SYMBIOSIS INSTITUTE OF TELECOM MANAGEMENT

IMC: MICROMAX MOBILES

IMC ASSIGNMENT NO 2

SYNDICATE 3
Anant Singh Thakur Gaurav Singh Geetika Dawra Gundeep Singh Rohit Bajpai Ravinder Singh 10020541067 10020541076 10020541077 10020541078 10020541102 10020541121

Integrated marketing communications strategy

Marketing strategy drives integrated marketing communications (IMC) planning process and ultimately leads to a plan that outlines decisions about marketing communications activities and resource allocation. Thus, IMC plan sets guidelines for companys mobile marketing communications activities. Broadly speaking, IMC is A concept of marketing communication planning that recognizes the added value of using a comprehensive plan to evaluate the strategic roles of a variety of communications disciplines. Hence, communicators with an IMC approach will consider all forms of communication, all message delivery channels, customers and prospects, and all brand contact points, while they plan and implement marketing and marketing communications strategies. Therefore, to develop an effective mobile marketing strategy, it is imperative to consider not only the specific set of activities that a firm undertakes to perform a mobile marketing campaign but also how the firm employs a combination of communication tools and integrates its many communications channels to deliver a clear, consistent and compelling message about the company and its products. As depicted in Figure 1, a firm must consider many critical issues when developing an IMC strategy. The starting point of IMC planning process is an analysis of the overall situation of the company/brand (e.g. competitors, consumers, markets and products). This analysis provides a foundation for determining marketing communications target audience. Given that consumer markets are highly fragmented and consumers differ in many terms (e.g. demographic, geographic, geodemographic, psychographic, and behavioral), the identification of right customers is increasingly challenging. However, with the help of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) including database technologies and interactive media a firm can develop and implement marketing communications strategies that are personalized to the specific needs of targeted customers .

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Framework of Mobile Brand:-

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Micromax Mobile needs no introduction today.Just two years back people were not aware of the brand at all but today its Indias third largest selling company by volume after Nokia and Samsung (IDC Report).Brands success can be attributed to its ability to understand the need of the market ,aggressive marketing with a budget of Rs.100 crore and smart distribution channel management. As per IDC report Micromax displaced LG to become third largest selling mobile handset company in india with a market share of 6%.Nokia is market leader with 62% share and Samsung is on second place with 8% market share.The company today sells more than a million
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handsets a month and is now a Rs.1600 cr worth brand. The company has presence in more than 500 districts and 90,000 retail outlets. The company started its Mobile handset business in 2008 and the challenge was to establish an identity in a market dominated by big MNCs Like Nokia,Samsung,LG and Motorola. The company realized the fact that there are certain unmet needs still there in the market which is not being addressed by big brands. Micromaxs strategy ,since their inception has been to identify the unmet latent needs of people and come up with a product which no one else has and thus fits well with the consumer need. It didnt banked on price competition only rather it catered to the needs of people unaddressed by MNC brands. Micromax initially targeted rural market and once it established its presence went on to lure urban youth.

Differentiation-Key stratgey:
Micromax has a lot of firsts to its credit in their product portfolio. It was the first to introduce: Handsets with 30 days battery backup(Micromax X1i), Handsets with Dual SIM / Dual Standby, Handsets Switching Networks (GSM CDMA) using gravity sensors, Aspirational Qwerty Keypad Handsets, Operator Branded 3G Handsets, OMH CDMA Handsets, etc Its gaming phone Gameolution has caught the fancy of youngsters.This phone works like wireless wii which works on motion sensor technology and can convert PC/Laptop in gaming device.Then it came up with MTV music phone MTV X360 with Yamaha amplifiers targeted at music loving youth. Thrust on Dual SIM Phones: It understood the need the market and gave thrust on DUAL SIM phones.Most of its phones are Dual SIM.Intense competition has led to stiff fall in call rates and operators keep on coming with various offers to lure customers.Thus customers do not want to remain loyal to one and desire to avail best available offers at any time.With dual SIM phones they can keep their one number constant and another one changing to avail the best offers.This has led to increase in popularity of Dual SIM phones and Micromax has grabbed substantial market in this category.Surprisingly Nokia didnt heard this need and doesnt have any Dual SIM in its brand portfolio. Aggressive Marketing & Smart Distribution Channel Management: The company realized the fact that itll have to build the brand and bring awareness in a market where people dont rely on unbranded phones.The company went for aggressive marketing sponsored many cricketing events and allocated the budget of Rs.100 crore for ATL & BTL activities.Recently company roped in Bollywood Actor Akshay Kumar as Brand Ambassador. Feature Rich phones at affordable price: India is a price sensitive market and people aspire to have feature rich products at low price.Micromax made it possible and thus people B&C category towns grabbed micromax
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phones as it was laiden with features but not heavy on pocket. Its QWERTY phones come below Rs.5000. All said and done the company has few challenges to tackle too.It has to build trust among people in product performance and after sales service.Nokia & Samsung have a very strong after sales service centres.

Micromax is a challenger brand in the highly competitive mobile handset market. This Indian firm is shaking up the market dominated by MNCs. Micromax was founded in 1991 by Rajesh Agarwal . Micromax in its original avatar was a distributor of computer hardwares. In 1998, three more people Sumit Arora, Rahul Sharma and Vikas Jain joined Micromax as

CO-founders.The company branched out from a mere distributor to a marketer of telecommunication equipments. It was in 2008 that Micromax ventured into the mobile handset market. The brand wanted to create a base before taking on the large players . Hence as a go-to- market strategy, Micromax concentrated on the rural market first. It was a different move altogether since most of the marketers tend to concentrate on the urban markets then move to the rural markets. Micromax launched its first phone in the rural market with a very unique USP- 30 days battery standby time. The brand was launched from a consumer insight that most of the rural households do not get enough electricity to recharge phones on a daily basis . Hence a phone with a 30 day battery standby would be a worthwhile differentiation. The first product was a big success. The first product Micromax X1i priced at Rs 2150 was lapped up by rural market. The success of X1i enthused the company to go aggressively into the market. But tapping the rural market is not an easy task. There is severe logistics pressure in servicing these markets. One of the first things that Micromax did was to establish the distribution network . According to a report in Forbes India ( March 5,2010), Micromax created a distribution network comprising of 34 super distributors, 450 distributors and around 55,000 retailers. The brand could also take advantage of the inroads made by other brands into advantage. One of the highlight of their distribution strategy was that Micromax managed to make these dealers pay in advance by offering them more margins. Marketers will vouch that the most difficult part in managing distribution is the payment collection part. According to the news report, Micromax managed this hurdle through this strategy of more margins for advance
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payment. It is not a new strategy to offer such kind of discounts for advance payments (cash discounts), but to make a retailer accept such an offer is indeed a remarkable feat (if the Forbes report is true). Unlike many challenger brands, Micromax was careful in its product strategy. Although all Micromax products were towards the lower end of the pricing spectrum, the brand was focusing on adding more features at a reasonable price . The focus was more on value than price. What I have noticed while going through their product range was that there was some USP in their products which offered more value. I think , that value orientation with a clear differentiation was a significant factor that aided the significant growth of this brand in Indian market. The company in their website claims to have invested heavily in the product development. The brand boast of launching many firsts in the market like 30 day battery life Affordable QWERTY phones Affordable Double Sim etc

Beside the focus on product development, Micromax has invested heavily in brand building. The brand is one of the big spenders in the current IPL. Micromax has centered much of its brand building exercise around cricket. It was one of the principal sponsors of the South Africa VS India ODI series in 2010. Most of the brand promotion for Macromax is centered around products. I havn't seen a corporate brand building campaign from Micromax. The ads are for individual products highlighting the product features and USPs. Micromax has the tagline " Nothing Like Anything " which initially appeared confusing to me. Perhaps the brand wants to convey that every product from Micromax has something unique. It is not just like any other product.( I need to have more clarification on this regard). The brand's promotions , although heavy, is a big let down. Some of the campaigns are good but most are below par. For example , the Micromax Facebook ad was outright disgusting. Most of the campaigns like Gravity, MTV , EEZPad was very ordinary basic ads. There was no brand building theme behind those ads. They talked about the product and that is it. I feel a visible lack of creativity behind those ads.
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In a big marketing move, Micromax roped in the Bollywood Action hero Akshay Kumar as the brand ambassador. This move is going to boost the brand recall of Micromax to new heights. Akshay Kumar has strong equity both in urban and rural markets. The association with such a big star will also have a positive impact on the image of Micromax. The brand can now overcome the perception of a low price product. But the first campaign featuring Akshay Kumar was nothing but pure noise. I couldn't believe that Lowe Lintas could come out with such a pathetic ad.. The new Gamolution handset was supposed to be a game changer for Micromax. But the campaign was a big let down. With a star like Akshay, the brand could have done much much more rather than some funny noises and acrobatics. I think the agency was stuck in a stereotype as to how to use Akshay Kumar. The new game handset uses the motion- sensor technology with bluetooth ( as I understand). So one can play games using the computer and handset. I don't think that the ads were in anyway doing justice to the brand's intention. Motion Sensor games are not new to the Indian markets but playing games on a PC using mobile is something new. I am not sure whether the ad essentially communicated the innovation. A very poorly made ad like this will do more harm to the image of Micromax. The brand may get lot of eyeballs due to the ' noise ' and celebrity power, but a low quality ad will reflect in the image perception of Micromax. A lot of my students said to me " Have you seen that Akshay ad, its crap !!" . Micromax has lot of powerful positives that many consumers doesn't know. I came to know more about this brand only after I digged for information to write this post. There is a risk of the brand perceived not as an aspirational brand but a ordinary price warrior if it does not focus on the quality of the communication. Micromax now have a wonderful chance of moving up the ladder. With a good product range, reasonable pricing base and a high profile celebrity, the brand could have positioned itself as an aspirational brand. Instead of also ran ads that lack any brand vision, Micromax would do well if it could bring in some class in their campaigns. The brand should also move from a product oriented ad campaign to a brand building mode. Micromax as a brand should be developed focusing on the core brand values like innovation and value orientation. When the product range widens, it may not be practical to sustain individual campaigns. So it is time for Micromax to position the Family Brand and develop a brand identity

Advertising is the one of the biggest tool to development of integrated marketing communication. So the Micromax uses IMC tools to promote the product and build the strong image of the brand in the consumers mind. Integrated Marketing Communication ( IMC) is the practice of unifying all marketing communication tools so the send a consist, persuasive massage promoting company goals.
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With a 360 degree advertising and marketing strategy sketched out, the company has an optimistic outlook for the telecom consumer space. Currently present in more than 40,000 stores across the country, the company plans to have an aggressive market incursion to reach out to its customers through 70,000 operational stores in the coming year The following tools of IMC are being used by Micromax:

Events and experiences

For marketing of its products the company is riding on two enduring Indian obsessionssports and filmsto build its brand. Following up on its association with the popular Twenty20 cricket Indian Premier League (IPL), Micromax, a brand that is less than three years old, has become the title sponsor of almost all tournaments and series of which India is a part, including the recently concluded Asia Cup, the forthcoming India-Sri Lanka Test series and the India-New Zealand-Sri Lanka tri-series in August. The objective behind the cricket roadblock, as such behavior is termed in advertising, is to drive brand awareness and recall. The company believes that while cricket may boost a brand instantly, viewers may still not remember the brand after the match or the tournament. Even if consumers remember a series, they may not remember the advertisers. Thats when they thought of a roadblock and decided to sponsor all cricketing properties post IPL. Bollywood is also a major platform for the brand, which is targeting consumers between 18 and 27 years. Bollywoods most bankable star Akshay Kumar was signed on as the brand ambassador six months ago. More recently, his wife Twinkle Khanna was engaged to promote Micromaxs bling phone that comes with Swarovski crystals and a vanity mirror. To push its association with films, the firm also sponsored the IIFA (International Indian Film Academy) Awards held in Sri Lanka, where Micromax recently launched its phones. The brand is now ready to enter Bangladesh and West Asia. Advertising Broadcast media micromax use television to broadcast their advertisements. Apart from using cricket, films, celebrity micromax also advertise through news papers. They also utilize hoarding and bill boards to advertise their products.

Prime site recently kicked off a month-long campaign for Micromax mobile phones in Delhi, executed mostly through hoardings. Going further, this promotion will be extended to the other regions of northern India as well. On the brief and objective of the campaign. The city of launch was Delhi to start with, and post which we did the launch in Patna and Jaipur. Indore is next in line. There are more cities where the campaign will be launched in the near future for which we would be briefed accordingly.
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All the Medias used by micromax are very carefully selected as to reach its target audience and through each medium the innovative aspect of the product is portrayed.

The Strategy
Micromax followed a unique strategy of targeting and positioning to enter the Indian Market. Micromax concentrated on the rural market first. It was a unique strategy as the convention followed by marketers is to concentrate on the urban markets then to move to the rural markets. Micromax launched its first phone in the rural market with a very unique USP- 30 days battery standby time. The brand was launched from a consumer insight that most of the rural households do not get enough electricity to recharge phones on a daily basis. Hence a phone with a 30 day battery standby would be a worthwhile differentiation. The first product was a big success. The first product Micromax X1i priced at Rs 2150 was lapped up by rural market. The success of X1i egged the company to aggressively make further inroads into the market. However, tapping the rural market had its set of difficulties, namely in the logistics section as far as servicing was concerned. Micromax approached this difficulty by working on an effective distribution network. According to a report in Forbes India (March 5,2010), Micromax created a distribution network comprising of 34 super distributors, 450 distributors and around 55,000 retailers. One of the highlight of their distribution strategy was that Micromax managed to make these dealers pay in advance by offering them more margins. According to the news report, Micromax managed this hurdle through this strategy of more margins for advance payment. It is not a new strategy to offer such kind of discounts for advance payments (cash discounts), but to make a retailer accept such an offer is indeed a remarkable feat. Unlike many challenger brands, Micromax was careful in its product strategy. Although all Micromax products were towards the lower end of the pricing spectrum, the brand was focusing on adding more features at a reasonable price. The focus was more on value than price. Innovation, Cost-Effective, Credible and an Insightful R&D are given high emphasis at Micromax in the telecom vertical. Their product range generally has some USP which offered more value to the consumers. The company in their website claims to have invested heavily in the product development. The brand boasts of launching many firsts in the market like 30 day battery life Affordable QWERTY phones Affordable Double Sim

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ASSOCIATIONS :
1.With BSNL Apart from the mobile handset market, Micromax was recently in the news for its alliance with BSNL. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. entered into an agreement with Micromax for sale and distribution of 3G data card to its subscribers. As per the agreement, Micromax would sell and distribute 3G data cards in the form of USB to the BSNL subscriber in various cities. 2. With MTNL In another venture, Micromax launched the India s first operator branded 3G mobile phone H360, in association with MTNL. The H360, pre-loaded with applications to enable video calls, mobile TV, social networking, wireless business solutions through web browsing and other Internet-based services. 3. TA associates The success of Micromax prompted US private equity group TA Associates to buy less than 20% of the firm for around $45 million (Rs210 crore today) in December, valuing it above $225 million and indicating confidence in its growth potential.

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