For a brand approaching its 100th year globally, Motorola is building relevance with a consumer base that does not necessarily remember its earlier dominance. While the brand was once among the category leaders in the early 2000s, its current audience, particularly Gen Z and Gen Alpha, is encountering Motorola with a very different frame of reference.
“The consumers who know about Motorola were millennials, and perhaps, today’s Gen Z while Gen Alphas wouldn’t even have any kind of recognition of the brand. Because for them, it’s completely new,” says Ipshita Chowdhury, Head of Marketing, Motorola India. That makes understanding the younger consumer central to Motorola’s marketing strategy. Chowdhury describes this audience as one that values self-expression, individuality, freedom of choice and having a distinct voice. The brand, therefore, is positioning itself not simply as a technology provider, but as a lifestyle technology brand.
“We don’t call ourselves only a technology provider. Having said that, a smartphone today is perhaps the most personal technology that you have,” she says. This thought extends to product design, with colours, materials and finishes becoming part of the brand’s expression. Chowdhury points out that Motorola has not sold a single black-coloured phone in the last two to three years, reflecting its belief that colour itself can play a role in self-expression. The objective, she adds, is to understand consumer insights and ‘become a part of their lifestyle’.
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AI: Faster execution, human-led strategy
Motorola has also been experimenting with AI-generated campaigns, but Chowdhury says curiosity rather than hype drove the decision. “We got very curious as a team about the possibilities with technology. It was just a measure of curiosity for us. We just wanted to experiment and see what is in it,” she says.
The biggest advantage has been speed and flexibility. Traditional campaigns could involve weeks or months of planning, production and physical shoots. AI, according to Chowdhury, can significantly compress that process. “In a span of 10 to 12 days, you can get a campaign ready end to end. Who wouldn’t want to do that?” she adds, highlighting the potential for greater time and cost efficiency, as well as quicker iteration.
She also believes AI-generated work can match conventional output in several cases. According to her, when Motorola tested its AI-led work, nine out of 10 people would not have identified it as AI-produced if they had not been told.
However, she draws a clear line between execution and strategy. “The strategy piece, I believe, is not replicable. That will have to be done with humans,” Chowdhury says. For her, defining the consumer, identifying the insight, deciding the story and establishing how success will be measured remain fundamentally human responsibilities. That distinction also changes what agencies need to bring to the table. “Today, the agency needs to add value in strategy. If they don’t add value in strategy, if they’re only doing execution for any client, across any industry, they will soon be replaced,” she explains.
Why authenticity is outweighing celebrity
Motorola’s approach to influencers is similarly rooted in understanding the audience rather than following a standard celebrity-led formula. Chowdhury points to India’s young demographic, noting that 65% of the country is under 35. For this audience, she argues, marketers need to question whether a celebrity endorsement actually carries credibility.
“In our understanding, in our learning, what we have learned is that the entire relevance of that celeb, one big brand ambassador coming and telling you about a brand, it’s not believable at all with this audience,” she says. Creators, therefore, become increasingly relevant because their smaller communities can often aid in perceiving them as more authentic.
“They’re looking for real people, real role models, people who are maybe next door to them, but are more credible, are more authentic,” Chowdhury adds. She does not see celebrities disappearing entirely. They can continue to have relevance in trade, retail and partner-facing initiatives. But for younger consumers, Motorola is placing greater emphasis on creators who can establish credibility within specific communities.
A digital-first media mix
Motorola’s media strategy follows the same consumer behaviour. More than 90% of its media investment, Chowdhury says, goes towards digital, spanning social platforms, YouTube, programmatic and e-commerce.
“We’ve always been a digital-first brand,” she says. The brand is also investing in cultural and sporting moments, including its partnership with FIFA and Formula One. These passion points, Chowdhury says, are important ways of connecting with audiences globally.
CTV and OTT are another area of experimentation. Motorola has begun allocating some investment towards CTV, particularly for premium campaigns, but measurement remains a major concern.
“There’s no uniform audience measurement across touch points,” she says. With platforms reporting their own numbers, marketers can struggle to understand unique reach and duplication across digital, social and CTV.
“Nobody can tell how many unique consumers across all touch points is that one campaign reaching. And that’s a shame,” she adds. Despite the challenge, Chowdhury believes CTV can reach beyond metros. With broadband access and around 750 million smartphones in India, she argues that digital platforms can provide access across tier-one, tier-two and tier-three markets. “With digitisation, the biggest advantage is democratisation of access,” she adds.
Premiumisation and the next growth phase
Motorola’s marketing investments are also tied to its growth ambitions. Chowdhury says the brand typically maintains an advertising-to-sales ratio of around 3% to 4%, while investments are growing alongside its business. The brand has moved from number eight to number five in the market, according to Chowdhury, and is currently touching around 8% to 9% share.
The next stage, however, will require greater focus on premiumisation. “When you reach that stage, the next leap of growth becomes much harder,” she says. Motorola’s strategy is to strengthen its flagship portfolio while differentiating itself in the ₹30,000 to ₹60,000 segment through colours, materials, finishes, AI innovation and camera capabilities. “At the flagship end, our innovation story has to work,” Chowdhury notes.
E-commerce will remain important to this strategy. Motorola’s sales are broadly balanced between offline and online, with Flipkart playing a significant role in its e-commerce business. The company has also invested heavily in Flipkart’s advertising properties. Quick commerce, meanwhile, remains an opportunity rather than a current channel. Motorola does not currently sell through quick commerce, and Chowdhury says advertising there would only make sense once the product is available.
The same principle would apply to emerging opportunities such as CTV commerce: Motorola would experiment if it could understand the complete consumer journey and measure the efficiencies across the funnel.
Marketing beyond the campaign
For Chowdhury, the ultimate role of marketing goes beyond creating attractive campaigns. “The role of marketing is not to create fancy campaigns for award shows. The role of marketing is to grow business, is to create that next opportunity of business growth,” she says. After more than two decades in marketing, her biggest learning has been the importance of understanding the entire business, from the P&L and products to distribution, customers and consumers.
Motorola is also expanding beyond smartphones, with wearables, headphones, wireless devices, smartwatches, tablets and PCs forming part of its connected technology portfolio. The company launched Moto Buds 2 in September and expects more launches across these categories, many with AI capabilities.
For Motorola, the next phase is therefore being built around a combination of lifestyle-led positioning, AI-enabled execution, creator credibility, digital-first media and premium innovation. But underlying all of it is a more fundamental principle for Chowdhury: technology can accelerate marketing, but understanding the consumer and delivering business growth remain human responsibilities.
