Jadoonet.com, a joint venture between Infoquest E-commerce and Salora International, is all set to roll out a new range of Internet access appliance called Jadoonet Elite within a month. With the help of `Jadoonet Elite', viewers can now watch television programmes as well as surf on the Net.

According to Jadoonet.com director Mr Rajendra Jadhav, the USP of the new product is its new features. "For the first time in India, we offer `picture in picture' facility with our new product. Other main features include: zoom option, voice mail and answering facilities," claims Mr Jadhav.

For effective marketing of its set-top box Jadoonet Elite, the company is also planning to tie up with leading television companies to promote the new range, informs Mr Jadhav.

At present, there are three major players in the nascent set-top boxes market in India. These are: Videocon International's Vnet, Jadoonet.com and Philips Web TV Box.

For its offline advertising strategy, the company has roped in Lowe Lintas & Partners to chart out its communication strategy. To announce the new launch, the company plans to come out with an aggressive print campaign very soon, informs Mr Jadhav. "With the launch of Jadoonet Elite, we offer additional features and benefits. Our ad campaign will naturally highlight this aspect. As for pricing we are still working on it," adds Mr Jadhav.

According to Mr Jadhav, the new range will offer three options which include dial-up option, ethernet card and `TV integration kit' option.

With an ethernet card option, the company plans to target cable Net operators across the country. "With this launch, we want to target OEM (original equipment manufacturer) too. We plan to sell these set top boxes to leading TV companies, so that they will integrate this appliance in their television sets," explains Mr Jadhav.

As for the rationale behind the new launch, Mr Jadhav explains that the company opted for the new range after seeing the response it had received for its previous launch `Jadoonet Classic'. For effective marketing of Jadoonet Classic, the company has tied up with Samsung Electronics India, the Korean Electronics giant. "After the tie-up, we kicked off a co-branding exercise and introduced `Samsung TV Net appliance' in August last year," he adds.

Currently, the company is in the process of rolling out a print campaign to promote Jadoonet Classic' range in Gujarat and Maharashtra. With the tagline `Now surf the Net on your TV' the new campaign is created by Lowe Lintas & Partners.

As for its online advertising strategy, Mr Jhadav says: "We have appointed Initiative Media for our media selling on the Net. For strategic alliances, we have tied up with Rediff.com," adds Mr Jadhav.