Xerox awards Office Printing Business to Equus

Xerox Modicorp, part of Xerox, the US $19 billion Fortune 500 global ‘document company', is getting aggressive on the advertising front. After realigning its mainline advertising business with Enterprise-Nexus recently, it has appointed Equus, Delhi, to work on the Office Printing Business (OPB).

Talking on behalf of Xerox Modicorp, a senior marketing executive of the company, said, "We have split the advertising account of Xerox into two. While our mainline businesses will be handled by Enterprise-Nexus, Delhi, the channel supplies business will be worked on by Equus." The account moves from Lowe Lintas, Delhi.

As expected, both the agency and the company refused to talk about the size of the account saying that ‘it is early days yet to talk about monies'. A Lintas executive, who didn't want to be identified in the story, indicated that last year the company had run up billings of Rs 12 lakh with the agency.

Again, neither Xerox nor Equus was willing to say whether the move was the outcome of a full-fledged agency pitch. An agencyfaqs! source, however, indicated that at least two more agencies - O&M and Enterprise-Nexus - were in the running. When contacted, both these agencies denied any such possibility. Sanjay Garg, general manager, Enterprise-Nexus, said he wasn't even aware of a pitch for OPB, to start with. Sandeep Karwal, client servicing director, O&M, said while he's had some meetings with Xerox recently, "they were not, in any way, related to OPB".

Elaborating on the scope of the account, the Xerox executive indicated that the channel supplies business comprises the Office Printing Business on the one hand, and consumables on the other. Again, OPB comprises networked printers, monochrome printers, colour laser printers, fax machines and some lower-end printers. There are a total of six models in this range in the price band of Rs 20,000 to Rs 2 lakh. OPB also comprises the Techtronics business acquired by Xerox a year-and-a-half back. This range has six models as well, priced upwards of Rs 1.5 lakh. Last, but not the least, consumables include stuff like paper, toner, fax rolls etc.

Suhel Seth, CEO, Equus Advertising, is decidedly happy with the new account. "It is an interesting and prestigious win for us," he said. What came out form informal talks with Seth and other key executives at Xerox is that most of the communication efforts for this business would be built around direct marketing activities. "These are large format, upscale and expensive products. They require a lot of industrial selling. So most of the communication here will be direct in nature. The bulk of the top-line advertising will revolve around the copier printers, the advertising account of which has gone to Enterprise-Nexus," said a Xerox executive.

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