Onida plans Rs 100-120 crore brand communication revamp

Mirc Electronics, manufacturer of the Onida brand of consumer durables, will expand operations this year with new products, widening its manufacturing base and aggressive marketing.

The company is planning to invest Rs 100-120 crore on a new umbrella campaign for all its portfolio products to help consolidate its market position.

“The communication will be finalised by May-end and the Rs 100-120 cr investment is nearly 100 per cent more than last year,” said G Sundar, CEO. The company will, however, continue with its 'Devil’ brand mascot and not bring any brand ambassadors on board.

The manufacturing base is being expanded for washing machines and it will introduce a new line for LCDs and DVDs at its Roorkie plant. “We are investing around Rs 60 cr in this facility, mainly with the aim to expand our presence in the north,”said the CEO. Mirc Electronics has two other plants, one in Wada (Maharashtra) and another in Noida.

After successfully incorporating Qdeo video processing technology (a high-definition technology which improves picture quality) into its first LCD range in India, Mirc plans to incorporate this into a new range of DVD players, too. Last year, the company entered a strategic partnership with the US-based communications and consumer silicon solutions provider, Marvell, to bring the Qdeo video processing technology to India. The new range, called Atom, will be launched by July.

Qdeo technology, developed by Marvell, is known to deliver natural video, free of artifacts and noise, enhances the colour and scales all video inputs into a high-definition format. While Marvell provided the chips, Mirc’s in-house R&D team helped incorporate the technology into the Xaria LCD range.

“The DVD player will give better picture quality even if the input is not high-definition,” Sundar said. Mirc invests 3 per cent of its turnover in research and development. The company also introduced a 22-inch LCD model priced at Rs 15,990 this month and has already sold 3,000 units.