Company Overview
Schaeffler India, established on April 27, 1962, as Precision Bearings, is a member of the FAG Group of Germany. Schaeffler India is one of the leading manufacturers in the Indian Bearing industry and a leading Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in the automotive sector, serving various industrial domains, i.e., mechanical, electrical, as well as railways.
Its range of products includes deep-groove ball bearings, four-point bearings, self-aligning bearings, spherical roller bearings, and tapered roller bearings. The company is established in Pune, Maharashtra and has Mr. Harsha Kadam as the CEO & the MD and Mr. Satish Patel as the CMO. Schaeffler India has a revenue of about USD 0.76 billion every year that reflects a solid market and business level.
Key Challenges
Even with its strong performance, Schaeffler India does have some ongoing strategic challenges.
- Limited Digital & Social Media Engagement: While Schaeffler India is active in the digital space and maintains a digital presence, the engagement and consistency of its content on social media could have a more consumer-oriented approach in a more dynamic way.
- Need for Stronger SEO Performance: The company has good traffic performance and keyword rankings on its website, but not particularly strong. Improving its SEO can have an immediate impact on site visibility with B2B and B2C audiences.
- Broader Brand Recognition: Schaeffler has primarily served customers in the industrial and automotive space and has relatively limited recognition with smaller businesses and everyday consumers.
- Digital Transformation Adaptation: Much like other traditional manufacturers, adapting from traditional marketing techniques to a fully integrated marketing strategy, which is all digital, is a fundamental process that is gradual.
Strategic Responses
Schaeffler India has deployed several strategies to improve its market presence.
- Segmentation and Positioning: It is focused on leading industrial players and automotive OEMs and positions itself as a brand associated with innovation, reliability and sustainability.
- Marketing Campaigns: The global image campaign that began in 2020 reached over 170 million people globally and had an especially large impact on visibility in the Asia-Pacific region.
- Digital and E-commerce Presence: Schaeffler also has brand stores that feature products and has also partnered with e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart to sell.
- Sponsorships and Brand Collaborations: The company has successfully reached a different audience through sponsorship of sports teams like Puneri Paltan for the Pro Kabaddi League.
Results & Outlook
Schaeffler India has delivered robust outcomes from their marketing efforts, like improved brand awareness, digital visibility, and reaching new audiences, while web traffic has also steadily improved. In the upcoming years, Schaeffler India is also focusing on increasing its digital transformation efforts through greater emphasis on content marketing, increased SEO performance and considered online engagement. As India is also known as the new hub for automotive and industrial industries, Schaeffler’s work on sustainability, technology and mobility solutions will continue to adopt development and leadership in the industry moving forward into the next decade.
Gireesh Sharma
Director, Manufacturing Industry