Cover image credits – gadgetmatch.com
A Chinese Invasion of the Indian market is well underway! But there’s no need to panic. This invasion has only benefits for the Indian consumer. Recent years have seen an influx of several brands with their design and production processes centered in China. Cheap labour and material costs coupled with the debt-light capital structure of China has enabled them to offer quality products at very reasonable costs. Latest Chinese entrants to the smartphone game exude class and style and have captured both user’s imagination and market share. Boasting the very latest developments in mobile computing and connectivity, along with incisive and immensely effective marketing techniques, several Chinese enterprises have burst on to the scene and immediately gone about their business with ruthless efficiency.
Games of Phones for the Thrones
A cursory glance over latest market shares exactly how dominant Chinese enterprises are in the smartphone segment. Chinese companies now boast 51% market share in the smartphone segment, most of which has been captured in recent years. Xaiomi, Lenovo, LeEco, Gionee are but a few of the companies churning out one product after the other, all of which have been embraced by the Indian consumer with open arms. Shrewd positioning of products and revolutionary market tactics have supplemented already overflowing goodwill towards these brands, and their sales figures have rocketed skyward. Indian enterprises such as Micromax, Karbonn and Lava which had more than held their own in the Indian market have been literally blown away!
These companies have consistently been able to offer premium features at competitive prices, which have changed consumer expectations to a large extent. Enterprises such as Samsung and Apple have had to rethink their entire pricing model to contend with the sudden rise in competition, and have even lost ground in the market to these companies.
But the most meteoric rise in recent years has been that of BBK Electronics. While this name might not register immediately on the minds of the average consumer that of their individual brands definitely will be Oppo and Vivo!
For the past several months, these entities have been on what can only be described as a marketing blitzkrieg. Drive in any city, in any direction, and you are bound to come across an Oppo or Vivo hoarding before you can finish counting to ten! BBK Electronics is on a war footing, and if rumours are to be believed, their outlay purely on marketing for the year 2017 is believed to be in the region of 2200 crore!
Revolutionary Marketing and Its Impact
This marketing plan isn’t thoughtless pumping in of money but calculated and precise capturing of consumer attention. They have gone to great lengths to understand the Indian psyche, and this is evident in the nature of their spending.
Vivo is the official title sponsor of the Indian Premier League, the largest sporting event in India. This has guaranteed visibility to the brand, and the effectiveness of this move is stressed by the fact that Vivo is now the third most popular brand in India. Its market share of 10.5% is phenomenal considering how little time it has needed to achieve this.
Oppo has also played the cricket card, but it has taken it one step further. It is now the title sponsor of the Indian cricket team! The representatives of more than 1.3 Billion cricket-crazy Indians walk on to the field with the words “Oppo” emblazoned on their chests. What a marketing masterstroke! Whatever costs incurred to make this happen have no doubt been recovered with the consequent upswing in sales. The unveiling of the Indian team jersey along with the launch of the Oppo F3 ensured that absolutely no one went unaware of this new sponsorship deal, generating publicity for the brand simultaneously.