Innovation, affordable pricing, partnerships with various telecom and mobile players are just some of the marketing initiatives by Karbonn, a growing local maker of smartphones and tablets. Shashin Devsare, Executive Director, Karbonn, reveals how it plans to take on the big guns in the mobile handset space
Q] Karbonn was launched in 2009. How has the brand building journey been so far? What were the challenges and lessons you picked up along the way?
Our endeavor since inception has been to bring technology to the masses at an affordable price, and so far, we have been successful in achieving this. Consumers were initially skeptical of trying a domestic brand, but we overcame the challenge with our cutting-edge research and innovation.
The main understanding has been to offer consumers innovations and cutting-edge technology at a pertinent price. These lessons have helped the brand grow, and we today retail half a million smart devices and 1.5 million feature and touch phones per month with a turnover of over Rs 2,400 cr in 2012-13.
Q] What are the fundamental principles of your marketing strategy? What does your media mix entail? Can you give us an estimate of your spends?
Karbonn has always taken a robust yet aggressive marketing approach. We have designed a 360-degree approach which incorporates a mix of modern trade, mobile retail outlets, e-commerce, tele-shopping and print and digital activities, to create a holistic marketing initiative-driven campaign.
Our value-for-money proposition is our USP, which has helped us stand out from the competition. Our product strategy has helped create a brand and our extensive process of checking and approving products before releasing it into the market has helped the brand to reach out to the masses.
Cutting-edge partnerships have also been part of our marketing strategies. We took the ‘tent pole marketing’ approach for sporting events to create awareness of the brand. We localized our content as part of our customer-centric approach; and with our widespread distribution strategies, we enjoy 90% district coverage across India.
Q] The digital platform lends itself well to a mobile handset manufacturer. How are you using this space to build your brand and connect with your consumers?
We have employed a cutting edge social media outlay to increase brand engagement and real-time interaction with our consumers. We are present across all major social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest. To create an impact we use innovative banners on populated pages. The focus of our website is to engage users with innovative apps and a user-friendly layout.
Q] In the past, Karbonn has been associated with cricket, namely the Champions League and IPL. How has this helped the brand and are you looking for any such future associations?
Karbonn has looked to leverage its association with cricket in an innovative and effective manner as part of its brand building process. Our association like Indian Premier League (IPL), Champions League T20 (CLT20, branding Karbonn Smart) and other cricket series has helped us reach out to the masses. Champions League T20 provided us with a platform to reach untapped international telecom markets in Africa.
Q] The brand’s proposition has been ‘value for money’. With competitors also slashing prices, how do you plan to combat them in the smartphone/tablet category in India? Does your positioning and strategy change?
We strive to create a balance between features, technology, aesthetics and pricing to enhance the popularity, reach and impact of smart devices in India. With an India specific, consumer-centric approach, we brought in industry-first measures, so that we could take Karbonn to maximum number of consumers.
We tied up with industry leaders across various verticals to ensure enriched user experience. ‘Karbonn Smart’ is another initiative to combat competition where consumers experience an innovative mobile experience in terms of customized applications, well crafted mobile browsers and an entire gamut of services to the users, making it one of the key differentiators for the brand. The fact that we bring the best of mobile technology to the masses at the affordable price bracket makes us unique.
Q] Tell us about Karbonn TA-Fone A37 HD tablet, the TVC of which is already out. What was the brief given to the creative agency?
For our latest flagship device, the Karbonn TA-Fone A37 HD, the brief given to Taproot Advertising was to showcase the device as a ‘laptop replacer’. What the commercial conveys is that laptops are big and bulky, and the time has come to replace them with something smaller, lighter and smarter. By creating an international setting, we want to drive home the message that not only is Karbonn TA-Fone A37 HD a better alternative to laptops, but it also answers all their computing and entertainment needs.
Q] You have expanded to other Asian and Middle Eastern markets. Are there any similarities between these markets and India? How does your marketing strategy change for these countries?
While the umbrella marketing strategy remains the same across varied markets, we have initiated country-specific product strategies to ensure greater penetration of the brand into the markets. Initiatives where we tie-up with local operators to ensure a higher mass penetration; become active on local Facebook pages for more brand engagement with the customers and design a local direct marketing strategy for maximum reach and a higher brand recall among the customers; help us engage better and create greater interaction amongst the local consumers in the market.
Q] What is your focus area for the next two years?
We will up our marketing expenditure to ` 250 crore for the fiscal 2013-14. Besides associating with big ticket properties, we will also spend on Print and Digital. Our spends on product development and brand promotions will seek to create awareness about the brand and also create a customer engagement module. Our focus will be to create an outreach across all our strategic markets in India.
Q] Where do you see future growth coming from?
The future growth of the mobile phone ecosystem will depend on Tier II, III and IV cities. They will drive the mobility evolution and the growth of technology in the country. A recent TCS survey shows that 70% of Indian students own smart phones, with a marginally larger user base in smaller cities than metros. These consumers in Tier II and III cities are aware of technological innovations and interested in upgrading their feature phones to smart phones. This is where we as an innovative player seek to address their new found desire to upgrade with our range of technologically advanced yet value-for-money smart devices.
Q] What are the challenges faced by you and the industry at large today?
The big challenge is the security risk in the smartphone market as the mobile ecosystem is open. Hacking, virus attacks, identity thefts and forced break-ins are becoming common and the vulnerability of the eco-system needs to be addressed. Another major challenge is the lack of local language Value Added Services Ecosystem, which makes localization of content a tedious process. Developers still rely upon international languages to develop their applications which rob the eco-system of the local flavor.
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