Campaign logic: Moving beyond functional benefits

With a new campaign, smartphone maker Gionee is looking to usurp the entire selfie platform

Brand: Gionee

Budget: Rs 200 crore

Agency: Mullen Lintas

For Gionee, it all boils down to a robust battery and an indulgent selfie. The smartphone maker wants to own an entire proposition around the theme of selfies. No wonder, it has come up with the concept of the land of “Selfiestan”.

In its new campaign featuring brand ambassador Alia Bhatt, the actor in a selfie song is seen crooning and posing with family and friends as she transforms taking selfie into an art and the ultimate form of indulgence for an energetic on-the-go people.

Arvind R Vohra, chief executive officer and managing director, Gionee India, says that through “Selfiestan”, the company wants to celebrate the inclusiveness of India’s selfies. The objective is to give Indians a sense of ownership and belonging by creating “Hindustan ki selfies”. This, he adds, becomes the most important tool of inclusive expression by bringing everyone together and breaching physical, cultural, linguistic, social, religious, political, ideological or psychological differences.

The smartphone maker made its debut in the selfie arena with S6s last year, which it claims were a success that helped Gionee zoom to the 1.25-crore customer mark. Gionee’s experience with S6s and extensive market research reveals that selfie and battery are going to be the game changers for Gionee. Its wish to dominate an infectious value proposition around selfies explains its concept of “Selfiestan”.

The campaign has been conceived by Mullen Lintas and it comes on the back of the launch of Gionee’s first flagship product of the year — A1. With this campaign, Gionee wanted to move beyond feature-led communication that had almost become the norm of the category.

“Therefore, one needed to change the battlefield strategy altogether, and to create and own a platform that lets you win the share of heart and hence the mind and wallet,” says Amer Jaleel, chairman and chief creative officer, Mullen Lintas. While exploring ideas, the creative team looked into the usage and expression of selfie in India. The team discovered that today’s generation sees the world from their front camera. And this is not strictly confined to age, gender, region or one’s position. An act, once considered narcissistic, is today viewed as the most powerful tool for inclusive expression. India is no different to this socio-cultural shift.

Gionee’s “Selfiestan” is exactly that — focused on celebrating inclusiveness and dissolving boundaries. “It is a world where every moment is worth capturing. A world where there are no hierarchies. A world that brings out the child in every adult and vice versa,” says Jaleel.

The smartphone market in India is highly competitive with as many as 20 brands vying for consumers’ attention. At one end of the spectrum are iconic brands like Apple and Samsung that denote prestige, class and power. At the other end are the likes of Lenovo and Motorola which appeal to geeks. Alongside, we have home-grown brands like Micromax and Intex offering buyers feature-rich phones at affordable prices. And bang in the middle, players like Oppo and Gionee are striving to get into the top league of premium phones by betting big on one or two key product features.

Both the Chinese players are known for superior camera phones. Of the two, Gionee is clearly looking to appropriate the selfie space with its Selfiestan campaign.

Gionee claims to have sold six million smartphones in 2016 and commands six per cent market share. It is aiming for double-digit share by the end of this year. Towards this end, the company even plans to double its marketing budget to around Rs 750 crore in 2017-18.

On the product experience, Gionee’s focus is to get the selfie and the battery story correct. This year it plans to launch products with a good mix of camera and battery, in a metal grid and aluminum body, with faster processor and the latest Android experience taking care of the consumers’ seamless experience.

Even as Gionee readies new launches, Vohra recognises the challenges. He says India is an extremely evolved market and the challenge for all smartphone makers, including Gionee, is to continuously innovate on design and user experience. Aligning technological possibilities with changing consumer demand patterns is a must.