Kathmandu Post

MONEY»

Lots of love and discounts

KATHMANDU, FEB 09 -
Besides giving conventional gifts like roses, chocolates and greeting cards, newer ideas for celebrating Valentine’s Day are always coming up. For example, automobile dealers have launched special Valentine offers, shopping malls have planned almost weeklong events and telecom companies have also introduced special offers.

“Valentine’s Day is slowly emerging as one of the most popular occasions among teenagers, and we are leaving no stone unturned to capitalize on it,” said Nishant Shrestha, head of marketing and communications at Civil Mall. “Most of the shopping done in Nepal is unplanned. So maintaining footfall is one of the major tasks for the mall management. And like in past years, this year too we are conducting various activities to increase footfall at the mall by launching special schemes for Valentine’s Day.”

According to Shrestha, Civil Mall will organise various events including concerts, b-boying, DJ session and other fun-filled activities for Valentine’s Day from Feb 10-14. The mall is expecting a surge in footfall during these days. “We have targeted hosting 200,000 people during the four days, and the figure looks achievable,” said Shrestha. 

Amid a slump in sales, automobile dealers are also using Valentine’s Day to boost their business. Vijay Motors, the authorised distributor of Chevrolet, has launched a scheme entitled “Valentine Special Offer” for Chevrolet Uva, Aveo and Optra cars. According to Nisha Shrestha, marketing and promotion executive at Vijay Motors, the company is offering a cash discount, a four-day three-night tour package to Dubai and all the basic accessories for free to all buyers of Chevrolet autos and those who book one during the scheme period.

Likewise, the company is giving a three-year warranty and free servicing to its customers. “The scheme will last till the end of February,” said Shrestha, adding that the offer was introduced with a motive to reinvigorate the market which has remained sluggish for a long period. She said that the influence of Valentine’s Day among the Nepali people was growing slowly, and that coming up with such schemes would definitely help them to rise out of the slump.

Likewise, CG Impex, the authorised distributor of LG mobiles in Nepal, has come up with a special Valentine offer. Entitled “It’s time to talk about love”, the company is giving away a wristwatch on purchase of normal LG phones and two wristwatches on purchase of a smart phone. In addition, buyers of smart phones will get a 2 GB memory card for free and those who buy normal LG mobile phones compatible with the memory card will get a free 1 GB memory card. “Mobile phones from LG are mostly targeted at youngsters. Therefore, coming up with schemes for Valentine’s Day makes great business sense for us,” said Binayak Pokhrel, manager of CG Impex. According to him, the scheme will last through February. The company which is currently marketing 18 models of LG mobile phones is expecting an increment in sales by at least 20 to 25 percent. Smart phones from LG carry price tags of Rs 17,000 to Rs 50,000,

while normal ones  are priced from Rs 5,500 to Rs 10,000.

Similarly, telecom service provider Ncell is offering two SIM cards for Rs 99. According to the company, subscribers using these SIM cards can talk to each other at Rs 0.50 per minute, a discount of 75 percent on the normal tariff.

Posted on: 2012-02-10 09:48

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