Secret behind Acer's success

Acer is ranked fourth in India and third in the world in terms of PC shipments. It plans to position itself in the top three in India. Acer sponsors the FC Barcelona team.

S Rajendran, general manager, sales and marketing, Acer India, tells Seema Sandhu that the company plans to expand its IT specialty channel.

What are the lifestyle-oriented products Acer is launching?

In sync with the recently launched Gemstone notebooks designed by the BMW design team in the US, we are once again in a position to set the trend in desktop designs with the new Aspire range of desktops and high-definition projectors.

Few products in the lifestyle segment are the Acer Ferrari Notebook and Monitor, Acer Ultra Small Form Factor Desktop PC–L100, TravelMate 6292 and the Aspire 4920. All these are based on the Gemstone design.

Why are you projecting India as a youth brand?

India is passing through a very interesting phase in its history. More than 50 per cent of the population is below the age of 30.

The youth is known for its fast adoption of technology, they also tend to align with those brands that they believe represent the same value systems and personality that they identify with.

Worldwide our associations with brands like Ferrari, Yamaha Racing, FC Barcelona reflect a brand personality that is fast, sporty and very 'hip and cool'.

What is the USP behind Acer's success?

Acer's USP has been a combination of many factors. Foremost among these has been the innovative use of technology.

Acer was the first to have Dolby-certified speakers on the entire line of notebooks in the market, the first to  come out with products that are launched on the latest platforms. We are the ones who come up with most interesting form factors on  products like the  ultra-small form factor desktop.

Power consumption is an vital issue today pertaining to computers. What is Acer's strategy to counter this?

Acer's Empowering Technology feature - Acer ePower Management tool - allows users to customise setting to their requirements which lets them select from pre-configured power usage profiles, or to create their own customised profiles.

It contains easy controls for enabling and disabling system features and adjusting other useful settings. This also has the added advantage of prolonging the battery life by minimising power usage.

What will be Acer's strategy in the future pertaining to retail?

We are looking at expanding our IT speciality channel (OEM Brand stores - Acer Malls and Points) to over 350 outlets this year covering around 200 cities across the country.