Eastern Comnet to focus on branding of Gigabyte laptops

Kolkata-based distributor - Eastern Comnet Pvt Ltd, who
started distribution of Gigabyte range of laptops in November this year, is now
mainly focusing on promoting the products.

The company is already an established distributor for the
entire range of products of D-Link and Gigabyte for West Bengal and operating
through an extensive network of dealers and re-sellers across the state.
"Right now we are in the promotional stage as the product is a new entry in
the market. We are making people aware of the brand," said Pawan Sharma,
GM, ECPL. Sharma is quite confident of the laptops, "Gigabyte has launched
a complete range of laptops that can cater to all market segments. The product
quality and price is also very good," he said.

Being in the promotional stage Eastern Comnet is targeting to
promote the brand in the regional level through different events. In the effort
they have already participated in the two biggest IT event of the year from the
region, the Compass Exhibition 2005 and Infocom 2005. "We sponsored the
main entry gate in Compass exhibition and also participated in a big way at
Infocom. We received very good response from people for the Gigabyte laptops,
especially the N211U model was the crowd puller', informed Sharma.

For the entry-level range ECPL is targeting to attract the
engineering and the MBA students, as that will help the company to sell in
volume. "We will even target the home sector as the price is almost same as
that of a desktop. It is only Rs 32, 000 plus taxes and is inclusive of the
carry bag," said Sharma. The company also plans to target the other
segments including, SOHO, SME, corporate as well as, the single PC users.
"We didn't target any sale in the last one month by branding. That has
paid off as we are getting lots of enquiries," Sharma further said.

For the JFM quarter, ECPL has fixed a target to sell 500
units and gradually increase the number. "We want to rely on word—of—mouth
publicity rather than jump for volume from the start," he said.

According to Sharma, other than Kolkata, the most prospective
areas are Siliguri, Durgapur, Asansol, Kharagpur and Gangtok. The company has
set its target to capture about 10 percent market share in the state by end of
the current FY. To achieve that it has planned to introduce various marketing
activities along with different type of sales and promotional activities for
channel partners.

Piyali Guha, Kolkata, Dec 23