South Korea’s LG is planning to use the “window of opportunity” provided by the recent political mood in India to stage a comeback in smartphones market, targeting the sub-Rs 15,000 segment. The company is seeking to scale up local manufacturing by 15 times until Diwali and expand distribution. The sub-Rs 15,000 segment will be LG’s focus for 2020 because of the reduction in consumer spending due to Covid, along with strong online presence and offline expansion in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
Diverging from its global portfolio, this year, LG is building an ‘India-specific and India-first’ product portfolio to cater to unique consumer demands. For local manufacturing, LG, is in talks to partner with an Indian contract manufacturer and will apply for the product-linked incentive (PLI) scheme under which the government offers 4-6% incentive on incremental sales of smartphones by any company over the next five years. LG’s successful resurgence will depend on aggressive marketing across channels, according to industry analysts.