Canon to drive the ‘consumer digital revolution’ in eastern India

Chalks out strategy; unveils 20 products

Canon India, has announced its strategy for eastern India to
drive the consumer digital market in the region. Canon plans to gain leadership
position in five major towns across east India in 2004, which include Kolkata,
Guwahati, Jamshedpur, Siliguri and Ranchi.

The current market share for inkjet printers in East for Canon
is 28 percent and it plans to achieve a 40 percent market share in the category
by Dec-ember 2004 including leader-ship in five major towns. The current market
shares in these regions are Kolkata–30 per-cent, Guwahati–27 percent,
Jamshedpur–47 percent, Sili-gui–37 percent and Ranchi–24 percent. The
growth of over 50 percent in these places will be fueled by various focused
activities especially designed for the eastern region.

Canon unveiled 20 products for consumers and SOHO users in
Kolkata, designed to easily bring digital photos and video to life in new and
enriching ways and enrich the home film/theatre experience with the launch of
their new generation of digital projectors.

More than 20 training programs and 30 dealer meets are planned
across the region to support and further strengthen Canon’s channel network.
Canon is already present in 65 cities across the eastern region through its
network of 388 CEP’s (Canon Empowered Partner) and 14 service points.

To get closer to its consu-mers, this reach will be spread
through an expanded CEP base of 600 with 25 service points this year. Apart from
these, several other marketing and brand building activities such as
advertising, focused channel schemes, new product launc-hes, outreach roadshows
to demonstrate photo printing will also be undertaken to consoli-date Canon’s
leadership in the state.

Elaborating on company’s plans to capture the east mar-ket,
Alok Bharadwaj, Director and GM (Consumer Imaging and Information Division and
Volume Products), Canon India, said, "The eastern market is one of the
focus markets for us. We are currently strengthening our channel base and reach
throug-hout eastern India to get closer to our consumers. We are focu-sed at
achieving all round rev-enue growth of over 59 percent in Consumer Imaging
business in 2004. We are poised to gain market leadership in inkjet printers in
Kolkata this quarter and extend our leadership in five major towns across
eastern India."

Canon’s range of 20 digital imaging products launched in
Kolkata today, includes seven digital cameras, world’s first Pictbridge
enabled All-in-One, 1 All-in-One photo printer for SoHo users, the company’s
first bluetooth enabled mobile printer, one bubblejet printer for professional
colors, photo media paper for quality prints, three digital video camcorders for
making movies and getting stills (photos), one home4 theatre projector, one
projector for the office, two faxes and one personal family copier.

To showcase these home digital imaging products, Canon plans to
have 30 retail stations nationwide by the end of 2004. Four Canon Retail
Stations are slated for launch in the eastern region this year. Apart from these
canon has 28 small retail points covering the entire eastern region. In 2004,
Canon plans to increase its retail presence in east to 60 outlets from the
current 30.

DQW News Bureau

Kolkata