NEW DELHI, Mar 20: HCL is planning to move the Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci) against arch-rival Compaq, charging the latter with issuing misleading advertisements to promote its personal computers (PCs). HCL and Compaq have been involved in a bitter price war along with Hewlett Packard and Digital over the past couple of weeks.HCL general manager marketing Sharad Talwar said Compaq first came out with advertisements showing the photograph of a computer complete with the monitor and a keyboard. However, a small note in fine print at the bottom of the advertisement mentioned that the offer of a PC at Rs 39,990 was without a monitor. "In addition, the advertisement did not mention whether a mouse and keyboard were inclusive, which is unethical and misleads the customer," Talwar said.
Compaq managing director Abhishek Mukherjee clarified that his company was not the first to advertise personal computers without including the price of a monitor. "This is standard worldwide practice and ourmotive for doing this is to give the Indian customer a low possible cost of ownership through the Deskpro 1000 model", said Mukherjee.
"The Indian customer can now choose between various types of monitors as our offer allows him to buy a low cost PC alongwith the freedom to choose a monitor of his choice," he said. He claimed that this strategy had paid dividends and the response from customers and dealers was encouraging.
Meanwhile, the company has come out with fresh advertisements announcing that the offer is inclusive of a keyboard, mouse and has started to mention the price of a monitor. In addition, Compaq which had earlier withdrawn mention of a three-year warranty in earlier advertisements, is now including warranty in its fresh advertisements. HCL's Talwar however, reiterated that it was a global practice to include details and include prices of all peripherals, besides mentioning optional items.
The company has come out with the first-of-its-kind exchange scheme, intensifying the battle in thePC market. Targeted at existing PC users, the scheme is being selectively advertised with a view to gauge customer response.
In an another reaction to the launch of Compaq Deskpro 1000, HCL has launched an ad-blitz to counter the Compaq campaign. In fact, a virtual advertising war has started with every major computer manufacturer joining the fray. Meanwhile Digital and Compaq have also locked horns over the launch of Deskpro 1000. Ironically, both announced intentions to merge operations earlier this year. The Digital advertisement boldly states "No fine print.
All accessories shown and more are included in the price. Only local taxes extra." Talwar said a Deskpro buyer would have to constantly upgrade the machine, as it was nothing more than a shell.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
