During this period, every Ortem fan will carry a sealed gift coupon. Onscratching the surface, the gift will be revealed: either a branded product -- ranging from a Maruti 800, fridge, scooter or CTV -- or a cash discountranging from Rs 20 to Rs 500.

Says Rummy Chhabra, managing director, Metro Appliances Ltd: ``So far we hadbeen offering only dealer discounts and incentives. We are launching such alarge consumer scheme for the first time. With increasing competition, wefelt the need to be innovative in order to make things move in a businessthat has low level of product differentiation on price or quality.''

Investing Rs 80 lakh on pushing the promotion through advertising and below-the-line activity like special POP material, buntings etc, he hopes thepromotion will help Ortem achieve a 20 per cent growth in sales during theduration of the promo, over the next three months. The print advertising ofthe scheme has just begun on January 22 and advertising on the electronicmedia is likely to commence in a week's time.

Ortem intends to use its ad budget of Rs 2.5 crore to aggressively increaseits brand visibility and strengthen its positioning. Says Chhabra, ``We arethe only fan company to be covered 100 per cent by ISO 9000''-- a fact thatwill be highlighted in future ad campaigns.

In other moves to strengthen its market position, Ortem is consciouslytargeting segments like hotels with customised offerings. It has bagged abig order from the Taj group of hotels for supplying fans to its hotels inGoa, Jodhpur and Mumbai. The model supplied to these hotels is a speciallydesigned premium fan branded Princess.

Priced at Rs 3,000, this fan is the most expensive high-end offering fromOrtem. With this model, Ortem is now present across the price band, withother models priced at the bottom-end at Rs 975 and the middle at Rs 1400.

The Ortem brand has a market share of 6 per cent of the 70 lakh unitsorganised fan market. Crompton Greaves and Usha are the market leaders witharound 20 per cent share respectively. With these focussed initiatives,Chhabra hopes to increase Ortem's market share to 12-15 per cent over aperiod of five years.

The Ortem brand is marketed by the Appliances division of the Rs 300 croreMetro group. Metro Appliances Ltd contributed Rs 35 crore to the groupturnover of Rs 300 crore last year. Besides fans, the company also marketsinduction cooking systems in collaboration with Samsung and zig-zag sewingmachines in a tie-up with Brother Industries of Japan.