Consumers Must Get To Feel The Product Before They Buy It

"Consumers Must Get To Feel The Product Before They Buy It"

In a market like India, where most of the indigenously developed consumer electronic products have failed to make a mark, Novatium's computing solution, Nova netPC, a.k.a. Navigator+, has not only survived the test of time, but is also finding acceptance amidst new segments. Vandana Sharma of EFYTimes.com caught up with Alok Singh to know more about the strategies that have helped Novatium scale and face the challenges of the domestic market.

Your product is aimed at the masses. So far, which segments or user groups have shown more interest in Nova netPC?
We have so far achieved a customer base of over 25,000, which is a small fraction of the potential 50 million customers. But of this, 70 per cent are urban consumers and only 30 per cent are from class B or the rural segment. Of these, 25 to 30 per cent are first time buyers of computers and the remaining 55 to 70 customers are buying it as a second or replacement PC.

What has been your marketing strategy to take your product to the masses?
So far our strategy has been to sell through Telcos, and focus on two areas--the first being customers. 80 per cent of our sales happens through customer reference and we largely focus on this. Apart from this, for new customers we try and ensure that they are able to experience or feel the product before they decide to buy it. There are close to 3,200 points across the country where the products are available for view. We also have a 24x7 Novatium call centre at the backend where the customers can call and the executives direct them about whom to contact or where to go for viewing a product demo. We are neither spending on TV commercials nor on print ads. We may start doing that probably by the end of this year.

Since your product is low-cost, has there been any interest shown by small firms?
So far we were only focussed on individual consumers. But of late, considering the interest shown by SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and SOHOs (small office, home office) users, we have started looking at this market as well. We are definitely getting driven by this market now.

What about the rural segment?
Since as a company we are focussed on computing for the masses, we can't ignore the rural segment. It is noteworthy that the rural market challenges and requirements are different. If you are an urban consumer you may call a local help or travel 4 to 5 kilometres at the most to get your computer repaired, but if you are in the rural area, you may have to travel 30 to 40 miles to get it repaired and you may find no local support at all. The no-manageability aspect of Nova netPC can prove to be a big boon for the rural consumer. So we are really focussed on this market and we believe that majority of the future consumption of the product is going to happen in the Tier II and the rural belt rather than the metros.

How has Novatium managed its way up the ladder?
We have had our share of struggles too. But I won't deny that we have been lucky in a few ways so far. We could sail through with limited resources and I think one thing that has helped us a lot is that we have made the best use of the resources that we had. We were fortunate to have found a few good partners who put their faith in us and put their bets on our product and helped us take it to the market. Although we have achieved a certain volume now, but challenges are still there.

About Nova netPC Nova netPC is a computing device where the user gets only a screen, a keyboard and a mouse. The computing is all done at the server level-software, hardware and connectivity are all on the server. The product has no storage, no hardware, no software and hence no maintenance and no upgradation issues.

In India the reach of the Internet is pretty bad in most parts of the country. There are bandwidth as well as connectivity issues as well. How does the NetPC fare in such a situation?
The product is finetuned for the kind of bandwidth we get in India. Our early pilot with Telcos helped us to sort out this issue. Our product saves most of the system driven bandwidth consumption which leads to better quality for the consumer and lowest cost for everyone as well. Did you not think through this issue while designing the product? Does this not impact the performance of the product, especially in the case of users located in small towns and rural/remote areas? Our product performance does vary to a great extent if you compare it with a normal PC. In an inconsistent bandwidth situation our product will out perform a PC 95 per cent of the time. And this has been a basic design feature as how to optimise the user experience on a low Bandwidth.

--Vandana Sharma, assistant editor, IT Vertical

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