After so many months of market slump, partners are happy that the festive season or the current quarter (OND) will bring back some semblance of positivity. Already, people have started talking about the upward trend in the market with the schemes and promotion freebies in place, it will certainly push the market. Most of the vendors including IT and Telecom are participating in this season. This is an opportune moment when the channel partners can be supported for making some good margin for them. This act will also help the principal partner equally. The principal building block provider Intel starts it with great enthusiasm. The company has the Intel Flex+ program as a loyalty program for all Intel channel partner members worldwide. In the OND quarter, new reward categories will be introduced in the Flex+ program for the channel partners in India.
There are also a host of other festive promotions in the form of assured gifts and lucky draws targeted towards PC buyers through our retail channel partners. Sandeep Aurora, Director – Sales & Marketing, Intel, South Asia, says, “The special schemes help in building momentum for the products in the channel. However, at the same time, it is important to create a pull and drive demand for the products for our consumers and therefore we have consumer-focussed promotions along with the channel schemes.”
Shailendra Sarup, Associate Director – Channels, Office Business Group, Xerox India, says, “We have planned channel schemes for this quarter on our A4 printers and multifunction devices. These schemes will be open for all our channel partners.” The company has the “Wanna be Free” offer on A3 -5016 model. The highlight of this offer is that when a partner buys 30 units of 5016 machines, he gets 4 units of 5020 absolutely free. That is a cool saving of approximately Rs.2.5 lakh to the partner.
Similarly, networking vendor D-Link has three different schemes running, i.e. “D-Link Premier League” – DPL, “Secure Switch Promotion” – SSP and “Sales Incentive Program” this time.
Jayesh Kotak, Vice-President – Product Management, D-Link (India), says, “D-Link Premier League (DPL), an exclusive nationwide channel promotional scheme that gives partners an opportunity to fly to places like Hong Kong / Thailand or win many other exciting rewards. Sales Incentive Plan (SIP) is targeted towards providing an opportunity for Sales champions of SIs promoting D-Link products and Secure Switch Promotion (SSP) offers switch and firewall bundle at a competitive pricing.”
On the other hand, Acer India has mapped out the entire festive season in India starting from 18th September all the way into Decedmber. S. Rajendran, CMO, Acer India, says, “This is supposed to be the biggest retail months in the Indian context. Acer is fully geared up across the board to ensure we have a whole range of exciting end customer offers along with incentives for our trade partners during this time period.” Currently, Acer is running a cashback offer, which has been operational in the market since the 8th of October (right up to the 20th of October), and offers Rs.1,000/- cash back upon purchase of any Aspire series of Notebooks (select models).
Acer has also completed an attractive channel scheme called the “Shubha Lakshmi” which consisted of Gold as a reward to partners and this was over and above all normal monthly schemes which they already leverage on. The month of September has been the most profitable ever, since Acer began operations in India and we are acknowledging the efforts of our channel partners by conducting prize distribution functions across 12 cities.
The promotions obviously offers extra margin and enhances the profitability of the channel during this period.
All Xerox schemes are centred around the tier-2 partners. They will be executed through Xerox tier-2 partners. Tier-2 partners will ensure that they run these schemes with their set of resellers.
Compared to this year, last year the global slowdown news was trickling into India during the last year’s festive season. Consumers were wary of investing at that time. Now, the vendors are well past that phase and they are in a phase of stability and growth in some sectors. Shailendra of Xerox is optimistic that the consumers should open up to spending in this festive season. This year will be definitely better than last year.
Xerox is launching the 3100 series of laser multifunctions. The company is planning to run slab based schemes for channel partners on these models so that their retention improves when they buy these products. The company will be running an attractive gift scheme on Xerox supplies. They will be giving gifts like wrist watches, MP3 players, cellphones, digital cameras, etc. on the purchase of select toner cartridges. This will be applicable on all purchases made by the customers from our authorized premium partners.
D-Link is promoting these schemes amongst the channel community, including Channel partners, SIs, VARs, etc. These schemes are applicable on products purchased directly from D-Link regional distributor/national distributor “Ingram Micro” or Business Resellers who are spread all over India.
According to Jayesh, “Worldwide, the last quarter of each year has usually been the most active in terms of sales promotions and increased consumer expenditure. Hence, festive schemes certainly help gain momentum and this trend is expected to continue even during this season.
Large format Retail (LFR) is one of the focus areas of D-Link and the company is working very closely with its retail team to further expand its business in this segment. Currently, D-Link has its presence in all the major LFRs in India. The company has also appointed promoters at various retail outlets to provide first-hand information to end-customers, along with the regular promotional & POP activities.”
D-Link ensures that this festive season, channels should focus on ensuring product availability across all categories. Aggressive pricing and offers should be extended to attract walk-ins and ensure conversions.
The festival season, though comparatively low, has brought a ray of hope in the IT market. The various schemes announced by D-Link to attract the customers will enable its IT retailers to forge ahead in the competition. The IT channel players have been banking on the festive buying and the market is slowly picking up with mood during Diwali being a bit optimistic.
Festival season is the best time to buy high-priced products due to the number of schemes and offers available in the market. The festive season is the time when accumulated purchases take place.
As far as Acer is concerned, the company works with a partner network of over 2,500 channel partners and 275 retail partners in over 140 cities and towns. The company aims to reach out with its attractive festive schemes to customers across many target groups in the most effective manner.
S. Rajendran, CMO, Acer India, says, “We will use a substantial portion of our marketing budgets during the September to December period since this is the peak consumer buying time. The company is working on a 360-degree approach strategy to its market campaign focussed on reaching out to consumer profiles across geographies and consumer touch points. It is to remember Acer has an extensive product range across all categories, including laptops, desktops, display products, etc.” The company is also planning to launch the Windows 7-based systems in the market in October, which is expected to provide a major boost to consumer sales during the last quarter. There are also some new product launches being planned during the last quarter. Rahendran adds, “Our focus during the festive season would be to ensure that across categories we provide the latest technology platform SKUs and keep our pricing and offers aggressive to gain maximum share.”
Belkin, the leading global provider of interconnectivity solutions across computing and consumer electronic devices, has started celebrations of Diwali with its big announcement of the special Diwali offer under “Belkin Sparkling Diwali “, bringing smiles to all its consumers. The offer says, with every Belkin product, customer will get a scratch card, which needs to be scratched and redeem the gifts.
Under “Belkin Sparkling Diwali”, when you buy any of the Belkin products from the nearby dealer, the consumer gets one scratch card. S/he just has to scratch the card to see what Belkin has gifted you this Diwali. Belkin’s Diwali bag has a lot of exciting gifts to offer, including some bumper prizes like Zen Estilo, Bikes, 32” LCD TVs, Home Theatre systems and a lot of mobile phones as well as thousands of pens and key chains, which could be redeemed instantly from the retailers. For high-value prizes, the agency needs to be messaged or called and the gifts will be delivered within 15 days after the confirmation from the agency on presenting the invoice. This scheme is valid from 1st October, 2009 and will continue to make you lucky till 31st October, 2009.
Apart from this, Belkin has also engaged the very popular radio channel 92.7 Big FM to air a contest from 12th October across 13 cities, including metros and tier-2 cities, wherein the winner will be getting these scratch cards and a chance to be lucky.
“Diwali is one of the most-awaited festivals in India and it heralds a shopping spree. Belkin is celebrating the spirit and enthusiasm of Diwali with this exciting offer for its customers. With optimism in the air and upbeat consumers, we are extremely confident that Belkin’s Diwali offer will be applauded with a positive response from our customers across the country,” said Mohit Anand, Managing Director, Belkin India. “And this is how Belkin wants to wish all of you a very Happy and Prosperous Diwali,” he added.
Canon India has introduced a special “Mega festive delight offer” for its discerning customers in India. In order to make this Diwali special, Canon has introduced “scratch & win” offer wherein the customers stand a chance to win attractive prizes up to Rs.4,999/- on the purchase of all digital imaging products. The offer is valid till 25th October, 2009. Choosing the auspicious festival of Diwali and owing to the grandeur of the occasion, the Mega Festive Delight Offer enables customers to win a digital photo frame worth Rs.4,999. Customers also stand a chance to win 100 free prints of their photographs or a personalized desktop calendar with the purchase of every Canon camera.
Shunichi Senda, Director, Imaging Communication Products, Canon India, said, “Capturing the essence of festival, we are extremely delighted to present this special Diwali offer for our customers. This is yet another effort from the brand to connect with its customers at large. We are confident that our customers will appreciate this exciting offer and enjoy a vibrant and fun-filled festival of lights alongside.”
Expressing his views on the offer, Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice-President, Canon India, said, “We hope the festival of light this year bids farewell to the adversities of economic slowdown which has gripped our economy since Diwali last year. With this ‘Mega festival delight offer’, Canon is all set to delight its customers and bring fervour to this auspicious occasion for them. It has been our constant endeavour to provide relevant offers to our customers across geographical and cultural spread. Hence this Diwali, we are looking at an annual growth of 30% over the last year.”
In the mobile industry also, Samsung and Reliance Mobile have unveiled an exciting consumer offer with Samsung Omnia Pro B7320. The exciting consumer offer allows users to download free data of 5GB per month for a period of six months (a total of 30GB) from Reliance Mobile GSM service on Samsung Omnia Pro handset. The offer can be availed by both prepaid and post-paid customers. The post-paid users of Reliance GSM can download content and application worth Rs.1,000 from their WAP site – R World. The free plan is worth Rs.3,000 which proves to be a best buy for the consumers given the stylish features of Samsung Omnia Pro.
The home-grown peripheral company Intex also takes advantage of the Diwali time by launching several enticing schemes. INTEX Dual SIM Mobile Handsets – fondly called as “Do Dilwale Phones” are available with a free trendy sling bag to enhance the utility gain of the shoppers looking for a seamless Dual SIM communication experience. To give the customer a choice, the company has launched the scheme on five different models. The same offer applies to INTEX multimedia speakers being sold at various hyper markets, specialty chains offering INTEX products and at INTEX SQUARE – the company’s exclusive retail chain. In multimedia speakers, Intex offers a very wide range and is recognized as a market leader in many states. In addition to that on the purchase of an INTEX 22” TFT LCD Monitor (with and without TV function), the consumers can get a “Free” DTH connection from Big TV with a 3 months subscription. For North India, Intex offers this freebie who wants to buy INTEX PC or Netbook. On the other hand, consumers in South, West and East India have on offer exciting scratch card schemes assuring receipt of two cool gifts like Reebok Bag, Timex watch, digital cameras, microwave oven, etc. On INTEX 17” and 19” TFT LCD Monitors, consumers could avail Rs. 300 cash-back. These offers – on INTEX PCs, Netbooks and TFT LCD Monitors – are on till November 20, 2009 for consumers shopping through INTEX resellers, INTEX SQUARE and other retail chains having INTEX products on their shelves.
This festivity has also covered the educational institutes. For example, Aptech Computer education (ACE), the flagship brand of Aptech Limited – the global leader in Learning Solutions has further extended its ongoing “YUVA” scholarship programme. The programme is a Diwali gift for all the students who want to ensure their dream of becoming successful IT entities a reality. The scholarship is available to students on the basis of an innovative “capability challenge”, which will showcase the inherent communication and problem solving strength of the students. The 10/10+2 performance of the student is also taken into consideration. The scholarship is awarded for Aptech’s various courses meant for students of engineering, regular graduate programmes and 10+2 passouts. There are special scholarship options available for girl students.
SatNav Technologies, a pioneer of GPS Navigation in India since 2005, offers over 10 FREE TRAVEL TICKETS to BANGKOK, more than 10 SatGuide PNDs and hundreds of Mobile Phone and Laptop software across various retail outlets. In all, SatNav will be giving away prizes and gifts worth Rs.1 crore at large format retailers (FRs) like Croma, EZone, HyperCity, Reliance Digital, Staples, and many more.
The offer that began on September 15th, 2009 extends for a period of two and a half months until November 30, 2009. For a product purchase above Rs.3,000 at the listed LFRs, the customers become eligible for the lucky draw and a chance to take away free gifts from SatNav. The largest telecom operator, BSNL, has offered customer schemes on the occasion of Dussehra and Diwali. The company has launched an aggressive pricing strategy to increase the penetration in the country as well as to make its products competitive and value for money in this fiercely competitive market. The various festival schemes specific to a state have been launched across the country on the occasion of Dussehra and Diwali.
Finally…
Festivals like Diwali have always been occasions for social interaction. From the economic point of view also, such occasions have also added to the financial well-being of both individuals and corporates. It is hoped this festival brings a turnaround in the drooping faces of the IT industry.
