The number of mobile brands like Micromax, Lava, Airfone, Karbonn, Byond, Olive, Lemon, G5, Maxx, Spice, Videocon,etc altogether have nearly scored a double century in India. This year IPL not only changed Modi’s life but created a new pitch for all the local indian mobile brands to bat on. All of a sudden the chinese players had Indian supporters to give them a name, gave them an Indian identity to increase acceptance and hired cheerleaders like sportsman and bollywood stars.
With the addition of these players the mobile replacement market has seen a boost with most of the Indian purchase being made on rational decisions, the consumer has found the ideal product which is a known brand at lesser cost with loaded features which he can boast of in his peer group.
Not only this he is also given re-assurance at the point of sale that he is buying in to the right thing and there will enough support if he ever runs into handset problems and if still the guy doesn’t buy the phone, with a smile he is assured with a hand on the shoulder that his phone will be instantly replaced, which one of the biggest brand also has not been able to claim, despite having a huge service network across the nation.
But to think of it most of these brands are here to make a quick buck, its been a month that people are missing the scantily dressed cheerleaders and the sheer excitement of every evening. In another 5-6 months all these brands who would have sold millions of phones will start going through the litmus test of quality and performance, opinions will be formed. The excitement of a new product will be over and it will be time to make another rational decision. And that will be a good time for the stronger brands to reform their strategies to tackle the remaining of this turbulent year.
