Introduction India continues to be predominantly controlled by semi automatic washing machines that possess roughly 55% of the market share in the washing machine category. Panasonic is yet to catch up in the washing machines category as it currently controls only about three per cent of the Indian market. Although Panasonic deals with both these categories, currently it produces only the automatic washing machines in its domestic facilities and imports the rest. The company understands well that there has been little segmental shift amongst its urban consumers from semi-automatic to automatic. It continues to battle with the typical apprehensions of Indian housewives with respect to operating such machines. In a recent interview, Manish Sharma, Managing Director, Panasonic India expressed, “We were expecting a growth of 72 per cent over last year’s festive season but we ended up seeing 56 per cent growth over last year. The season was mixed for us, we saw good business from bigger cities and higher end products however distribution in smaller cities was a dampener.” Company History Roughly over the past two decades, LG and Samsung have retained their strong market share in Indian household appliances. For about a decade, the Korean brands seemed to have pushed out Japanese ones such as Panasonic, Sony and Sharp. An important strategy employed was increased visibility across diverse product segments, and not just sticking to the washing machines space. Also, these