Second time lucky?

MARKETING: Does BenQ's second attempt at the Indian market improve its odds of success?

BenQ, the Taiwanese gizmo major, is in no mood to waste time. Not anymore. A powerful brand on its hometurf, it came to India some years ago, ran some commercials on TV, retreated into hibernation, and then made a comeback to kick itself off to a new start.

It happens. Remember LG? After a disastrous start, it was the third swipe at the Indian market "" and what a USP-focused swipe it was "" that eventually struck lucky for it.

BenQ expects this, though, its second attempt to be its big break. And the beehive of activity that its local office in Delhi has become is proof enough that the corporate adrenalin is in spate.

Task one, as the company has decided, is to get brand salience "" best done in the bustling mobile phone market. For this challenge, BenQ's managing director of India, Middle East and Africa operations Robert Dung, has decided to shift base camp from Dubai to Delhi.

"Dung will move from his current base as early as May, and will head operations from the Delhi office. This indicates BenQ's vision to take its Indian operations to a higher platform, but Dung continues to manage the Middle East and Africa region too," confirms Ish Bawa, spokesperson for BenQ.

Even though West Asia remains a larger market for BenQ than does India, the potential here is bigger. Strengthening the sales and marketing network is among the first things to do.

Aiming products appropriately is the other task. The corporate customer is to be wooed with its high-end image projectors and display panels, while the young consumer would have snazzy new mobile devices dangled before him/her.

As many as 15 BenQ-Siemens mobile phones, designed for India, are ready for launch "" most of them music-enabled and every second of them with at least a 1.3-megapixel camera. The prices, Rs 3,000 upwards, would be quite affordable too.

This effort is the result of BenQ's acquisition of Siemens's mobile phone division, which has vowed to turn profitable by the end of 2006, with the Indian market making a significant contribution.

At the retail level, the brand building effort takes the shape of BenQ Zones, as many as 50 exclusive outlets across India that would showcase all the exciting new gizmos available (digital cameras and scanners too, by the way).

The product range is indeed impressive in comparison with BenQ's Korean rivals. The only thing is: while LG, and now Samsung, have done a marvellous job of engaging the Indian consumer, BenQ's efforts have been dismal.

So, is there a plan? "We will go for a two-pronged approach wherein the focus would rest on distribution, and delivering an innovative product range," says Bawa.

But would that be nearly enough in a handset market where the leader Nokia has been "connecting people" with some fairly memorable advertising advice on the relevance of modern technology to everlasting relationships.