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MUMBAI
27th December,2006
Mumbai-based Allied Digital Services (ADS) has decided to give its Gateway
brand of PCs its own brand identity, distinct from ADS. Nitin Shah, Founder of
ADS has even distanced himself from the brand, which is now handled by his
brother Prakash Shah. “Gateway is now a separate company with a different
management team and structure,” informs Nitin Shah.
There are several reasons why ADS has taken this step. One main reason is
because ADS is known as a technology company and customers find the presence of
an in-house PC brand a little jarring.
“Often our customers wonder what is a hard core technology solution
provider like ADS doing with a PC brand. So to ease the confusion we decided to
separate ourselves from the brand,” Shah clarifies.
There was also a dilution of core competencies, as ADS had to dedicate a team
of people who went with the ADS name, but were promoting a hardware box. This
will now be avoided, as the same team people will now sport Gateway's name on
their visiting cards.
At the same time there is a reason why ADS is not relinquishing the brand
entirely. Years ago, when ADS got Gateway registered as a brand, US-based
Gateway PCs were planning to enter into the Indian market. However, it was not
possible for two Gateways to exist in the market, as it would lead to brand
confusion. Nitin is holding onto the Gateway brand simply because of the power
of the name.
Surprisingly, Gateway will be sold directly to the corporate customers,
rather than through dealers. This is to eliminate channel margins and make the
brand more economical for corporate customers. Given that ADS is not pumping
huge funds into brand evangelization this will be a good way to ensure that the
orders keep flowing in.
There is an interesting reason why ADS got into selling Gateway PCs in the
first place. Back in the 90s, it was heavily dependent on a couple of PC vendors
for deployment of their systems and its subsequent integration for their
corporate clients. But several times, the vendors would not deliver the PCs on
time, which infuriated several clients. ADS therefore decided to brand and sell
their own PCs to avoid losing customers and also rid itself of
vendor-dependency. And today, it is trying to rid itself of the aura of being a
hardware player, by moving away from the very brand it had created. Page(s) 1
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