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Voltas gears up to cool India

Voltas gets ready for Summer 2008 with an innovative extension of its earlier advertising campaign

Remember the Jaisa India ka Dil, Vaisa India ka AC campaign from Voltas? The air conditioning and the engineering services company from the Tata Group claims to have benefited immensely from the campaign. Therefore, it plans to unleash an extension of the same advertising campaign this summer.

In fact, the TV commercial actually put the Voltas brand back in the running because it focused entirely on Voltas as a brand. Before 1993, Voltas dominated the AC market in the country, but lost ground subsequently in the wake of the sustained MNC onslaught. It’s made a strong comeback recently and currently occupies the No. 2 spot by volume, behind LG.

Voltas gears up to cool India
Euro RSCG is working on the campaign, which is scheduled to be released in the next 10 days. According to PA Nair, general manager, sales, Voltas, “The previous television campaign has had a special resonance with consumers, appealing to the pride of Indians in the new emerging India, a booming economy and the feeling that India has now arrived on the global stage. It is in complete contrast to the feature led advertising strategy followed by other air conditioning and consumer durables marketers and it is for that reason that we are planning to bring back the same line of thought in an improvised manner.”

The air conditioner market, estimated to be 20 lakh units (windows and splits) in 2007, is growing at a robust rate of 30 per cent per annum. Voltas claims to have captured a market share of 17 per cent in the split, window and water dispenser category at present. LG is the market leader, with close to 27 per cent of the market, while Samsung is trailing at No. 3, with close to 14 per cent. With a stated target of achieving 20 per cent market share, Voltas has put in place an aggressive distribution strategy to increase the number of channel partners from the current 3,000 to about 4,000 next year.

Voltas has also launched a new range of sleek looking room air conditioners in India I in the premium and luxury segments. With the intention of growing the market further, Voltas has planned an advertising budget of Rs 30 crore.

Voltas has announced the launch of 42 new air conditioner models this year. Models already introduced include Vertis Pristine, Vertis Panache, Vertis Elan, Vertis Elite, Vertis Gold, and the flagship Vertis Plus. These air conditioners are priced between Rs 9,900 and Rs 36,000.

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