Premiumization in Retail Marketing Part -1

Marketing is all about creating the change, create more value. Premiumisation is the strategy of growth and revenue, and retail Marketing plays the most significant role in the overall growth strategy.

I have AS5 that is two years old mobile handset and its time to replace it with a new, more powerful phone. Recently I saw that photo quality of its flagship phone - AS7T, that’s far superior, and I believe the best in the market. I am a photographer, and a good camera phone satisfies my desire to get appreciation from the audience for my photo.

So basically I don’t want the only phone with a camera, not only a good camera phone not even just the facility to click photo but I am looking for something which can get me the appreciation from them unknown people and make them my followers.

Wait, just discovered. I want followers, more followers on my Instagram.

So a good phone can get me so many new followers. Here in this article, we are talking about an imaginary brand AS, which is the best selling phone in the range of Rs 15000 to Rs20,000. A company must package the bundle of values so that a buyer can trust, welcome, and happily include in their life as an essential part of her or her ecosystem.

AS must not treat a customer just like a customer, but should be an advocate of this phone and the brand. They are the actual brand ambassadors of this company. AS5T is not necessarily a great product but has some values and bundle of aspirations which eventually bring happiness to someone’s life and that the overall objective of a marketing campaign.

Now AS wants to get into the premium segment category. 

Now, let’s sit with the AS marketing team.

• Why Should anyone care, WHAT you are.?
• Why should a customer think that you are a premium brand.?
• Why should anyone pay a premium for your product.?

If some tangible product brings some kind of satisfaction and exclusivity, then he is ready to pay a premium cost. A cost is something which he prepared to pay in the exchange of that feeling.

Please understand, humans are lonely, very lonely, and everyone wants to be in a group—a set of likeminded people, not necessarily like him, but to aspire to be sort of people.

A mobile handset can bring those exclusive feelings, a sense of pride for being one of the owners of that particular mobile handset.

Therefore AS marketing team must take care of this while planning to launch a premium category phone.

Premium is an intangible value to someone.

WHY does someone buy a particular brand, WHAT brings them that intangible feeling from a tangible product.

Let’s find out the buyer persona. Refer below window

So in this image, I have mentioned that a prospective buyer for a premium phone.

1. Android lovers looking for something new and trendy
2. High-Income professionals who can easily afford high-value phones such as IT professionals such as project managers and software engineers. 
3. Club Regulars such as rotary club, lions club, etc
4. Frequent Fliers
5. One who plays golf and attend music festivals and concerts.
6. Hardcore AS lovers who aspire to buy Flagship phones from AS

What is the premium?

It is a desire to get recognition, Acknowledged by people to be exclusive and something different, owning something better and a sense of exclusivity.

For premiumization - Create a blue ocean where there should not be any competition. Build a brand that has possess those attributes which can be carved out by consumers, and they will happily pay for it. Added value will create a sense of superiority from the same league of products, and eventually, the users will be attached to this emotionally. This emotion will help the brand to grow and prosper.  This is the answer to the 3rd point above mentioned.

But why AS wants to get into this category when he is the best selling mobile handset brand in mid-segment? The answer is simple to make more money and established themselves for the future. With the technological boom and improved AI-based features, all mobile companies are competing for each other to bring the most sophisticated and powerful phone. 

Now customers are also very well aware and ready to pay more if the features are exclusive and more advanced to his previous phone. 

Here features are not only the criteria, but the overall experience of owning a sleek phone matters. Because if features would be the only criteria, then a Korean brand, which is a market leader in consumer durable, would not have had less than 1% of market share in the Indian market. 

This Korean brand has the best product, but the presentation is not as par, they haven’t succeeded to explain their narrative to the customer. They failed measurably to share the experience of one happy customer to the next prospective customers. 

Some Important guidelines

• Never compromise on the cost of the product. 
• Create exclusivity by supplying a limited quantity in MBOs and big Format regional Retail outlets. It should only be available in Company brand outlets.
•  Display at Premium Consumer Touch Points - such, Airport- VIP lounge area and premium restaurant ( Not at Malls)  and media and aesthetics should be premium quality trans lit vinyl at high visibility Spots.
•  In the 1st month - it should be available on referral customers only for existing AS users only.
•  Association of premium lifestyle Magazine
•  Sponsorships at the Golf course or may conceptualize a new golf championship - CEO cup.
• Giving Sponsorship of Music concert or associating with events like - Sunburn and NH4 weekender.
•  Focusing the value creation due to product USPs and highlight them in all brand communication.
• Setting up Experiential Booth in HNI clubs such as Rotary club and
•  Association with Doctors club and Doctors Day event, CEOs Club, chamber of commerce, and other industrial Seminars.
•  Exclusive service support - complete handsets change if the issue found.
•  Limited Edition product, with exclusive services and service, maybe with two years warranty.
•  Engagement Activities in BRO, encouraging customers to share the experience on social media and taking selfies and photo-up with product cutout.

The next part of this series will have three main features.

1. #Retail Marketing Plan

Phase wise plan -

• Pre-launch Plan
• Launch day Plan
• Post Launch Plan 

2. #CRM plan in detail - 

I learned this customer relation marketing activity in retail while working with LG. Its 8-day event mainly focused on brand outlets.

Objective:- The key to CRM promotions is to extract target customers who are more likely to purchase a high-value smartphone and bring them to shop on a specific period.

 There will be three categories - 1) Nearby residents – through window sticker and paper inserts 2) Those who visited the shop in the last 60 days but did not buy anything. – Through Tell-calling 3) All Existing customer – Through SMS campaign. 

3. #Corporate Plan for premiumization

Some actions can be initiated at the corporate level only, but for the overall integrated marketing, it is crucial to roll out the entire GTM plan simultaneously. I am going to share five ideas with the details in the next part of this article.