Festival season: It's time for new schemes and more offers

The festive season is on and the first thing that comes to everyone's mind is the discounts and offers available on various products in the market. Festive seasons vary geographically and most prominent of them in India is the Diwali festival. The Indian information technology industry, as is the case with any other industry, has also jumped in with numerous offers, schemes, freebies to rake in as many cystomers as possible.

The decsion to buy a PC at home is generally postponed till the festival season in order to avail of more value for money in terms of software packages, CDs, discounts, etc. The PC vendors also have a hectic time by having to increase their media presence through advertising and outdoor activities like hoardings and events, so that people would know who is offering what and for how much.

Generally the offers and schemes are targeted at the home segment and the small and medium enterprises, which are a price sensitive lot. Wipro has special offers on the Wipro Voyager computers, which are meant for the home market. As part of these special offers, Wipro Voyager is available at very attractive prices, alongwith bundled offers on printers, Internet access and other software. During the festival season, Wipro offers special pricing for its various bundled offers and this time they have different bundling every fortnight.

Cache Technology, a Genuine Intel Dealer (GID), has schemes initiated by Intel, called the Holiday '99 programme and the Diwali Hungama. According to Cache CEO R. Mohan, Intel has reduced prices on the Pentium III 500 range, 450 MHz and the celeron 433 MHz, making it reasonably cheap for a PC. Lampo Computer, a GID-cum-dealer, has an offer called Diwali Dhamaka, where along with a system, free CDs are given. In another offer, five hours of free training is given to the user of the PC on the sale of a system. In the case of printers, Wipro offers 25-30 per cent discounts. Canon also has an offer wherein free encyclopaedia CDs are given on the purchase of its BJC 265 SP bubble jet printer.

Mr Mohan said, "Apart from the offers that Intel gives us, we have our own offers or schemes where we bundle the PCs with UPS, printers etc." Some dealers also bundle their PCs with software like the IBM encyclopaedia, ZAP Cryola, etc., as part of their schemes, apart from the schemes initiated and promoted by their principals.

Some companies, knowing that their sales would increase during this season, have alloted a higher target for this quarter. As Wipro Infotech Systems and Services group Business Manager Computer and Systems Integration Anil Jain said, "Our targets are normally in line with the projected market size in each of the quarter. The OND quarter is always considered to be high for the festive buying and therefore, home PC targets are always high for this quarter. Typically, the number of home PCs we intend to sell in this quarter are two times more than the numbers we sell in other quarters. The PC market is quite competitive. We position ourselves as a powerful brand, which offers high value for money. We feel that in festive season, sales for all competitors shall go up as the total market has gone up."

Lampo sales official Lalitha Slim added, "These offers increase our sales at least by 30 per cent. There may not be immediate buyers but there are good numbers of future clients. This season we target at large sales and more publicity and even if the margin is little less, it is worth giving bundle offers."

According to Wipro, the festive season revenue from home PC contributes to about 30 per cent of the whole year's revenue. While according to Ms Slim the festive season contributes to about 40 per cent of the years revenue.

In the case of dealer it is generally the principals who decide on the various offers in a particular geographical location. They also have different scheme for different geographic location depending on the festivals, like for instance vendors in Chennai would come up with attractive offers during the Pongal festival. Many more new offers or extension of the current offers are expected during the festival season, which continues till the Christmas Day and the New Year Day. As Mr. Jain of Wipro pointed out, "The festive season ends with the New Year. So, New Year is part of the overall scheme." For those who are unable to buy their PCs during the Diwali season, they need not worry, because they still have a chance during the Christmas/New Year season.