“Truke seeks to deliver innovation-laden products at low prices”
Although it’s a very new player in the personal audio segment, Truke wants to make it big in India with a number of products lined-up to be launched this year. Truke, which claims to deliver the best tech-features at remarkably low prices, has some aggressive plans with regard to expansion of mobile accessories segment. Ramesh Kumar Raja talked to Pankaj Upadhayay, Founder and CEO, Truke, to discuss the brand’s outreach and investment plans in India. Excerpts:
How are you positioning Truke in India which already is a hyper-competitive market? Truke was formed in the month of December 2019 and since then it has made a definite mark in the Indian sound-ware segment. The mobile accessories are a highly unorganized sector with an incredibly huge gap between the price margins of reputed brands and lesser known ones. We seek to tap into this void by offering the same quality and experience of high-end brands but at a significantly lesser price. Our brand philosophy revolves around delivering the best tech-features and innovation-laden products at remarkably low prices.
You have a very limited number of products to offer. How has been the response so far and what’s your product-expansion plan to make Truke large? We have launched five unique models comprising 2 TWS earbuds and 3 neckbands. We managed to sell over 30,000 units until the COVID-19 pandemic struck which halted our operations for a while. Then as the situation gradually improved, we witnessed our second product launch in July when we unveiled a new TWS model, Truke Fit Pro, which has clocked over 7,000 units until now. Now, we plan to launch 10 more models -- 7 TWS and 3 neckbands – and we also aspire to venture into the mobile accessories segment, furnishing world class
USM cables, chargers and wired earphones at amazing prices.
We also envision incorporating advanced technologies such as
AI and noise-cancellation in our devices in the future.
Which are the areas you are targeting and whom do you consider your potential buyers? We primarily cater to customers aged between 14-45 who seek high-performance feature-rich products that compete with the best names out there in terms of quality and are yet affordably priced. We further seek to expand operations in the western, southern and northern zones of the country, looking to scale our presence at a pan-india level. Our prospective customers range from those who appreciate true sound and beauty such as acoustic professionals, techies and audiophiles.
What is your approach to the after-sales service? All our products come with
a one-year warranty on the condition that the customer must register online on our social media channel or through e-mail within a span of 10 days after purchase. Any discrepancies in product performance are dealt with our service team personnel who duly arrive to repair or replace after the customer signs up online. Though currently we do not have any physical service center, we are in the process of opening about 50-100 service centers in the near future depending upon our sales projection.
What are your outreach and investment plans and which platform you are going to exploit more- online or offline? We are currently focusing on an exclusively online outreach through effective social media and strategic PR campaigns. On the investment front, we are allying with the pioneering vision of PM Narendra Modi’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. We also envision collaborating with various manufacturers post September 2020 and opening production of different set of products for offline channels by December 2020 based on the market outlook. While as of now, we exist solely through the online channels of commerce such as Amazon, we aspire to shift 40 % of our sales to offline channels by September this year. We are presently active in countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia besides India.n
ramesh@mymobile.co.in