“Every Person Has a Unique Story”- Says Nidhi Markanday Head CDIT from INTEX

Nidhi Markanday, Head CDIT ( Consumer Durables & IT Accessories) division at a PAN India level  at Intex Technologies (I) Ltd. Equipped with 15 years of extensive experience in strategic business planning, marketing, sales and channel development, Nidhi has played an integral role in transforming the consumer durables &IT accessories division to a significant revenue driver for the company.

In addition to her current role as the head of CDIT, Nidhi oversees Intex logistics & retail operations, closely monitoring all purchasing plans and activities in line with the organization’s marketing goals & overall business objectives. Armed with a degree in office management from YMCA, Nidhi joined Intex in 2001 after a two-year stint as a coordinator with a health insurance company, E-Meditek Solutions.

Having been with Intex for more than 12 years, Nidhi is also instrumental in identifying promising new channel partnerships and strengthening distribution networks. Over the years, Nidhi has effectively groomed her team and is able to drive a judicious balance between strategy and deadlines-based execution as a part of her core approach to collaborative and visionary leadership.

Nidhi believes that every person has a unique story to tell. In her spare time, she enjoys travelling to exotic locations, absorbing different cultures and developing sustained relationships with people from different walks of life.

Where is your main market at present— within  India or beyond?  (As your reachability in other 70 countries).

Nidhi Markanday: Intex Technologies is spread across 70+ countries and has set momentum everywhere. Given the development of various markets, the dynamism of Indian market has been most favourable so far. We see majority traction here and in order to cater to the demand we have a vast distribution channel for sales. The distribution network comprising 1100+ distributors and 50,000+ dealers spread across the country. We strategize in order to offer the best to the people of different countries.

What is the competitive situation in India & foreign market? 

Nidhi Markanday: The industry is going through a lot of changes in terms of acceptability, marketing spends & demands of the customers. Our mantra is simple – understand the need and offer superior quality products at inimitable price points.

Do  you develop the  innovation  production  technologies yourselves or just simply buy from China with  your printed labelling? (As you have your own R&D department)

Nidhi Markanday: Innovation is the key element at Intex Technologies. Since its inception in the year 2004, the Research & Development wing of Intex both in India and China has been setting global standards for all its products. The R&D department has a very comprehensive list of Technology and Design demonstrators. Intex has created a landmark in audio listening pleasure by being the 1st company in India to launch the ‘CLASS D’ amplifier circuitry which takes music to the Digital Realm. Intex has also introduced Power supplies in Multimedia system, MP4 video playability, India specific USB/MMC/FM module with in-house Software development & USB charged / Li-ion Battery based Mini Multimedia systems. The R&D centre in China is well equipped with modem facilities and highly qualified engineers looking after product development, pecifications, benchmarking, quality up-gradation, technology development and all kinds of technical standards required by different countries & testing labs. This activity ensures that state-of-the-art products are offered as per the latest global standards. The R&D center is equipped with modern exclusive machines & technologies.

What’s your largest revenue generating medium, traditional distributors & dealers or Hyper markets chains, speciality stores, TV shopping channels & e-commerce sites?

Nidhi Markanday: Intex has a strong distribution networks across the countries it is present in. All mediums play an important role in terms contribution to the total revenue generation. While we have exclusive tie ups with the major e-commerce websites in India, our distributors and dealers contribute to the share that is generated from the tier 2and tier 3 cities.

Apart from IT accessories & mobiles, what’s the contribution of your consumer durables like washing machine & networking products? Does Indian people know about this product line, as there is no marketing?

Nidhi Markanday: While, our mobile business contributes the most to the total revenue. Our CDIT business is also doing well and contributes as much as 25-30% to the total revenue. This year we are projecting 800 crore from CDIT business.

How do you position yourself between your competitors & what’s your competitive advantage among rivals?

Nidhi Markanday:  Intex Technologies has a vast portfolio of offerings ranging from mobile phones (across segments), speakers, washing machines, furniture. We are possibly the only Indian company that is present across different industries and that speaks about our understanding of the Indian mind-sets and our customers across these industries. This alone is big differentiating factor besides the fact that we provide superior quality products at fine prices.

What’s your strategy to expand?

Nidhi Markanday: Today, it’s not about simply offering high quality products. Buyers look for brand ambassadors and activations crossways. Therefore, we plan to invest in marketing besides investing in R&D. For our mobile business, the focus this year will be south market and for our furniture business we plan to expand in North India. Our other business are spread across India and the idea is to invest in R&D and manufacture class products at never-before.