The group is expected to take a higher price positioning in the market in the next few months with a range of new products, starting with a new range of televisions to be launched in a week or two.

In fact, the average price of most Videocon products has gone up in the last few months, Gupta pointed out. ``In certain product segments, we have taken a significant price increase,'' he stated.

Hitherto, the Videocon group built up significant volumes in the market by taking one of the lowestprice points in the industry. A number of competitors consider Videocon prices as the benchmark while deciding the pricing for new products.

Now, the group proposes to project Videocon as a competitive brand offering more of a value proposition-in terms of features offered at a given price point-than those from the multinational companies.

Under the new marketing strategy for the brand, Videocon will continue to be the flagship brand, which would be flanked by multinational brands in the group's fold.

Thus Videocon will be flanked by Akai, Sansui, Toshiba and Kenwood, each of which will have a unique positioning, Gupta explained. While each of these brands may offer similar products in the mass market segment, at the top-to-premium end, each brand will have a distinct positioning which would differentiate one from the other.

As a part of this strategy, the company plans to launch a host of ``dream products'' and aggressively push sub-branding across all product segments. Videocon has so far usedsub-branding aggressively as a marketing tool for its range of colour televisions.

So while CTV products were projected as belonging to either the Bazooka, Challenger, Freedom or Budgetline series, the appliances were little known by their sub-brands such as Jetmatic, or Supermarket for the refrigerators. This is set change soon with the company planning to extend sub-branding to white goods soon.

In the CTVs market, Videcon is set to unveil a new series next week which would be mass market yet premium on features. ``We will offer all the features in the new series that no single manufacturer provides at this given point of time on a single product,'' Gupta said describing the new line-up.

The company reasons that adding features or value to products would not cost the company much. ``The perception value of the brand would however go up substantially,'' Gupta felt.

The new series of CTVs would be positioned at mid-to-top end of the market and would be available in 20, 21, 25 and 29-inch screen sizes.In addition, the company is planning to launch its latest offering `tv.comp' with a new combination in 21-inch and 29-inch.

Videocon is also planning to expand its appliances portfolio with dishwashers designed for Indian requirements and washing machines. ``We are launching the most advanced modern range of appliances,'' Gupta said.