CHENNAI: "We are a fighting player.'' This is how Rajiv Khanna, CEO of Meridian Mobile, described his company's position in the Indian market with its Fly brand of cell phones, when he was asked whether Fly was an "also-ran" in the Indian market place. It is not an inconsiderable achievement that a three-year-old company has achieved three to five per cent market share in the highly competitive cell phone market in the countries in which it operates — in Eastern and Central Europe, and less than a year in India.

One would have thought that a new entrant, with limited financial clout compared to the global giants in the cell phone industry, would enter a new market, particularly a developing country, with products for the lower end of the market.

But the wholly-owned Indian subsidiary of the U.K.-based Meridian Group has chosen to enter the crowded Indian market with gadgets with a minimum price tag of around Rs 7,000. and has no regrets about it. Placed in the mid-segment in the GSM category with much sought-after functionalities, according to Mr. Khanna, Fly has its only credible competitor in Spice in India, both of them counting their place after the five biggies — Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG.

Talking to The Hindu, Mr. Khanna said Fly phones (manufactured by merchant producers, especially in South Korea, and imported paying a tariff of about five per cent) were targeted at the youth, and succeeding in the marketplace. Meridian was exploiting the innate strengths of any small enterprise — rapidity of time to market, compared to the bigger players, and its "matrix'' model of supply chain, which suited the market requirements. The slim, compact and stylishly designed Fly targeted the "replacement market,'' which he defines as users going in for new phones, especially in pursuit of upgrades.

Obviously in no position to compete with the dominant players in terms of media space in promotion, the company's main marketing strategy, Mr. Khanna explained, was its attractive terms offered to dealer outlets, focus on merchandising and placing its own trained marketers at hundreds of outlets. Fly Mobile, for whom Accel Frontline is the logistics and channel partner and customer service provider, has arrangements with Big Bazaar, Pantaloon and Subhiksha for store-in-store arrangements. Fly proposes to start its website soon, he added.

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