Haier breaks in the mobile phone market

Haier entered the mobile phone market by bringing seven mobile handsets. The major attraction of the mobile range is its price sensitive factor. The company has appointed Trust Telecom as its national distributor and will target all segments for its mobile phones.

TK Banerjee, President and CEO, Haier Appliances India said, "We have selected 52 locations across the country where we will have our area distributors. Out of these 52, we have already appointed our area distributors in 32 cities. The remaining 20 will have our distributors by the end of this month." 

The company will set up around 4,000 retailers under the area distributors. This entire network will be up and running in coming six months. For providing service, Banerjee said, "We already have 112 service franchisees and are in the process of selecting specialized service providers in these locations." 

The mobiles launched includes entry-level phones like the Z 100, with a standby time of 18 days. This model comes with a free headset, with FM radio and priced at Rs 3,654. High-end models like the first pen phone with 300k pixel camera and dicta phone is also being introduced at Rs 14,940. The handsets launched by the company include models like V 100 at Rs 7,614; V 200 priced at Rs 9,495; Z 100 valued at Rs 3,654; Z 300 priced at Rs 4,950; Z 1100 costing Rs 9,099; Z 3000 priced at Rs 6,480 and P7, which costs Rs 14,940. 

"Initially we aim to sell around 20,000 units on a monthly basis. But are targeting to sell around half million hand sets in the first year of our presence in the Indian market," said Bannerjee. However, in terms of investment the company is aggressively investing in promotional activities for its brand and there would also be some below the line activities that will include training of 1,000 sales people across the country. It will upgrade the knowledge of the sales personnel for its product portfolio. This would be a regional level practice beginning this quarter.

FAIZ ASKARI 

NEW DELHI