Micromax recently launched the MAd campaign, with the unique concept of paying users to watch ads. Shubhodip Pal, Chief Marketing Officer, Micromax India talks about the company’s current marketing strategy, innovative projects, Hugh Jackman’s role as brand ambassador and more
By Saloni Dutta
Q] What are the fundamental principles of your marketing strategy? Can you give a rough estimate of your marketing spends?
Great products are made in factories, but successful brands are built in the minds of consumers - that is my basic philosophy. We try to figure out our target group, Micromax’s strengths and weaknesses and then formulate a strategy based on consumer passions and what they prefer. What differentiates us is that we are very specific to the genre of music, sport and movies that we targeted. However, this needs to be backed by a great product and our strategy was to bring the right product to India. We concentrated on products which were innovative and focused not only on the hardware, but good software too. For example, we tied up with JBL for Canvas music phones. We try to mix and match so that we can offer some great products at affordable prices. Our marketing spends are a certain percentage of the turnover. This year, while the percentage will remain the same, turnover will obviously increase.
Q] Which media take up the major chunk of your advertising and marketing spends?
We use a fair mix of all the traditional media with television garnering a major portion of the spends. We use Print depending on the objective, if the communication is more topical, we use a daily while magazines are used for long term brand building. We use 25-26 magazines which appeal to our target audience like Vogue, Elle, Top Gear, Lonely Planet, etc. Since the last nine months, we have made a concentrated effort on digital as a medium; 15% of our digital spends is on mobile and the rest go online. For online, we have done some crazy innovations with brand launches in the last year on websites like Yahoo, MSN or Google. Another thing that really worked for us is college activations. We picked up music festivals in 112 colleges across the country, which garnered maximum eyeballs. We invested close to around Rs 4-5 lakh in every college. We also do a lot with music festivals like Sunburn, Avicci, Tiesto, Gareth Emery, and other music shows across the country.
Q] There’s a lot of buzz around Micromax’s MAd campaign, where users get paid for watching ads. What was the purpose of the campaign?
We were looking at amalgamating the hardware and software while opening up another revenue channel for Micromax as well as consumers. It’s a win-win situation for the consumer, manufacturer as well as the service operator. Mobile has high penetration levels and is the only screen so close to you. However, in terms of actual usage as a medium, it is relegated to spamming the inbox with unwanted messages. That’s why we started MAd, with an aim to build a base of people who have opted for the service. The second aim of MAd is to offer advertising to people who love ads and will consume them because they have opted for the ads. Before they make a call, (or any other usage) the software asks them if they want to watch the ad first or if they want to continue with their regular call. The user chooses the ad, and gets points after watching it. When the points reach a certain number, the actual value is transferred back to the user, to recharge their phone or use data. The consumers benefit because they get the money back and the operator benefits because the money is put back into the network again. Micromax benefits as even if 50% of our consumers choose MAd, we have a base of six million users, which is a great number for advertisers and brand people, and it is not restricted to a single network. So, I control the network here, I control the ad engine here and once we get a healthy base where people are of good quality, then we can take it to the next level.
Q] Does your marketing strategy differ in different countries or it is the same globally?
Certain things work for us globally, like our brand ambassador actor Hugh Jackman. However, one file will not fill in all cases always. We launched Micromax in Russia on January 22, 2014. Luckily for us, Russians have similar passions as Indians, especially in music, films and sports, though the genres may be different. But the purchasing power of Russians is higher than that of Indians. This gives us an opportunity to pump up the features, and that is where we have played the game right. You need to understand the cultural nuances. Another trend is that youth across countries are the same, the synergies are the same, they all talk about the same things but express them in different ways. All our ads are neutral in terms of look and feel, tonality and the models being used. So if I were to do the voice-over for the same ad in German or in Russian language, I would be able to do it.
Q] How does having Hugh Jackman as brand ambassador help the brand’s growth?
We were relegated to a slightly younger audience, but Hugh Jackman has elevated the brand to a level where decision-makers and opinion-makers are considering the brand. He has helped us get the consideration of the Sec A people, and in a positive manner. He has also built confidence with the youth. For us, it is all about the attitude that these people relate to. The Jackman phenomenon has helped us and we have done a lot of stuff with him like a Merry Christmas initiative with Cry and noiseless Diwali initiative. Hopefully, we will come up with more innovative campaigns.
Q] What’s the USP of Brand Micromax?
The USP for our brand is the nimbleness in our system - if you have an idea today, we can discuss it with the management and execute it swiftly. I don’t need to run across to a Singapore or a HongKong office to get approvals. Faster decision-making helps us react quickly and better to the needs of consumers.
Q] What is your current market-share? Which is the brand that you are betting on, going ahead?
We are very close to Samsung in the smartphone area; being No. 2 in the smartphone category and No. 3 overall. Canvas is the flagship brand and it will help us propel the shift.
Q] Which markets have been contributing greatly to the growth of the brand? How does the brand approach Tier II and Tier III markets?
The growth drivers for us are the top 20 cities. We want people to start accepting and using the brand. Once that happens, it percolates down to the rest. We don’t follow a separate strategy for Tier II and Tier III markets. For example, in Mumbai, South Mumbai and Bandra fall in Tier I while the suburbs would be Tier II, and so on. Consumers are everywhere and differentiating means being self-relegated to your own silo as you have rich people everywhere in Tier I, II or III markets. The important thing is how effectively you reach prospective consumers with your brands.
Q] What are the trends that you predict in the mobile phone market next year?
A lot of collaborations will take place with fashion houses, gaming firms, or even sports businesses. Collaborative limited edition phones will come up and services like MAd will help grow the industry as well the brand. The propensity to change one’s phone in India has come down to 8-9 nowadays, which makes the space all the more competitive. The last trend is convergence across devices, from television to tablets to mobile screen.
Q] What opportunities do you see ahead?
With the right game plan we can become a good global player, especially in unlocked markets like Africa or pockets of Europe, where they don’t have bundles with telecos. The reason why the fruits and the berries are doing well is because they are aligned to operators, so if you ask Apple to sell independently, it won’t work. For us, the opportunity lies in tapping these resources and taking things forward. The second opportunity is to be consistent in product delivery, trade and hardware, and keep growing over the years.
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