Blue Star launches a comprehensive range of affordable ACs in line with its mass premium positioning
Blue Star, India’s leading air conditioning brand, today unveiled its range of ‘affordable-yet-best-in-class differentiated’ split ACs, for this summer season. Overall, the Company has launched nearly 50 models across the spectrum of inverter, fixed speed, and Window ACs.
The Company’s strategic repositioning as a mass premium brand began in 2020, with the roll-out of a range of affordable split ACs to cater to price sensitive consumers and first time buyers, especially in the Tier 3, 4, and 5 markets. Thereafter, the Company’s focus has been on reinforcing this transition by a calibrated focus on all aspects that determine success in the mass premium market:
- Powerful features and the premium build quality expected of any Blue Star product have made Blue Star’s product range complete and broad-spectrum.
- Despite the rise in input costs, the Company has also managed to offer these products at attractive price points by intelligent cost-saving measures.
- Blue Star has supplemented its product and pricing strategies with robust distribution and service mechanisms whereby the product range including its after-sales service is available in all Tier 2, 3, 4 and 5 cities and towns as well as Tier 1 cities, so as to reach the mass premium markets effectively.
- The Company has significantly strengthened its D2C presence through special offers on Blue Star’s online shopping portal.
- Virat Kohli continues to be Blue Star’s brand ambassador for the Company’s residential ACs. Virat’s strong mass appeal has been enabling the Company to connect to and widen its target group. The Company’s latest TV commercial featuring Virat Kohli is curated around the thought of ‘Happiness is a fast-cooling AC.’
- The Company has an expansive manufacturing footprint and is further setting up a new state-of-the-art, highly automated, manufacturing facility at Sri City. Besides, the Company’s R&D facility is one of the best facilities in India, and is equipped with an AHRI-certified testing lab.
- Appropriate promotional methods have been adopted, both, online through aggressive e-commerce marketing investments, and offline through brand stores, roadshows, and demonstrations, to ensure visibility across all tiers to increase offtake from retail outlets and online stores.
- Blue Star also provides extended warranties and easy financing for its products.
Underpinned by the Company’s efforts, Blue Star continues to make steady inroads and has consolidatedits position as a mass premium brand.
Since the Company’s foray into the residential ACs segment in 2011, Blue Star has grown from strength to strength in this segment, outperforming the industry year after year and is targeting a market share of 14% in 2022.
Range of split ACs at ‘Highly-Affordable’ prices
Blue Star offers a range of ‘Best-in-Class’ split ACs at ‘Highly-Affordable’ prices, which are of the same high quality, reliability, and durability, which all products from Blue Star promise. The range comprises 3-star, 4-star, and 5-star inverter split air conditioners that are available at attractive prices starting from Rs 30,990. The ACs are available in various cooling capacities ranging from 0.8 TR to 2TR. So everyone can now bring home affordable, high-quality and efficient cooling with Blue Star’s ACs!
The range is embedded with various customer-friendly features and specifications such as‘Turbo Cool’ for fast cooling; ‘Fix & Lock’‘for convertible 5 in 1 cooling; Nano Blue Protect Technology and Hydrophilic ‘Blue Fin’ coating,for both IDUs and ODUs, to preventcoil corrosionand leakage,and for longer life, respectively; ‘Eco-Mode’ for energy-saving; ‘Comfort Sleep’ function that auto-adjusts the AC temperature during night time for better comfort of occupants as well as for power saving; 4-way swing for uniformity; and ‘Self-Diagnosis’ for easy troubleshooting. Besides, these ACs have a metal enclosure for their PCBs to ensure additional safety.
Another important aspect of Blue Star’s inverter ACs is that they have a wide operating voltage range, thus eliminating the need for an external voltage stabiliser. While this results in savings on the cost of the stabiliser, it also does away with the need for space to mount one beside the AC.
The entire inverter range uses R-32 eco-friendly refrigerant.
Fast-Cooling ACs
Blue Star offers a range of ‘Fast-Cooling’ ACs. India being a tropical country is subjected to extreme summers. The urban heat phenomenon further increases the temperature in urban areas. While a typical air conditioner delivers its rated capacity at 35°C and derates at higher ambient temperatures, Blue Star offers ACs which can deliver 100% cooling even beyond 35°C for up to 43°C, resulting in faster and more efficient cooling even in peak summers. Happiness is indeed a fast cooling AC!
Heavy-Duty ACs
The Company has made available a range of top-of-the-line ‘Heavy-Duty’ ACs which are extremely powerful, and can deliver 100% cooling beyond 43°C for up to 55°C. Available in the 1.7TR capacity and expandable upto 2 TR, these 3-star ACs with an ISEER of 3.99, the highest in the category, are apt for Northern India, and some parts of Western and Southern India, where summers are extreme and require extremely powerful cooling.
Super Energy-Efficient ACs
The Company offers super energy-efficient 5-star inverter split ACs with an ISEER of 5.41, which are 55% more energy-efficient compared to 3-star inverter split ACs. These are apt for applications where the AC usage is very high, especially with the emerging trend of work from home.
Future-ready ACs
Most of the 3-star inverter range of Blue Star is future-ready which means that it meets the new energy-efficiency norms of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency that will come into effect from July 2022. This ensures that these are 10% more energy-efficient as compared to the current 3-star norms, maximizing power savings for consumers.
Smart ACs
Blue Star offers a range of Smart ACs with WiFi connect and Voice Command Technology, which can be integrated with other smart devices such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home. A simple voice command, like “Alexa, Switch on the AC” can turn the air conditioner “ON,” without any use of the remote or smart phones. These ACs are embedded with smartpersonalisation and controls such as: a Scheduler to schedule your preferred time; the ability to control your AC from anywhere, from your office or any remote location; ‘Over the air updates’ to always remain in sync with the latest software improvements; Seamless integration of service to provide efficient cooling using self-diagnostics and alerts; and smart budget management; amongst others. So one can enjoy smart cooling with Blue Star’s smart ACs!
Further, all Blue Star inverter ACs are Smart Ready and can be upgraded to Smart ACs by the addition of a separate smart module.
As an expert in cooling, and as a 78-year old brand that is ‘Built on Trust’ of its customers, Blue Star’s air conditioners are well known for their quality, reliability, and durability, as well as the gold standard after-sales service. The Companycontinues to ingeniously improvise its product and service offerings to suit varied customer segments across all tiers.
Management outlook
Speaking to the Press at a conference held in Chennai, B Thiagarajan, Managing Director, Blue Star Limited, said, “We continue to diligently curate our product and price mix to cater to the entire spectrum of residential ACs market.With our constant focus on R&D and manufacturing, we are confident of rolling-out productsofferingimmense value for money. A staunch believer in Aatmanirbhar Bharat, we had already expanded our indigenous manufacturing in Himachal Pradesh; and are further scaling up our manufacturing operations by setting up a new world-class manufacturing plant at Sri City backed by the PLI scheme by the Government of India. With the fading of theacute phase of the pandemic and the likely pent-up demand for ACs this season, we are highly optimistic about the prospects, and are looking forward to a great summer