Source: Computer Dealer News
Time: June 13, 2003
Title: "Count on a BenQ Canada in 2004" Summary: BenQ CEO Ralph Tang wants to build wholly-owned subsidiary and large VAR
base in Canada Q and A: In an exclusive interview, Ralph Tang, CEO of BenQ, formerly Acer
Peripherals confirmed BenQ will have a wholly owned subsidiary in Canada
starting in 2004. BenQ has also named Peter Lee as its sole Canadian representative in
Canada. Lee will be stationed in Toronto, according to Tang, and work with
BenQ's channel partners. AM & A, a manufacturer's representative firm
based in Montreal, has also been retained by BenQ to handle the Canadian
market. These are just initial steps for BenQ in Canada. Computer Dealer News
recently interviewed Tang about the Canadian market place and BenQ's goals
as a global technology provider. CDN: BenQ is making itself known in the industry very well up here, is that
your main goal for this year or do you have other accomplishments in mind? Ralph Tang: In 2003 it is our focus to provide product and service in
Canada. Peter Lee is BenQ Canada's representative and he will be stationed
in Toronto. So because we are in an initial stage and are making all legal
registration we hope in 2004 to have a legal entity established in Canada
and called BenQ Canada. We need to provide fast response to customer
needs. The only way to do this is to have our own people station in the
local market. AM & A will work together with Peter Lee. Currently, we have
man power in Canada and would like to say that it is just a beginning for
BenQ in the Canadian market. The education level of Canadian people is
extremely high and Canadian people understand what a good product is at a
reasonable price. In 2003, we are trying to provide our best quality
products at reasonable prices and sometimes excellent prices. You will see
when certain infrastructures are built in 2003 more marketing activity
from BenQ. It will start in 2004. Canadian customers are not just looking for brand. The brands that are well
established are not that important to Canadians. They are willing to try
something new if it is good quality at a reasonable price. This is our
status at this moment. CDN: You just launched a cash back incentive program, why did you need to
do this at this time? Tang: We launched the Q Rewards program for LCD projectors in U.S. only at
this moment. We do provide Canadian resellers or channel partner the kind
of Q Rewards for projectors. The reason is, at this moment, we believe end
users will like to get a reasonable priced projector. But the market
behaviour is different in Canada than the U.S. and competition is
different and most vendors go straight forward to market as low as
possible to attract customers. CDN: How difficult is the challenge of establishing your brand, when lots
of people still say you used to be Acer Peripherals? Tang: The challenge is quite big. It is difficult to let the customer
understand what Acer Peripherals was and what BenQ is. I personally
believe that they will treat BenQ as a totally new brand and that is the
reason why I emphasize quality products, price and stability as our image.
So your question is how difficult and we need to spend two years, three
years or five years to prove ourselves that to the customer. We do provide
excellent products and have won the confidence of the customer and we try
to hopefully have no relationship with Acer. Acer Peripherals is totally separate from our group. And, we have created
our own brand name and unique services and different product line to the
customer. CDN: What is your goals for the Canadian market? Tang: What I would like to achieve in 2003 basically is to have a
fundamental infrastructure with the channel. To have long term partners in
retail and distribution. I would like to have our local service
infrastructure in place and have it create a lot of activity related to
infrastructure. What I believe is if you are not well established in basic
fundamentals of your business you will not go for long. Step by step
achievement in Canada. CDN: You have lined up several distributors recently: Comtronic, Synnex and
others. What is your distribution strategy? Tang: At this moment, we have Synnex Canada, Comtronic, Daiwa, ALC Micro
and Supercom. That's all so hopefully we can strengthen our relationship
with them and try to cover the entire Canadian market. We do not have the
kind of plan I think right now to increase the number of distributors. It
is already crowded and the key is not the number of distributors. Our goal
is customer satisfaction and we are looking for end customer satisfaction
and we walk together with distributors to reach this goal as a channel
partner. The distribution has to perform a portion of the function of this
goal and lot of other functions. We need to do the rest by ourselves such
as a launch campaign for universities in Canada. We'll try to provide
quality products at a reasonable price for people that just joined a
university. We need to communicate this message to freshmen and to deliver
products to them in a very convenient way. We are looking at that and not
counting how many distribution we have. That is not a winning point. CDN: You have mostly commodity products. How do you bring more margins to
resellers? Tang: We would like to apply the so called MAP system, which is minimum
adverting price to resellers or distribution. They are performing their
valued contribution and should receive their reward accordingly. We try to
control the overall price in the Canadian market so No. 1 end customer has
product at a reasonable price and we make sure the channel partners have
enough margin to perform their job. The Q Rewards program if we see the
situation necessary we will launch this in Canada on the reseller side. We
are trying to control price in every tier before it reaches the end
customer. [IMAGE PHOTOGRAPH] Ralph Tang, CEO of BenQ, formerly Acer Peripherals, in City of Industry
Calif. Photo
[Not Transcribed] CDN: Is it a goal to grow your reseller base in Canada and the U.S.? If so,
by how much? Tang: Certainly, yes, but as I mentioned our emphasis is on building the
infrastructure at this moment. I can't tell the exact number but in 2004
once everything is established we should be able to supply specifics. We
are going in that direction. CDN: Do you see BenQ one-day become similar to LG where you would develop
refrigerators and big screen TVs? Is that where you are headed? Tang: It is a little bit different. BenQ is starting from IT area and what
I see in LG or Samsung they started in home appliance area. So right now
you can see two types of companies going in one direction, which is
digital convergence. For learning, for entertainment purposes or working,
the leisure purpose as well because in the future all type of products
they can be used for these purposes. Learning, entertainment, working and
leisure so you'll find two types of companies from the past all going in
this direction. BenQ is from IT and LG in home appliance. From the end
product you can see it is very similar but from core technology they are
different. We are more toward IT and LG are more home. CDN: How do you differentiate yourself from competitors? Tang: We think our competitor is Samsung. What we would like to achieve
(over them) is value for our product line. [SIDEBAR] Build a fundamental infrastructure with channel and long term partners in
retail and distribution [COPYRIGHT] Copyright Plesman Publications Ltd. Jun 13, 2003 | 