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“Price is not the part of our communication plan…”
Pallavi Srivastava July 8, 2010

MediaWorldBuzz’s Pallavi Srivastava* in a rendezvous with Vikas Jain, Co-Founder and Business Director of Micromax. Vikas talks about the journey of the brand so far, the marketing strategy, global expansion plans and much more…*
Vikas Jain, co-founder and business director of Micromax	MediaWorldBuzz: As per your expectations, how has brand Micromax faired so far since its launch two and a half years ago? Vikas Jain: From our perspective, we have kind of achieved what we were looking at when we launched. Obviously, it is a journey so I would say that it was one of the milestones we kept for ourselves and we achieved it but there is a long way to go. I think that from being nobody in the industry around 28-30 months back to practically being number two or number three player is a great achievement. More so, because this sector per say was dominated by MNC companies before we ventured in. And our launch and our performance has been an inspiration for so many Indian players in this segment. Now there are so many native brands fluxing their muscles in this segment. So, the brand Micromax enjoys a fairly good brand recall as of now people are sticking on to the brand, people are proud to own up a Micromax phone. MediaWorldBuzz: So two and a half years back when you launched the brand, was this kind of quick success expected by the company? Vikas Jain: Honestly speaking No. I mean, if you ask me that 28 months back did I expected to sell a million handsets a month I would say no. So that’s a very honest admission on my part. But as we evolved in the industry we were very sure about these numbers being realistic. If you remember our media statements an year back, you would know that at that time we predicted selling a million handsets a month. But media at that time did not believe us. But the kind of vision we were working on we were very confident about achieving these numbers.

MediaWorldBuzz: You are currently selling 1 million handsets per month. What is your monthly sales target for the end of this financial year?
Vikas Jain: By the end of this financial year, we are expecting to double the number of handsets we are selling every month.

MediaWorldBuzz: What are your revenue targets for the current fiscal?
Vikas Jain: In the financial year 2010, we cornered Rs. 1600 crores of revenues. We expect that by the end of Fiscal 2011 we will be able to clock revenues around Rs. 2500 crore.

MediaWorldBuzz: One thing noticeable in your strategy is that though your products are very low priced compared to that of a Nokia and the ilk, price factor is not highlighted that promptly in the communication. Is that a deliberate strategy? Why?
Vikas Jain: We do not intend to use price in any of our communication. Price is the final delight we offer to our consumers but it is not the part of my communication plan. Our commercials talk about our product and their features. The whole idea is after seeing the commercial the consumer should be tempted to visit a retail outlet to check out the product. And once he checks out the product in an outlet, chances are high that he will like the product rather than not liking it. And that’s when he realizes, that it is not as expensive as he was thinking it to be which actually makes for an impulsive buying. So the strategy is that price will not be communicated in the marketing plan, it will be the final delight that the consumer will get.

MediaWorldBuzz: What is the break-up of your marketing budget in terms of ATL and BTL?
Vikas Jain: ATL will form a major chunk of our marketing budget, roughly around 55-60% and about 40-45% will be spent on the BTL activities.

MediaWorldBuzz: You roped in Akshay Kumar as your brand ambassador a few months back. What puzzles me is that when Micromax debuted in the handset market dominated by MNCs at that time you didn’t sign a brand ambassador, so why now?
Vikas Jain: For us, whatever we have achieved is just a milestone and we have got much larger plans for the brand in future and our association with Akshay Kumar has helped us realize those targets that we have in mind.

MediaWorldBuzz: Again, why Twinkle Khanna as a brand endorser for Micromax Bling?
Vikas Jain: Micromax Bling is a beauty to look at! And so is Twinkle Khanna! Bling is a product that is selling because of its look than anything else. Twinkle is the right choice for the brand firstly because she has been away from the media for the last four years, so her presence brought that clutter breaking factor. Second, she is obviously gorgeous. And third, we already had Akshay on board so taking Twinkle strengthened that connection. So these factors put together, it made a strong case to rope in Twinkle for Bling rather than any other actress.

MediaWorldBuzz: Coming to your global expansion plans, you have already launched in Sri Lanka and Nepal. What are the other international regions you are planning to enter?
Vikas Jain: We will be very soon launching brand Micromax in the Bangladesh market. Then we are looking at Middle East. We may get operational there by the mid of this month and by the end of July we should be launching in Latin America.

MediaWorldBuzz: Why is the strategy behind targeting these international markets?
Vikas Jain: For our international expansion, we are currently focusing on three strategic markets: SAARC countries, Middle East and Latin America. SAARC countries like Nepal, Bangladesh etc. are quite similar in terms of consumer needs, market challenges etc. because of their geographical alignment so that becomes immediate expansion that we can look at. Coming to the Middle East region that market promises great numbers. Latin America is again a key market from strategic viewpoint because from technology perspective Latin America is one step ahead of India and probably one step behind in terms of what we have in Europe. As we are to unleash our second phase of expansion where we will be getting into markets like Eurpe, Russia etc, so it is very imperative to lock on Latin America first and then get on to those markets.