Buoyed by a smart rise in note book computers sales, Acer India is targeting over 50 per cent growth in volume sales in 2008. The company sold around 4.4 lakh computers in the calendar year 2007 — 2.6 lakh desktop computers and 1.8 lakh notebooks.

Acer’s optimism is based on the sharp rise in its sales since the middle of 2007, following a new marketing strategy. Around June last year, introducing a new brand ambassador — Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan, the company launched new series of note books with new design (they call it Gemstone) and new ad slogan — Life is busy, Acer makes it easy.

“All these efforts resulted in well orchestrated push in the market for our brand” said Acer India Chief Marketing Officer S Rajendran, told Deccan Herald.

Big push

The result saw Acer’s average monthly sales of PCs shoot up to average of 20,000 a month in December 2007 from around 6,000 a month in April 2007. Sales of TFT monitor, thanks to new wide screen design, rose six times to 30,000 a month in December 2007. Acer now is in third position in PC industry ranking, claimed Mr Rajendran.

Interestingly, Acer’s product mix in PCs has also changed faster than the market. The company now sells equal number of notebooks as desktops while industry average is around 80:20 for desk top and note books. A big push with notebooks in retail segment of the market — home, small office and SMEs, following greater brand acceptance by consumers, did the trick.

Acer is also witnessing an interesting new trend that buyers are willing to go for mid-range notebooks rather than cheaper ones. Though Acer has quite a few notebooks in the Rs 20,000 to Rs 28,000 range, more than 40 per cent of sales now come from notebooks in Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000 range. “This is a sign of maturity in notebook buyers who are, perhaps, already PC users. They value powerful processors and rich features even if costs a few thousand more. It is a good development for the entire industry” Mr Rajendran said.