Two Chinese smartphone brands, Vivo and Oppo, have taken India smartphone market by storm. Within a matter of a couple of years, they have marched on from being unknown entities to the most popular names in media space, especially advertising. A latest Economic Times report reveals that two BBK holdings smartphone companies have formed a whopping 2,200 crore marketing strategy for the year to dethrone Samsung from number 1 position in India.
According to ET’s report, the marketing budget of these two brand, including IPL title sponsor, is likely to exceed what LG, Samsung, Sony combined.
The Chinese duo hopes to overtake Samsung from Rs. 6,000 to 20,000 smartphone segment within a years time. It is worth pointing out that this 6K to 20K bracket accounts about 78 percent of the smartphone market in the country.
According to a senior industry executive, as quoted by ET in the same report, the Chinese duo have reached out to leading retailers and asked them to push their smartphones instead of Samsungs. “Oppo-Vivo are focusing on volume sales, paying retailers upfront for prominent signages and branding for the next 1-2 years and even offering 5-10% more margin to retailers and shopfloor sales promoters,” said a senior executive with a leading cellphone retail chain.
HongKong based Counterpoint Research and market tracker firm recently came out with its report showcasing market standings of various firms in different price segments. As per the report, Samsung tops the charts in Rs 10,000-20,000 price segment, with 23% share as of January-March, while it Oppo and Vivo were within a hands distance with 20% and 18%, market share respectively. However, In the sub-Rs 10,000 segment, Samsung stands at 28% share, followed by Xiaomi (14%), Micromax (10%) and Vivo (8%).
Karn Chauhan, a Research analyst at Counterpoint, points out that said Oppo and Vivo are building a distribution network and follow it up with aggressive marketing campaigns.
“Ramping up not just the offline presence but their service network and bringing new features to the product portfolio will be the key to beating Samsung in India,” he said.
