Brand Croma makes a debut

Croma, the multi-brand retail store from Tata, has stepped into manufacturing of electronic products, under the brand Croma.

Now, apart from retailing products of other electronics brands, Croma will house products developed in-house as well.

Croma will be an addition to the brands that are already present on the floor of a Croma mega-store and will compete with those brands. Ajit Joshi, managing director and CEO, Infiniti Retail, in an address to the media, says, "We will continue to help the consumer make the best buy."

In this period, 31 Croma stores have been launched throughout India. Presently, according to plan, stores have been inaugurated in cities such as Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Within the next five years, the brand aims to make its presence felt in Tier 2 and 3 cities as well.

Indians still consider the purchase of electronics products as an investment, and it isn't an easy task to gain their trust in this segment. In this situation, the task of making the consumer aware that apart from being a multi-brand store, Croma now also manufactures these products, is nothing less that daunting. Joshi explains to afaqs!, "The mega store is a different brand and the product is a brand by itself. And we will build this brand."

Brand Croma -- that is, the electronic and consumer durable products -- came about after consumer research. The manufacture of these products has been carried out at the same factories, where the world's best brands are manufactured, says Joshi. The products include split air-conditioners, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, blenders, laptops, kettles, toasters and several other products that the company will include as and when the time is right.

A launch campaign has been planned for the brand. Though Joshi refused to divulge any more details, the campaign that has been created by its agency, Lowe Lintas, is expected to break sometime soon, considering that the festive season is round the corner.