Olivetti is back in India

Olivetti's Indian arm--Spice net Ltd (formerly known as Modi Olivetti Ltd) is

busy now-a-days sprucing up various strategies to gain the lost mindshare. And

also to revive and rebuild the faded brand equity for this Italian IT giant,

known for its technological expertise and aesthetic appeal.

Though Spice affirms with the fact that Olivetti is a very late entrant in

the market and is a bane for them, they want to start afresh for the Indian

market.

Its five pronged strategy is aimed at positioning the present product range

as a time tested, reliant and affordable document printing solutions. Later, the

company plans to extend its product range and make this large multinational's

presence felt in Indian market with full thrust along with a large PC peripheral

range.

The five pronged strategy is--create mind share and regain lost brand equity,

position Olivetti as a price performance product, dispel the misconception of

inkjet consumables being expensive, introduce the complete product range

steadily and create a new breed of resellers for its product range.

Sharing its bullish activities, Arun Seth, CEO, Spice net, said, "We are

ready to take the market headlong. With the value for money factor and strong

after sales service, these products will surly be able to gain their desirable

market share in the stipulated time period. Customer feedback has been very

enthusiastic so far and it gives us the right impetus to build further a strong

equity in the market."

Olivetti being the technology owner for the inkjet printing, products are

state-of-art and their consumables are way ahead in performance and technology

compared to the present players are per Spicenet. An example given was, an

Olivetti inkjet produces 30 percent more copies per cartridge as compared to the

present product leader.

These inkjet printers are primarily targeted at the home, SOHO and corporate

personal printers segment. The first morsel of the complete range include six

inkjet devices, constituting of three inkjet printers and three multifunction

printing devices.

The inkjet printers include an entry level printer, corporate level personal

printer and a mobile printer. Mobile printer will be one of its kind in the

given category, which can be run on batteries and gives an unmatched printing

quality. Multifunction products have two fax machines, which doubles up as a

scanner printer, based on the inkjet technology, unlike conventional thermal

faxes. Another multifunction device is Studiojet, a

scanner-cum-copier-cum-printer--an inkjet color system.

According to Himanshu Hajela, GM (Marketing and Sales), Spice net,

"Breaking price barriers is surely a major prerogative, which inevitably

falls in the strategy. But task ahead is to bring the end user out of the usual

delusion of inkjets being expensive. Our printers' consumables are not as

expensive as the usual belief has been."

Commenting on the infrastructure requirements to support an entire range of

printers, Hajela said that already the infrastructure is in place as Spice net

is already providing service to various clients countrywide. Logistics and

service is already its strength, thus, cashing on it sounds too sensible to be

missed. Nine branches in metros will act as the logistics nodes as also service

centers.

Creating a new breed of reseller is an inimitable strategy they have

acquired. As per Jaideep Bhavnani, Manager (Marketing and Sales), Spice net,

"Reseller appointment will be done with a great deal of prudence. We want

partners in our progress, those who believe in growing with the growth of the

product range." The reseller policy of the company, according to Bhavnani,

contains no usual sugar coated baits, every incentive is linked to the down

right quantity sales. And the reward is bestowed to the reseller as soon as it

is earned. Thus, curtailing any inkling towards the usual reseller grudges. The

company has as of now appointed some selected resellers and is in the process of

identifying new resellers across the nation.

According to Gurjit Singh, Partner, Global Communications, a reseller, the

customer feedback so far has been good. "Market feedback has been very

good, we have already been able to sell a good quantity of these products.

Besides this, Olivetti has given us good support for the product sales

pitch."

Spice net foresees itself to be present in media very actively, manage a lot

of workshops for its channel network, introduce newer products and gain the

market share in coming times. For the printer segment, it hopes to forge a total

turnover of Rs 10 to 12 crore by this December and in the process manage five

percent share of the total market.