Renovision strengthens brand through national campaign

Ruth Samson Gurgaon, Sep 15

With the Jaipur event held recently, Delhi-based Renovision Comnet kicked off
its seven city national campaign for channels. The cities included in this
campaign are Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Guwahati, Bangalore, Chennai and
finally Cochin, which will be covered in mid October.

Renovision, which was earlier into distribution, forayed into marketing its
own brand in April this year. The company took this opportunity to increase
channel awareness about their products and build a strong brand. The national
level events are also in line with the company's plans to expand their
operations and also continue their focus on B and C class cities rather than the
metros.

Commenting on the company's market strategy, VK Trivedi, Director,
Renovision Comnet said, “We have adopted a flat two-layer distribution
structure across India. The first layer comprises our distributors who we have
been designated as Renovision Partner in Progress (RPP) and the second layer
would be the retailers - Renovision Brand Ambassadors (RBAs). We have given
innovative names to our channel, which is a first in the industry and signify
our association with them. For example, the distributors are our foundation for
progress and the retailers are our brand ambassadors who are the link between
our customers and us.”

The company currently has 45 RPPs and 700 RBAs registered with them. By the
end of this financial year they are gunning to have 100-125 RPPs and 4,000 RBAs
across India. For its RPPs Renovision regularly comes out with cash-based
incentive schemes to keep them motivated.

During the national campaigns the company will also be introducing products
under its own brand name. The products include DVD players and webcams, which
will be out some time next month. Other products in the company's portfolio
are pen/flash drives, memory cards, optical media, inkjet cartridges and paper.
Most of the products come with a one-year replacement warranty, while the flash
drives come with a three-year warranty. “Customers can approach their local
RPPs and RBAs to get replacement of products. We will also have a toll free
number for customer queries by the end of this year,” said Trivedi. A
statement made by Vivek Kalra of Jaipur-based Kalra Sales Agency during the
Jaipur event further consolidated Renovision's relationship with its RPPs.
Kalra commented, “I give personal guarantee for the products. Our replacement
policy means that a customer can come and get their products replaced on the
spot if they have any problems with it.”

The consumables have been priced keeping in mind various factors. For the
flash drives the company keeps the prices at par with the rates of Transend and
Kingston. Whereas for the MP3/4 players the prices are higher by about 15
percent as compared to others in its segment due to the fact that the company
uses lith-ion batteries while other companies use regular AA size batteries.

Commenting on its retail initiative Trivedi said, “Process is on for retail
branding which will happen in each of the cities covered in the campaign after
the event.” The company plans to work on branding in association with
resellers through their outlets.

Currently Renovision has two brands - Renocolor and Renotech. Renocolor
offers print media products like ink cartridges, inkjet glossy media. Renotech
has flash drives, MP3, MP4, SD cards, DVD media, webcams and headsets. For the
fiscal 2005-06 Renovision contributed 22 percent of the total turnover of OA
Compserve's (its parent company) revenue.