Acer’s new ad campaign, while continuing to focus on functionality and youth, showcases the company’s latest products
The world’s second largest computer maker, Acer, has recently unveiled a new advertising campaign in India with the tagline “Easy is Acer”. The Taiwan-based company now wants to shed the image of being a purely personal computer (PC) and notebook manufacturer. Acer’s new commercial signifies a fundamental change in focus that is brewing within the company.
First, there has been a change in the company’s global management with former global CEO, Gianfranco Lanci, stepping down and interim chairman JT Wang taking charge. In a recent statement, Wang announced that Acer not only wants to focus on its core notebook business but also wants to beef up its smartphone and tablet portfolio which are indispensable for on-the-go communication.
In India, Acer has been a key contender in the 10 million units (Cybermedia Research 2010) PC and notebook market commanding third place after Hewlett Packard (HP) and Dell. In tandem with its global line of thought, the company will now bet on emerging communication devices.
Acer India Chief Marketing Officer S Rajendran believes computing and communication are undergoing a sea change. “The pattern is moving towards content consumption and sharing rather than purely content creation,” he says. For the record, notebooks and desktops make up 36 per cent of Acer India’s turnover, TFT (thin film transistor) monitors contribute to 15 per cent while products such as servers, projectors and smartphones make up the rest of the pie.
In 2006, Acer roped in Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan to convey to users that the company had equipped its products with a suite of friendly and intuitive interfaces that gave users fast and easy access to cutting-edge hardware and software solutions. The tagline, therefore, was “Life is busy; Acer makes it easy”. The campaign helped achieve two things. First it helped dispel the perception that Acer was “a cheap Taiwanese brand”. And second, it gave the brand an immediate recall among first-time buyers.
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“At that time, the commercial focused on laptops, and sought to make consumers more comfortable using a PC. The company also introduced the e-help button on the laptop to allay the fears of first-time PC and notebook users,” says Sumanta Mukherjee, India lead PC analyst, Cyber Media Research.
Focus on new products
With the new campaign the company hopes to stretch this “user friendly” image to its new products. Functionality and youth will continue to be the mantra for Acer India. While the new campaign will encompass the entire range of products, the focus is on the latest products — a dual screen touch screen notebook, an Android smartphone and an Android Honeycomb and Windows 7 tablet with a keyboard dock.
Dentsu Communications executive creative director Sangeeta Velegar says the commercial, which has a youthful look and feel, highlights moments from everyday life where technology helps bridge the difference between what an individual needs and what he wants. “The underlying message is that Acer’s products allow you to break down the barrier between people and technology,” says Velegar. “The target audience for the campaign are teenagers, first time jobbers and professionals who are more likely to use such Acer products,” adds Velegar. The focus on youngsters, believes Rajendran, will help Acer to be viewed as an energetic and aspirational brand. The film directed by Samir Tewari took two days to shoot.
Acer is taking a path trodden by many computer manufactures in recent years, say analysts. Dell, for instance, has been trying to shift its focus beyond the PC business and has unveiled the XCD series of smartphones and the Dell Streak tablet for the Indian market. Lenovo is also planning to launch a tablet in India soon and is contemplating bringing its mobile phone range to the country as well. It is imperative for Acer to be positioned as a brand one can approach for all one’s digital convergence needs, says the head of a rival firm.
The road ahead
Yet the leap into these newer categories will not be easy. Take smartphones, a 5.8 million units market (Cyber Media 2010) growing fast but where the stakes are high. “On one end of the spectrum, this market has global players like Nokia, Samsung and HTC playing the technology card; on the other there are upstarts like Micromax and Spice Mobile playing the price card,” points out Sandeep Dave, principal, Booz & Company. The choice of the Android, the world’s best-selling smartphone platform, as the operating system for its range of phones is a good start, says Dave. However, it will have to identify a clear market segment and focus on distribution and retail to do well in this space.
In tablets, the market in India is fairly nascent but has a clear leader: the Apple iPad. Samsung’s Galaxy S is the only significant competition. “Acer stands to benefit from the notion that there is no clear number two in this market and can win with the same strategy that it has applied in laptops — good products at low prices with a good distribution reach,” says Dave.
In terms of brand positioning, Acer is doing well trying to own the ‘easy’ platform, given that there are many consumers who are intimidated by technology, says Lubna Khan, associate vice-president (strategic planning), J Walter Thompson. “However, in terms of articulation, the commercial does not explain how Acer products will help ease those anxieties. The situations in the commercial are very generic to the category,” adds Khan.
At the end of the day, being a price-sensitive market, a lot will depend on Acer’s pricing strategy. “It cannot win with a 10 per cent price differential compared to the lead product as was the case in the laptop market which is largely commoditised,” opines Dave. “Tablet purchases currently are based on euphoria and excitement created by the iPad. Given that, it will be interesting to see what price differential will entice the consumer to shift to an Acer device.”