Canon recently launched the Canon Image Lounge in Gurgaon to give customers a display of Canon products in a non-selling environment. The photographic and digital imaging solutions company has plans to expand the presence of its tech outlets in Bangalore and Mumbai shortly. Canon India’s president and chief executive Kensaku Konishi spoke to Ruchika Chitravanshi about the growth plans of the company and its agenda for 2008. Excerpts:

What has the response been so far to the Canon Image Lounge?

It’s been very encouraging. On weekdays, we have been getting around 300 visitors and on Sundays the number goes up to 600 –700. About 2.5 per cent of the customers end up purchasing a product the same day as well. At these centers, we introduce the lenses, machinery, accessories and other Canon products to our customers.



Are you planning to launch more such outlets?

Certainly, we have one in Gurgaon at present. We plan to launch the Canon Image Lounge in Bangalore in the beginning of July and another one in Bombay in September, depending on the weather conditions.

What was the idea behind starting the Canon Image Lounge?

Traditional Indian stores put product on their shelves. The customers doesn’t get a good opportunity to try the product and check out its functions. We see demo models but then there are no good objects to shoot. At these centers, we not only have good objects to shoot but also have a printer facility to demonstrate our “shoot and print” capability.

We learned about your plans for the government. Would you throw some light on that?

The government has big buying power. It invests in areas such as education, IT and infrastructure. We are trying to build our market share in government sales department in office equipment, input devices and we want to get into this very heavily, both for state and the Union

government.

What is the focus area for Canon at present? Any plans to enter any new vertical?

Right now, our focus is on production and graphic art division (PGA) in the digital colour printer area. Offset printing is being replaced by digital printing and demand is growing. Digital printing is quick and it is easy to make changes. As for any new launches, in the second half of the year, we would be launching a series of new products in the PGA category.

How do you find markets differing from each other within India?

Generally speaking, I think the customers in the North are rather conservative and traditional compared with their southern counterparts who are more embracing and love new gadgets.