Motorola unveils new marketing campaign in India, channels to get a boost

Motorola has unveiled its marketing campaign 'MotoRising' in India. It may be recalled that 'MotoRising' was launched in Milan in Q1 this year, from where it moved to US and Europe in a phased manner before reaching the shores of India.

As part of 'MotoRising' three new handsets from Motorola's global portfolio are also being unveiled. August 21 will also witness a new multimedia advertising campaign and a significant increase in total ad-spend of the company. Two more handset launches are scheduled for Q4, 2002 along with a camera phone and a Hindi language compatible handset as part of the re-worked brand communication program.

'MotoRising' basically consists of four components - Consumer communications, compelling products and solutions, retail and distribution and operation partnership. "We have roughly 800 retail outlets as of now and this will increase to 1,200 by 2002 end. Consumer service points will increase from nine to 15," informed, Upendra Narayan Nayak, Country Operations Manager, India. Motorola is also launching a 'Value Partner Program' for its channel and will aggressively assist the channel partners in moving higher up the value chain. A 'Consumer Contact Program' is also being initiated.

Speaking to the media, Cliff Barrett, VP and Director of product line management, Singapore, personal communications sector, Motorola informed that the Motorola management has broadly classified the handset market into the productivity, style and entertainment and the convenience segments and will address each space with an iconic product.

Nayak said that traditionally product launches in India would be preceded by a global launch say two months before, but future product launches can be expected to happen almost simultaneously. Because of the duty structure, price parity is roughly 20 percent as compared to the global markets, he added.

"As far as the content space is concerned we have a portal mymobilesoft.com, which witnesses some 100k plus downloads in the APAC region. We have no tie-ups with other content providers at the moment, but may go in with third-party vendors on a revenue-share basis in the future," Nayak informed.

"We missed the bus compared to a Nokia and the others some time back in our conversion process from the analog to the digital," Barrett summed up the Motorola stance. "We are now taking a very aggressive marketing attitude", he added.

Cyber News Service