SWOT analysis of Onida

Onida is a maker and seller of various types of televisions based out of Mumbai, India. The company also manufactures washing machines, microwave ovens, and air conditioners. The company has a wide network of sales and distribution across India and also exports their products to China and the Middle East.

The company has a total turnover of 270 million USD as of the financial year 2017 and around 1500 employees. The company envisages to adhere to the Make in India model and aims to provide unmatched customer experiences through its wide array of products.

The company won the hearts of millions of Indians through their popular television advertisement featuring the devil with the tagline “Neighbours envy owners pride”. The company had to face stiff competition in the recent times and this resulted in a lot of losses. However, the company has got a new lease on life with an image makeover and a new product portfolio.

Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Onida

Strengths are defined as what each business does best in its gamut of operations which can give it an upper hand over its competitors. The following are the strengths of Onida :

• Foray into other product categories: Onida has recently forayed into other consumer durable product categories thereby diversifying their risk. Currently, the company has the maximum revenues to the tune of 62 percent from television while 40 percent is contributed by washing machines. The remaining comes from the microwave and air- conditioning products.
• Visionary leadership: Onida is a product of the vision of. Mr. GL Mirchandani and Mr. Vijay Mansukhani in the year 1981. The leaders have never been complacent and seeing that the television business would falter they moved into other areas. This timely decision helped the company face the risk of going obsolete better.
• High-quality Sound: Onida televisions were always popular in the market primarily because of their superior sound quality.The television by Onida was also known for high clarity of visuals. These factors have also helped them retain their sales in the LCD segment.
• Customer understanding: The customer has always been the focal point in the marketing mix of the company. Their products, pricing, and advertisement have always been driven by the deep understanding of customer needs.
• Great advertisements: Onida for the average Indian is always synonymous with the devil and his sinful smile. The tagline “neighbours envy owners pride” captured the mindshare of the Indian customer and even today the brand has the very high recall.

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Onida

Weaknesses are used to refer to areas where the business or the brand needs improvement. Some of the key weaknesses of Onidaare:

• Low margins: The company has been trying to increase the margins but owing to problems in the environment such as increasing costs, an introduction of GST and demonetization and the general turbulence in the financial environment Onida has been hugely unsuccessful in making adequate margins.
• Low selling new products: Onida has launched more than  40 new models from 24-inch to 55-inch, resolution HD, FHD, UHD, televisions with sophisticated sound systems and has focused on energy efficiency in all its television models.They have also launched a fully automatic washing machine. However, none of these new products have registered significant sales.
• Low focus on global markets: The company has been mostly focusing on India and their products are catering to the Indian requirements. However, the market has been evolving and current products need to cater to global standards but this is where Onida is losing out.
• Time to market: Technologies are changing rapidly in the consumer durable market and the customer has no dearth of choice. The customer loses interest quickly and thus the time to market is critical.Onida is unable to keep up with the fast pace of the industry and is slow to catch up on trends. This is creating a lot of issues for the business.

Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Onida

Opportunities refer to those avenues in the environment that surrounds the business on which it can capitalize to increase its returns. Some of the opportunities include:

• Positive consumer behavior trends: The customer today has no time but a lot of money to spend on especially in the urban population. This is creating a surge in the demand for machines for almost all household needs and each of these new need is a new opportunity for Onida.
• Steep growth potential in APAC region: The CAGR for consumer durables is expected to be around 12 % globally and the fastest growth will be in the APAC region.New technologies like artificial intelligence and IoT will fuel the increase in demand.

Threats in the SWOT analysis of Onida

Threats are those factors in the environment which can be detrimental to the growth of the business. Some of the threats include:

• Competition: The main competitors of Onida are LG, Samsung, IFB, Whirlpool etc.
• Threat from private labels: Many retailers today in addition to dealing with companies also manufacture their own private labels. This is creating a huge threat for most brands in consumer durables segment.