Micromax Realized What MNC Mobile Brands Couldn’t

Micromax Mobile needs no introduction today.Just two years back people were not aware of the brand at all but today it’s India’s third largest selling company by volume after Nokia and Samsung (IDC Report).Brand’s success can be attributed to it’s ability to understand the need of the market ,aggressive marketing with a budget of Rs.100 crore and   smart distribution channel management.

As per IDC report Micromax displaced LG to become third largest selling mobile handset company in india with a market share of 6%.Nokia is market leader with 62% share and Samsung is on second place with 8% market share.The company today sells more than a million handsets a month and is now a Rs.1600 cr worth brand. The company has presence in more than 500 districts and 90,000 retail outlets. The company started its Mobile handset business in 2008 and the challenge was to establish an identity in a market dominated by big MNCs Like Nokia,Samsung,LG and Motorola. The company realized the fact that there are certain unmet needs still there in the market which is not being addressed by big brands. Micromax’s strategy ,since their inception has been to identify the unmet latent needs of people and come up with a product which no one else has and thus fits well with the consumer need. It didn’t banked on price competition only rather it catered to the needs of people unaddressed by MNC brands. Micromax initially targeted rural market and once it established its presence went on to lure urban youth.

Differentiation-Key stratgey:

Micromax has a lot of “firsts” to its credit in their  product portfolio. It was the first to introduce: Handsets with 30 days battery backup(Micromax X1i), Handsets with Dual SIM / Dual Standby, Handsets Switching Networks (GSM – CDMA) using gravity sensors, Aspirational Qwerty Keypad Handsets, Operator Branded 3G Handsets, OMH CDMA Handsets, etc

It’s gaming phone Gameolution has caught the fancy of youngsters.This phone works like wireless wii which works on motion sensor technology and can convert PC/Laptop in gaming device.Then it came up with MTV music phone MTV X360 with Yamaha amplifiers targeted at music loving youth.

Thrust on Dual SIM Phones:

It understood the need the market and gave thrust on DUAL SIM phones.Most of its phones are Dual SIM.Intense competition has led to stiff fall in call rates and operators keep on coming with various offers to lure customers.Thus customers do not want to remain loyal to one and desire to avail best available offers at any time.With dual SIM phones they can keep their one number constant and another one changing to avail the best offers.This has led to increase in popularity of Dual SIM phones and Micromax has grabbed substantial market in this category.Surprisingly Nokia didn’t heard this need and doesn’t have any Dual SIM in its brand portfolio.

Aggressive Marketing & Smart Distribution Channel Management:

The company realized the fact that it’ll have to build the brand and bring awareness in a market where people don’t rely on unbranded phones.The company went for aggressive marketing sponsored many cricketing events and allocated the budget of Rs.100 crore for ATL & BTL activities.Recently company roped in Bollywood Actor Akshay Kumar as Brand Ambassador.

Feature Rich phones at affordable price:

India is a price sensitive market and people aspire to have feature rich products at low price.Micromax made it possible and thus people B&C category towns grabbed micromax phones as it was laiden with features but not heavy on pocket. It’s QWERTY phones come below Rs.5000.

All said and done the company has few challenges to tackle too.It has to build trust among people in product performance and after sales service.Nokia & Samsung have a very strong after sales service centres.