AKAI, with a Japanese heritage dating to 1929, is one of the most recognised consumer electronics brands in Asia. During an exclusive interaction with Mr. Anurag Sharma, MD & CEO, AKAI India, highlighted the brand’s inception, product range, initiatives tailored for Indian consumers, and their brand’s vision.
As a foreign brand, what specific strategies and customer-focused initiatives has AKAI implemented to build trust and loyalty among local consumers?
While growing and nurturing AKAI India, our priority was to understand the Indian customer needs. Leveraging our 1929 Japanese legacy, we aim to build trust-based relationships by offering products at an ‘honest pricing’ rather than the lowest price. We are achieving sustainable growth through an optimized on-ground distribution network across metros, Tier 2, 3 towns, and beyond. To build confidence, we scaled to 1,200 service centres across Bharat, covering 19,000+ pin codes. Aligning with the ‘Make in India’ cause, local manufacturing improves lead times and cost competitiveness. Additionally, targeted market operating pricing enables last-mile retail partners to deliver value and build grassroots customer loyalty.
How has your leadership style influenced the company’s direction and culture at AKAI?
Honestly, more than my leadership, I’d like to rephrase this as ‘How we, collectively as the AKAI India team, have built our culture?’ We repositioned ourselves from a low cost to a quality for price brand with a fresh paradigm of Honest Pricing.
Can you describe the AKAI’s new range of products, their target segments and what sets them apart from previous offerings?
We innovated our LED TVs with colour optimizer technology aiding colour vision deficiency. Our new PowerView TVs now offer stunning visuals, seamless AI, and immersive sound. AKAI washing machines are designed as a ‘spa’ for clothes. The NXT air conditioners withstand 55-degree heat, featuring built-in ayurvedic and PM1 Nano filtration for home wellness. Refrigerators revived Direct Cooling for unstable power, while new-age wireless audio targets the generation on the go. This premium ‘better up’ repositioning towards Japanese-inspired, value-driven offerings sets us apart. We call our customer segment RUR-URBAN (the rural urban) encompassing buyers who are aspirational yet price conscious, seeking quality as their right. We aim to address the value gaps across cities and town in Bharat.
How does AKAI ensure that customer feedback is incorporated into product development and service improvements?
AKAI’s service centres and distribution networks act as ground-level feedback channels to capture post-sales issues and quickly iterate improvements. We use service data and field-feedback as intelligence to improve reliability, product-market fit, and influence the future product decisions.
What is AKAI’s USP, and how does it differentiate the brand in a competitive market?
AKAI’s USP is the Japanese ‘Mottainai’ philosophy, integrating Honest Pricing with value-driven quality. We differentiate through this value repositioning, robust distribution and after-sales networks, and local assembly managing cost and serviceability.
What growth potential do you see in local manufacturing, particularly with regard to consumer durables in India?
Growth is driven by a rising aspirational middle class demanding better appliances. Key factors unlocking this demand include pro-local manufacturing government policies, falling component costs, improving supply chains, and distribution expansion into Tier-II/III towns. Additionally, omnichannel retail lowers acquisition costs through data analytics, while sustainability expectations push product upgrades, promoting innovations that drive new product cycles.
What challenges did AKAI encounter during its early years in establishing its brand presence and competing with local and international players?
Akai’s past market exits created trust deficits, requiring us to rebuild partner and consumer confidence. Heavy global and local competition made differentiation challenging, forcing a strategic shift away from ‘cheapest’ price positioning. Additionally, establishing distribution, service networks, logistics, and local assembly required resource-intensive capex and working capital commitments.
What is the vision of AKAI for the next 5 years, and how do you plan to navigate the changing landscape of the electronics industry?
The next five years are an opportunity for us to regain meaningful market share by focusing on broad category presence, stronger brand positioning, and deep retail and service networks. Our path forward will be to continue category expansion of appliances beyond TVs and washers, invest more in localized manufacturing & assembly and service, push omnichannel distribution (online + offline), and maintain value-for-price product design to capture the large Bharat growth.
Covered By: Mobility India / Akai India
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