Satoshi Kawada - Toshiba Gulf FZE Managing Director & Corporate Representative MENA region & Santosh Varghese - Vice President, Toshiba Gulf
Toshiba Gulf FZE (Regional Corporate Representative Office of Toshiba Corporation) has marked the first anniversary of the “KIOXIA” Memory brand launch in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) with a stunning display on Burj Khalifa on 22nd June 2021 Visitors at the landmark destination and thousands of viewers from across the world watching the live stream, witnessed the iconic Burj Khalifa projecting the dynamic colors of the KIOXIA product portfolio.
The company hosted the celebration with COVID-19 protocols in mind, ensuring that all attendees have been vaccinated and are strictly adhering to health and safety measures. The live event opened with a welcome address by Toshiba Gulf FZE Managing Director & Corporate Representative MENA region, Satoshi Kawada, and was attended in person by over 100 KIOXIA business partners from across the region. Santosh Varghese, Vice President, Toshiba Gulf,
addressed the audience, highlighting the key regional achievements of KIOXIA in terms of marketing campaigns and distribution strategy over the past year.
“Driven by our passion to push the boundaries and produce extraordinary innovations, KIOXIA has witnessed remarkable achievements in the past year,” said Santosh Varghese, Vice President, Toshiba Gulf. “While KIOXIA was rebranded in October 2019 from Toshiba Memory, our journey started way back in 1987 when Toshiba engineers invented the NAND flash memory. Our commitment to innovation did not waver since then, and in 2007, we unveiled the world’s first 3D flash memory. This strong legacy combined with our passion and market expertise is what empowered us to confidently launch KIOXIA in the region last year despite the global pandemic.”
Toshiba Gulf’s Regional Manager – Storage, Bastian James also gave a product presentation, sharing several key updates from the company’s portfolio. The evening saw the company present the KIOXIA Star Awards for Outstanding Performance to Memory Technology Company (UAE & KSA), Ashtel Electronics (UAE & KSA), Redington Gulf (GCC), Al Futtaim Electronics (UAE Retail), Roshini Enterprises for South Africa and Mitsumi Computers for East and West Africa. Carrefour UAE & Lulu UAE in the retail category. Global Computers in the dealer channel category.
KIOXIA, formerly Toshiba Memory, was officially launched in the region last year. It features a comprehensive portfolio of consumer products including microSD/SD memory cards, USB memory, and SSDs that are all uniquely designed to enable end-users to store their digital way of life wherever and whenever they want.
With product marketing led by Toshiba Gulf across MEA, KIOXIA saw an exciting year of brand development. It achieved significant market awareness of 42% in UAE, 34% in Saudi Arabia, and 27% across the rest of the region, which the company attributes to its aggressive and holistic marketing strategy. As part of its extensive marketing drive, KIOXIA implemented a 360-degree marketing strategy. It covered digital/print, OTT, social media, radio, TV, and outdoor advertising as well as a variety of Below the Line (BTL) activities.
“Among the most notable aspects of the activation was our corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign, which focused on promoting COVID-19 health and safety awareness and supporting essential, frontline workers,” said Varghese. “We also conducted multiple virtual channel training programs to ensure that our partners are well-versed with KIOXIA’s offerings. Last, but not least, we launched the KIOXIA SMART App, which provides an instant repository of content resources useful to consumers and sales staff.”
KIOXIA’s brand equity soared during the last 12 months, further differentiating its portfolio through innovation and strategic planning.
“We are heading towards an increasingly connected world, where huge volumes of data will be generated, and great amounts of storage will be needed. Toshiba and KIOXIA, together with our highly driven and proven channel partners, are well-equipped to enable customers to address this global requirement,” added Varghese.
KIOXIA was spun off from Toshiba Memory Corporation in October 2019
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