Mark AdamsThe smartphone in India has been one of the most competitive markets in the country. Both local and international brands fight hard to make their position in India as it is a very profit-making industry and with the number of potential buyers India has, no company wants to ignore this market.
When Xiaomi entered the Indian market, It was dominated by Samsung and it is still hard to believe that a company within 3 years has become number one just by selling their phones online. Through this article, we are sharing some marketing strategies that helped Xiaomi to reach the top.
The Growth Of Xiaomi In India
According to the research made by Counterpoint, the number of smartphone users in India is 775 million in 2017, which is expected to grow to 917 million by 2020. There are huge growth opportunities in the smartphone market in India and Xiaomi is taking advantage of that. According to the Michael Parkes, Vice-President of Xiaomi India, “India is a phenomenal market where we have started to grow at a very fast pace. We believe that no one can beat us in terms of technology, innovation, user satisfaction and retail experience, so we plan to stay with you for a long time”, he added.\
Unfortunately, Xiaomi’s presence in the Indian smartphone market is very limited. The company released its first smartphone in the country in 2014. At that time, it was one of the best but it was priced too high. In the same year, the company decided to lower the price of the smartphone and almost all the low-end phone producers in India started to market their products as “Xiaomi phones”. In some cases, the phones were even branded as Xiaomi.
Later on, in 2015, the company decided to take the fight to the Indian government and oppose the law that prohibited the import of smartphones to the country. It took good decisions, considering that, in the first month, India’s orders increased by 17 000%.
Marketing Strategies That Xiaomi Used In India
Building Brand Awareness
Xiaomi launched its first smartphone in 2014. At that time, even a foreign company couldn’t survive in India with a simple phone because Xiaomi did it. Xiaomi was the first and the one of the few companies that sold their products online. This is a great strategy.
With the high number of people in India, there is no way how to differentiate the products from each other. Buying a foreign name brand and saying it is a local company is not going to make people understand that.
Xiaomi implemented a marketing strategy to defeat its competitors by using the big name brands in India. With this strategy, you can say that the phone is a Google phone or an Apple phone. Even people were not aware that Xiaomi or Motorola are Chinese companies. By using this strategy, you can say that the company is very close to the user. How? You can tell people about the features of the phone and offer it at a very good price. This is the reason why both Google and Apple are constantly looking to get into India and license their apps to the companies that make smartphones in India. If Xiaomi keeps this strategy, it is going to be a profitable company in the future.
Market Addressing
Before you enter a new market, it is very important to assess the needs and the potential users. What are they going to expect from the products? Which kinds of advertisements will work to grab their attention? In India, marketers focus on one thing – religion.
If it is your brand name or a well-known religion, it is likely to attract the attention of people. In some cases, people believe that the smartphone is a religious use and they will use it in their daily life for religious purposes.
Like in most of the cases, the strategy used by Xiaomi is brilliant. They launched a collection of smartphones with different color options under the name of Invoking God. They were called Invoking God because they were meant to invoke God by their followers.
Even the Xiaomi Invoking God did not work, but its publicity was stunning. The phones were not popular in India. But, their name was the good advertisement for Xiaomi.
Building an SEO Marketing Strategy
As we have already talked about the development of smartphones in India, there are several devices of low-end companies trying to market themselves as Xiaomi phones. There are several criteria for the success of the company in the smartphone market and the top three of them are being affordable, good quality and being on sale.
Design and Design
It is common knowledge that the design of a smartphone is one of the most important aspects of it. The design is what attracts people and it is the aspect that defines the brand.
To build trust and popularity in the Indian smartphone market, Xiaomi adopted a simple strategy of using online marketing to promote themselves. They positioned themselves as the cheapest brands in the market and the easiest to buy. More than that, they positioned themselves as a good value of money. During the sales process, all the products had a basic price that was in the famous “two digits”. They did not go higher than that. This strategy was a successful one and it helped them to get the loyalty of the customers. Many people preferred to spend some amount of money on their smartphones, rather than paying a higher price.
Through marketing, Xiaomi tried to position itself as a smartphone manufacturer with an affordable price and quality. They offered products starting at just $16.
During the sales process, they wanted to convey the feeling that they are selling a very good product. At that time, Xiaomi products were some of the expensive things in the market. The marketing strategy was to show the phone and give it a very high price and then you can see that it is a great product.
Along with the pricing strategy, Xiaomi also did some adjustments to their mobile phone designs. They applied some changes in the designs of their phones to make them look like different brands.
They changed the front cameras from 13 MP to 20 MP and applied a metal frame to the back. They said that it is a phone of Xiaomi but it is probably a Huawei phone. This was an effective marketing strategy.
Today, Xiaomi phones are the most affordable products in the Indian market. These are products that everyone wanted at an affordable price.
Feedback
In almost every aspect of life, we depend on the feedback of our friends and family before buying a product. This is exactly what Xiaomi wanted to do to their customers.
They tried to get as many feedbacks as possible about their smartphones. The company tried to get the feedbacks from the users on their phones. They asked people about their products, ask for opinions, comments and also wanted to hear the views of the users on the development of the products. Xiaomi always wanted to learn more from their customers and this is exactly what is done by many companies today. All these ways helped them to build trust and loyalty in their users and this is exactly the reason why Xiaomi managed to use a lot of analytics in their products.
This is called direct marketing. As you can see it, it is a marketing strategy that was focused on getting feedbacks from the people who bought the products.
Xiaomi set up a call center in Mumbai. They followed every step of the customer buying process. They wanted to know the user’s needs and understand the current situation of the smartphone in India.
Based on the feedbacks, they made the product better by adopting new innovations or adding new features. This is how they created new products in the market and that is how Xiaomi managed to make its position so strong in India.
Unique Selling Point
You already know that the success to a company depends on developing its unique selling point. Based on the surveys done, the sales of smartphones in India are focused on every aspect of the customer.
Xiaomi recognizes that the most important thing is the human factor. People want the phone to be cheap and easy to carry. They don’t even care about the specification of the phone. People just want to buy the phone and start using it right away.
The success of Xiaomi phones depend on these two aspects. There are many cheap companies that try to sell smartphones in India, but they failed due to the lack of the compatibility of the different features of the different phones. Xiaomi managed to avoid this.
In their smartphones, they incorporated some new features that are common in many years. But, yet they managed to find a way to make their smartphones to work more efficiently than any other smartphones in the market.
The uniqueness of Xiaomi smartphones results in the high quality of the user experience for the user. The company managed to make a device that is easy to use and fast.
In the middle of this article, we have talked about Xiaomi’s strategies at lowcost smartphones and also how they created a niche for themselves in India.
Xiaomi also makes some special products, such as the Ticwatchsmartwatch, the Mi Bluetooth audio headphones and the Firefly Reader. These products are not so popular, but they are still in the business.
The Ticwatchsmartwatch is more like an accessory and it has a less-than-average price. And, the Firefly reader is only a small-size reader with a very limited functionality.
These are the examples of the products that are not so popular. As you can see, they try to make products that are not so popular, but can be special and worth the end-user.
Marketing Strategy is Important
Today, smartphones are an essential part of our daily lives. They are used not only for contacting, buying and paying goods. We also use them to connect with our friends and receive news of the world.
In a fast changing time, companies that want to succeed must implement some kind of marketing strategy that will help them to get more customers. Xiaomi has followed this strategy.
To build a strong brand, a company must attract more people to purchase its products. Xiaomi managed to use the word of mouth to make people buy its products.
Xiaomi managed to use their products in a special way and this is done by making contests or challenges to their users.
Xiaomi always connected with their users. They always wanted to know what their users wanted and needed. In their social media, they asked the users for sending messages. All the answers to these questions gave them new ideas about the latest developments in the smartphone market in India. Based on those results, they set up new products in the market.
The best examples of these campaigns were during the World Cup in India. Xiaomi connected with their users and asked them to send comments and videos on the World Cup.
do’s and dont’s Marketing Strategy Of Xiaomi In India
In this section, we will go through some of the do’s and dont’s of marketing strategy in India that Xiaomi always followed.
The company always tried to know their users and used every single chance given to them to learn about their needs.
Xiaomi used all the information that they could gather from their users. This is the reason why the handsets they developed were not relying on only one feature. They tried to incorporate all the top features of Xiaomi, such as the curved display, dual-apps, and an AI assistant.
They also used their local vendors and distributors effectively for reaching out to their customers.
As you can see, they penetrated the Indian market with a lot of strategies, that is, they were very successful in branding and appealing to their users.
Tactics of Marketing Strategy Of Xiaomi In India
Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis is one tactic that is used by Xiaomi during the development of their products and strategy.
Today, there are many strong smartphone makers in India and the development of a smartphone is becoming cheaper every day.
Xiaomi always had a way to check all the products of these competitors. If there was a problem in these products, they would try to solve that problem. They would always try to improve their product quality.
Building Trust in the Indian Market
Xiaomi always wanted to build trust in the Indian market. So, they connected with the local vendors and distributors to ensure that they reach out to all the peoples.
Also, they wanted to make sure that all the people in India would be able to use their products. So, they made sure that all the countries in the world would be able to use their products. They also made sure that all the people in those countries would be able to get the product easily and at affordable prices.
Why does Xiaomi use this method?
Today, it is very hard to get access to the products of these companies operating in other countries.
However, if you produce a phone in such a way, you can make an effective marketing strategy in terms of branding.
Xiaomi wanted to make sure that all the people in India used their products. So, they made sure that all the people in India used their products. They also made sure that all the people in India would be able to get the products easily and at affordable prices.
So, you see that they used all the tactics to sell their products in India and abroad.
Marketing Strategy Of Xiaomi Will Now Be Discussed…
As we see, Xiaomi always used a pretty simple but effective marketing strategy. They used their competitors to make their product better in terms of user experience. They always wanted to make their users happy. And, with all these things, they changed the market.
So, we will now go through their marketing strategies and try to find out their directions and the direction of their future. We will also find out why they want to set up their own mobile phone makers.
As you can see, the company has become a very successful one. They have established themselves in this Indian market. And now, they are planning to shift there the production of their phones.
This is their most important goal for future. They must know that all the people in India use Xiaomi-branded phones.
Tapping Into the Device Manufacturing Space
This is another reason why Xiaomi wants to start manufacturing devices in India. They want to have their own brands. They will also be able to manufacture the phones for other smartphone companies without giving a license.
This way, the company can easily make sales in all the countries in the India.
