yarn is produced on machines delivered and serviced by Voltas TMD. The company has been a leader in the segment for the last six decades.
Gathering market intelligence has been a significant contributor to the company's success. During the webinar, Mr Maiti explained how Voltas' sales and marketing team systematically collects vital information about its competitors at trade shows and symposiums.
The activities to gather information about the competition includes:
- Understanding the competitions' products and their features by visiting their stalls
- Studying the product literature distributed by the competition
- Finding out the key differentiators of the competitions' offerings
- Understanding the competitions' product positioning
- Finding out the price bands where the competition has positioned its products
- Engaging in an informal discussion about competitions' products with stall visitors
The intelligence gathered is suitably analysed further to:
- Understand the external business environment
- Update the principal brands on competition's activities
- Devise and refine the sales and service strategies
- To assist new product development
The fascinating details of the best practice prompted many invigorating questions from the attendees.