THE MOBILE BRAND WAR

THE MOBILE BRAND WAR

One of the best rivalry happening in Indian market is for Mobile, innovations are on top right from AI features to pop up camera. By own Indian sentiments, one question is in my mind, how many Indian companies are operating in India for selling mobiles & what is their share? unfortunately we all know its below 10% share for Indian companies which also categories as others! See below table  Xiaomi is leading with 29% share (even after covid ??!!)

WHY CHINESE BRANDS HAVING BIGGER MARKET SHARE IN INDIA

Xiaomi’s strategy

Xiaomi appointed an experienced local internet entrepreneur, Manu Kumar Jain, to head its India operations, this was smart move! Appointed a person who has strong internet business environment background, which clearly shows, before entering into rivalry they studied market very well. Xiaomi focused on localization strategy for faster reach & MADE IN INDIA sentiments and it has established factories in the country. In 2015, it began a “made in India” plan that now ensures the vast majority (over 95 percent) of the phones it sells in India were also manufactured in India. Initially they focused on completely E commerce through Amazon, even today if you click on amazon you will get Xiaomi phones on home page it shows stronger collaboration within Xiaomi & Amazon. After success on E platform they entered in offline sales where they started their own brand shops with benefits to local entrepreneurs & importantly with offline stores they make sure for their service center presence. 

On the product side, it has focused mostly on its Honest pricing , if you see Redmi brand Targeted middle class customer & especially working class , the reason behind is very simple i.e. number of customers will be more in this segment ! . we can say strategy worked well , when in 2017, the Redmi Note 4 and Redmi 4 were India’s two most popular smartphone models. Redmi still continues to sell their products mainly below 20000

Xiaomi has also modified its software stack in India, adding India-specific features.  Xiaomi has also spent a huge sum on marketing in India, and wisely adapted its marketing strategy to Indian norms.

BBK Electronics  (OPPO, VIVO, REALME , ONE PLUS , IQOO) Strategy  

Very few people knows, OPPO, VIVO , REALME, ONE PLUS , IQOO all owned by BBK electronics , personally I feel they are real market leader!

Oppo and Vivo entered the Indian market in 2014 and started placing increasing emphasis on the country beginning in 2015.They have largely continued their China-market approach in India, focusing largely on offline sales channels and service centers by opening shops. While smartly they kept their premium phone exclusively on Amazon i.e. One plus .

VIVO & OPPO  also begun to localize manufacturing, establishing factories to avoid tariffs and make themselves more competitive with local players. Importantly their collective investment on marketing in India reportedly exceeds US$330 million.

On the product front , BBK electronics make sure their presence everywhere right from e commerce to local mobile shop importantly they kept their sub brand strategy which not allows customer to avoid their brand if you go to any shop you will get all their mobile brands mainly oppo & vivo.

Vivo Focused on introducing products that have a professional audio system, great appearance specially when phone holding in hand  and provide fast and smooth user experience. Also they attracting customer by their Camera innovations

In Oppo , I feel they targeted Young female consumers  , do know why ?Oppo Introduced super slim handsets with some very attractive features to suit their needs and requirements such as rotating cameras, duel selfie etc. to improve the ‘selfie’ taking experience for them. Because by market research they must got to know about beautiful photo importance in Indian Female life! They have tried to differentiate their smartphone from the rest of the available products from other competitors by communicating through various channels that they are the ‘selfie expert’ in the market.

One plus brand positioned as premium phone & by e commerce platform they would like to attract corporate customers by fast processors, professional look, bigger screen.

 WHY INDIAN BRAND FAILED, AFTER INTIAL SUCCESS?

 In 2010-2011 Market demand for low priced phones was very high, and Indian smartphone vendors like Micromax , karbonn were able to cash in on that. From a less than 10 percent smartphone market share in late 2010-mid 2011 to surpassing 50 percent in 2015, the companies were finally in good shape & then turning point arrived!

We have to note why Chinese companies not entered in 2010 when there was big market place was available i.e. for two reason 1) they were busy in to get more market share in Chinese market 2) as they are raw material provider they preferred to wait & watch situation.

When in 2015 , Chinese market was getting saturated & making difficulties for Xiaomi, BBk electronics , Huawei growth plan , these companies had begun to look elsewhere i.e. India, they realized …it make sense to enter in India as like china its 2nd population country in the  world , so consumer segment will be available for growth in spite of Indian companies presence. They had all the insight on what kind of smartphones Indian consumers want. They already knew what kind of strategies to put in place from years of their experience in China,

For the first few months, Indian smartphone vendors didn't show much concern about the growing competition but when Xiaomi - began to enter India and they started to gain ground in the country, a sense of panic had set in. The Indian companies finally began to bring in professionals from other companies. things should have improved, but they didn't. Chinese brand focused on specification games , they introduced design differentiations even through shape, feel etc & they spend huge money on marketing , in fact still they are doing the same where Indian brand restricted because of sudden move of competition , importantly Indian companies failed on innovations, features & the Indian players have shown no capability of original design because of that customer started buying Chinese brands, Importantly all Chinese brands came with clear strategy that why they entered with e commerce which had given them initial customer base & customer feed back ! Indian companies decided backward move in the stiff competition market, now today Chinese brand leading the market with ease!

LEARNING CURVE

 I am happy Micromax announced on twitter, they will back in mobile market ! I feel sad why Indian companies failed in such big market, I think when you enjoying market , somewhat Indian thought process of saving money will not work! When you are at number one position, you have to first focus on future strategy which possible with right people on board , you have to invest in right people

 Now with covid situation, Indian companies have better chance for emotional marketing, but there business base is weak & it’s too difficult to enter again ! India’s market in such an early stage, the market shares are far from settled, and a lot of variables can change. But players that want a big market share slice of that long-term pie will need to focus more on localization, adjusting their products to fit local users’ needs and the current market situation. And with so many players already in the market, long-term success is going to require investment i.e. not only on marketing or product but on right people also. A fundamentally and financially strong company that excels at localization is likely to end up the winner here.