In India, the world's second-largest smartphone market, Samsung Electronics and China's 'Mobile Army Corps' launched a fierce battle. Samsung once lost its share. However, according to the latest news from foreign media, Samsung Electronics imitated the various tactics of Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, and the results were remarkable. Samsung finally Successfully regained the throne of the industry.
Samsung Electronics has been working in the Indian mobile phone and home appliance market for many years and has always been the leader of the Indian mobile phone industry. However, in the past three years, Chinese mobile phone companies have made great strides in India. In the fourth quarter of last year, Xiaomi finally overtook Samsung Electronics and became the Indian mobile phone market. First place.
According to Reuters, Samsung Electronics has learned a lot of strategies from Chinese companies, such as launching more targeted online marketing and targeting young Indian consumers. Samsung is also trying to rebuild itself into a younger brand.
Like Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, Samsung Electronics also sent sales staff to small-scale retail stores. In addition, Samsung also fell in love with the cricket sport that Indians like and signed relevant sponsorship agreements.
Prior to this, OPPO, Vivo and other Chinese mobile phone companies sponsored a series of sports events and TV variety shows in India. These successful experiences from the Chinese market have ignited the popularity of these brands.
Samsung Electronics also imitates Chinese companies and has launched many cost-effective mid-to-low-end phones ranging in price from $150 to $300.
A series of imitation strategies have produced results. According to market research organizations, in the second quarter, Samsung Electronics market share exceeded Xiaomi, regaining the top position in the industry.
Rushabh Doshi, an analyst with technology market research firm Canalys, said that Samsung had been attacked by Chinese millet, OPPO, Vivo and other vendors, and now Samsung is no longer a ostrich in India. They started Countering the Chinese mobile phone company.
According to Samsung's official, the Galaxy J6 released in India in May and the J8 mobile phone released in July have achieved good performance. The two mobile phones each sold 50,000 units each day. In order to attract young people in India, Samsung launched these phones. Enjoy the video chat function, users can use the transparent keyboard tool to chat with friends at the same time.
It should be pointed out that Samsung has always been the leader in the high-end segment of smartphones in India. The above-mentioned video chat function is also developed by Samsung India R&D Center. In the past many years, Samsung has built a company in India. Huge retail network.
In the Chinese smartphone market, Samsung Electronics encountered Waterloo, and the company hopes to prevent such tragedies from happening again in India.
Five years ago, Samsung Electronics gained a 20% share of the Chinese smartphone market, but this year it has fallen to 1%. Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, the four Chinese mobile phone manufacturers have risen rapidly, and high cost performance has become an important hand.
At present, India is the world's second largest smartphone market, with 400 million users, and the mobile phone market has a market space of up to 20 billion US dollars. For Samsung, India is a big cake that cannot be lost.
In addition to the second largest scale, India is also the fastest growing smartphone market in the world, with an annual sales growth rate of 20%.
It is reported that India is Samsung's second largest mobile phone market outside the US, Samsung decided to invest heavily in development. Just last month, Samsung began to build a world's largest mobile phone factory in Noida, northern India.
It is reported that Chinese mobile phone companies have already obtained half of the Indian market, and Xiaomi has made rapid progress. Xiaomi entered India in 2014, but took the top position of Samsung at the end of last year.
However, in the second quarter, Samsung regained its first place. According to market research firm Counterpoint, Samsung was slightly weaker than 28% of Xiaomi with a 29% share. In the second quarter, Samsung released three new machines in India, but Xiaomi only Released a.
Younger Samsung
Last month, Samsung released the Galaxy On6 phone in India for $210. Samsung abandoned its traditional TV advertising marketing and launched a rare large-scale online marketing, such as Samsung’s invitation to Indian Bollywood actress Tiger Shroff. And uploaded a lot of videos and photos to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Ranjivjit Singh, chief marketing officer of Samsung India, said in an interview that the new marketing model is not to let consumers watch advertisements again and again, because young people will soon become aesthetically tired, and Samsung hopes to interact with young people, no matter where they are active. A platform, Samsung will also promote products there.
However, some analysts also said that if Samsung wants to stabilize its advantage over Chinese mobile phone manufacturers and even expand its advantages, the company must come up with a more creative social media promotion strategy.
Counterpoint analyst Neil Shah said that when Xiaomi, Yijia and other Chinese brands launched new mobile phones in India, they launched a grand fan event to expand brand awareness in India.
Another marketing tool for Samsung is to sponsor a squad team in Mumbai, trying to learn from the sponsorship experience of Chinese manufacturer Vivo.
Samsung sources said that the company has increased marketing expenses in India, but the specific figures are not known. With the increase in funding, Samsung will carry out more marketing in India, which will also put pressure on the mobile phone industry rivals.
It is worth mentioning that in the field of physical store sales, Samsung still has a gap compared with Chinese manufacturers.
According to Indian retail industry sources, in the past, an Indian physical retail store had monthly sales of more than one million Indian rupees (about $15,000), and Samsung paid wages to sales representatives. But in the past year, faced The measures taken by OPPO, Vivo and other rivals, Samsung lowered the above subsidy threshold to INR 500,000.
At present, Samsung has also launched services such as financing for the purchase of mobile phones in conjunction with some financial institutions in India. According to sources, Samsung is developing new mobile consumer financial products, which will enhance the consumer's buying experience and bring new to Samsung. Profit point.
Chinese manufacturers' actions
In the face of Samsung Electronics' imitating the tactics of Chinese companies, Chinese companies are not waiting for them, they are gradually entering the high-end mobile phone sector led by Samsung.
Earlier this year, Huawei released the P20 Pro flagship phone in India, which is equipped with three cameras and is priced at US$950 in India. The direct competitor of this product is Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S9 mobile phone.
This month, Vivo began selling NEX high-end phones in India for $655.
Counterpoint analyst Neil Shah said that Chinese brands are launching high-end mobile phones to prove that they are not only designing low-end products, they are also masters of mobile phone innovation.