 "Keshav Bansal")
One really good thing is that when new brands come in, they bring out a product at a really competitive price, Keshav Bansal tells Ritwik Sharma
As a brand how and in what ways do you hope to leverage your association with the Rajkot team in this year's IPL? What are your advertising and marketing budget and plans for the same?
If we look at why did we go into IPL, there are a couple of reasons. First of all, IPL is all about cricket and the biggest platform of the youth today in India. Since we are into the B2C (business to consumer) segment, the target audience is exactly the same. So, it makes a lot of sense for us. IPL and Intex hold a lot of synergies, in terms of the target audience, reach and the kind of market we have.
There is a lot of positivity among consumers, especially in Gujarat. So the brand gets a push anyway because everyone comes to know about it. So, while we continue to advertise in the old traditional way of buying media, this becomes altogether different. Second, you also have to have passion for the game. That is something I was inclined to.
And since we had this opportunity - and it took us less than an hour probably to just work out the economics and get the management to say okay - we went ahead with it. At the same time, we will continue to advertise on IPL in the old traditional norms.
In 2015, we were the official on-air sponsors. The association of cricket and Intex has been long. This year again, broadly the inventory and advertising plans for IPL have already been documented and closed. We will be again present aggressively in on-air advertising.
In terms of sales and revenue, what are the numbers that Intex is chasing in 2016-17?
This financial year, we reached a peak of three million mobile phones a month, which included 1.5 million smartphones and 1.5 million feature phones. And at the IDC (International Data Corporation) numbers for quarter 3, 2015, we were the number one Indian mobile phone.
So, things are on track. We have one manufacturing facility in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, where we are manufacturing 1.5 million phones and which has given us a lot better control. So, this year looks promising. The last three-four months have been a bit down for the entire mobile industry, which is a year-on-year phenomenon. But I think by the end of the next financial year we will be able to touch a number of around 4.5 million mobile phones per month.
What is your main thrust in terms of a marketing strategy?
We strongly believe in a region-specific marketing strategy. That is the reason why we were the first player in the telecom industry that started with four brand ambassadors. We got Farhan Akhtar in national, Sudeep in Karnataka, Mahesh Babu in Andhra, Surya in Tamil Nadu, and that has done wonders for us. Many brands have started following this path.
What are the payoffs and risks associated with a strategy of having multiple brand ambassadors?
They have got temples made in their own states. So, there is an obvious element of risk. You have four brand ambassadors, so you are paying them handsomely, it's a big investment because they don't come cheap. All the factors are equally important - your product, price, distribution network, service network and the kind of promoters and people you have in the teams and the way they are pitching to the consumers, the consumer experience on entering the store. I'd say marketing was the last thing we thought of after everything was in place.
Intex entered the wearable segment with the launch of the iRist smart watch in 2015. What have been the initial learnings from a market dominated by the likes of Apple, Samsung and Motorola?
If you talk about India as a market, wearable as an industry is in a nascent stage. A smartphone in your watch is really a cool thing today. And we got an overwhelming response to iRist. People started comparing it with other brands and especially social media had a lot of traction. We are working on the next version of iRist which we will launch soon. People know our brand is here to stay and they trust our quality.
What are the unique opportunities and challenges that home-grown players face as they compete against established players as well as late entrants?
Everyone knows it is the most fiercely contested industry today. But I keep telling it's the Chinese brands that have to be fearful. Yes, they are pumping in a lot of money, but we are already here. And the biggest advantage with Intex is that we are a 20-year-old brand. So we understand the pulse of the consumer and we have the distribution network. Online continues to grow, but still in India the mobile business happens through the general trade model. We are the largest speaker brand in India. In terms of challenges, one really good thing is that when these brands come in, they bring out a product at a really competitive price. So, it is rather a healthy competition where they show us that this is the kind of product and it can be available at this kind of prices. That probably improves and makes other brands more efficient.
