Acer taking the TFT Monitor segment by storm

The TFT Monitor has been a growing segment for Acer. Thanks to the differential strategy, Acer successfully jumped to the 3rd position in the TFT monitor market in a matter of just 180 days. Throwing more light on how this has been successful for Acer, Sanjoy Bhattacharya, National Head for Display Products - Acer India tells VARINDIA of its success mantra and also about its channel strategy for 2018 - 

Acer has created a disruption in the Indian TFT Monitor market in the last six months. Because of its differential strategy, Acer was able to jump from 6th position to 3rd position within 180 days!

“Acer salutes channel for that,” says Sanjoy Bhattacharya, National Head for Display Products - Acer India. “Channel is the next big thing for us after product. We consider Channel network as the key for success. We always have a cordial business relationship with our Channel partners. The Acer TFT business Group has been very sensible about each channel demand, need and expectations. Each of them has supported Acer wholeheartedly to make Acer No 3 TFT brand in OND’17 quarter.”

Acer today has focus for each of the segments - Government, BSFI, ICT & Education, Transportation, Hospitality, Healthcare, Enterprises etc. For each of the vertical, Acer is closely working with its Partners and empowering them by giving training and coaching new product information, new technology and solutions. “We are working together with VARs, System Integrators, consultants to explore new opportunities every day,” says Sanjoy. 

As a strategic vision for 2018, empowering the channel is most important agenda for Acer. The next big agenda will be to sell out orientation across the channel eco system as Acer management believes that Sell out is the only answer for each problem. Effective from 1st January’2018, Acer has moved sell through module to sell out module. “We are working with our channel partners on DIO planning, support them on ageing SKUs and move over creating ease of sell out for them,” Sanjoy says.  

Recently Acer has announced its largest T3 loyalty program called Acer Monitor Premier League (AMPL) Where T3 partner can get big awards like Motorbike, Foreign Trip, LED TV, Laptop etc.

Massive Geo expansion is going to be another main direction this year to reach out to 3000+ channel partners across India at 300 cities, towns and district level. Acer is using its distributor and gold Channel partners for further expansion.

Channel structure...
At Acer, each channel has its own role to play. T1 is primarily the National Distributor, Supertron is the TFT distributor, who is working on the right product to distribute it to the T2 partners. “They keep stock at all locations of all SKUs so that T2 partner will not miss any sales opportunity. Apart from that at “C”/“D” category they drive WOD (width of distribution),” he says. 

T2 partners have been further classified as Gold & Silver Class Partners. Gold Partners are concentrated in top 10/12 cities of India. Each market would have 3 to 4 partners, who in turn do micro level distribution to T3 partners (Dealer, VAR, System assembles, Retails etc.). “We value T2 heavily as they are the influencer in the marketplace. They know Acer TFTs by model and by feature and they are guiding the T3 to pick up the best from our TFT basket,” points out Sanjoy. “T3 partners are like mini brand ambassador for us. They are the last mile connect with end consumers.”
Acer has dedicated one portal named www.ampl.in through which Acer drives loyalty programs and one window contact with them. 

Going forward...
With India becoming a global hub of content creation, Acer is anticipating high demand for high resolution monitors. Quantum display, QHD, 4K UHD, HDR ready Curve, 21:9 aspect ratio, USB-C featured Monitors are in high demand. Acer is eyeing on this segment as main focus area and is introducing world’s first and best products in these categories. The company has launched 12 new models since Q4’17 and is going to introduce another 8 more new SKUs within Q2’2018.

e-Sport is another area of future growth. Professional and mutual gaming is increasing in India by leaps & bound. Acer is already a leader in the gaming Industry for its Predator series. “We are bringing more and more sophisticated monitors especially in the 34” 35” size to meet the requirement of the gamers,” says Sanjoy.

Surveillance is another area which is growing very fast.  The need for this segment is Mid-Size & bigger size screen size Monitor with HDMI connectivity with better frequency. Acer has 2 dedicated SKUs for this segment and it is going to increase more in 32”, 42” screen size within Q1’2018.

For Home segment Acer is expanding its portfolio in 22” & 24” segment with webcam, FHD, HDMI features for those who use video chat with family and friends. This will give better multi-media and internet experiences. For Small office, Shops, MSME segment Acer expanded its range in 20” segment, in which it is offering VGS, HDMI, Speakers in 3 different varieties.

“Very soon we are going to be VGA free.  We will be the first to market with world best products for Indian customer,” sums up Sanjoy.