Monday

22


August , 2016
OUR NEW SMARTPHONES WILL TAKE PERFORMANCE AND TECHNOLOGY TO ANOTHER LEVEL
00:00 am

B.E. Bureau


  • Q. It is widely assumed that Indian smartphone makers are finding it difficult to compete with Chinese mobile phone makers. What are the reasons behind your success?

    A. Within a short span of years, Gionee has created many benchmarks in the corporate and product front and has been able to win the trust of the consumers. Our company has grown in leaps and bounds to be a ` 3000 crore company, which reflects the company’s growth worldwide. Gionee has successfully been able to change the perception of consumers towards Chinese brands and has indeed been able to reshape the Indian smartphone market. The journey for Gionee in the last four years has been exciting. We have achieved milestones and have been able to set benchmarks on various fronts; being trendsetters in launching the smartphones with the best camera, style, and battery. It was one of the early movers to give the market chic and stylish devices and the brand was quick to understand that today a smartphone represents its user’s taste, personality, and even identity and adopted a new approach with a focus on design. Apart from introducing a slew of handsets, our company also has been focusing on enhancing customer experience and has been ramping up its customer service centres and retail outlets.

  • Q. How do you operate?

    A. Though Gionee is omnipresent and is available through multiple distribution channels, it wants to be a retail giant. Pricing the products 10% above local competitors, Gionee shunned the discount frenzy of online retail. We have always focused on our distribution network and service centres, which have been crucial for the brand’s growth in India. The brand has been rapidly expanding its footprint in India by opening brand stores and aims to open 250 brand stores in the next one year. Even though the company sells its products through the online channel, I always believed that a brick-and mortar presence is essential for building the brand in India.

  • Q. E-mail is growing. What’s your expectation about people buying products from your offline store? What is your retail expansion plan?

    A. A robust, well- planned distribution network is the key to the success of any brand operating in the market. Gionee has its distribution network well sorted and it has been crucial for our growth in India. To reach out to a wider audience and offer better customer experience, we have partnered with leading retail players including Spice, The Mobile Store, Mobiliti World, Jumbo Electronics, Croma Retail and Planet M. This has led to our handsets being available across 1000+ stores, with a goal to sell 35000+ additional devices every month. The company has 800 service centres up and running and aims to have 1000 by the end of this year. We will be opening 350 Exclusive Service Centres across India this year.

  • Q. You are a global company based in China while the consumer demand varies across regions in India. How will you attract Indian consumers?

    A. We have a slew of smartphones from across our F and S series that we plan on launching in India in the coming few months. We will also be launching a new smartphone from our M series globally later this month which should soon see its way to India. Our new smartphones will definitely enhance the customer experience and will take performance and technology to another level.

  • Q. To what extent do you feel that the Indian mobile market is growing? What are your expectations from the Indian market in the next five years?

    A. The smart phone industry has gone through various phases and has come a long way emerging as one of the most sought after industries in the Indian market. This is clearly evident by the adoption rate of smart phones that has been much faster compared to any other device or gadget. The smart phone penetration is about 220 million, which is just about 20-25%. So, even if 10% of the people will still stay with feature phones, there’s a huge potential of upgrading them to smart phones. The market is going to be immense and this is the first year when smart phone numbers will start crossing feature phones though in value terms, it crossed them a long time back.

  • Q. What kind of expansion/investment plans are in offing for the Indian market?

    A. Gionee is shifting its strategy by building a portfolio of phones to cater to local consumers and plans to spend aggressively on marketing to grow its revenue to ` 8,000 crore in this fiscal year, sharply higher than the ` 3,000 crore it clocked last year. The company has doubled its marketing budget to ` 500 crore this year from a year ago, which includes ` 200 crore for a rebranding excrcise. Gfk data shows that Gionee had around 3.8% value in market share in the last fiscal year, which had increased to 4.5% in the first quarter of the current fiscal. Market leader Samsung has a 48.6% share, as per Gfk. To increase volumes along with profitability, the company has changed its strategy to take a segment-centric approach.

  • Q. As a global business operator, how do you develop your corporate social responsibilities?

    A. Gionee India feels privileged to provide a helping hand to those families who have been facing the adversities of Leukemia, especially to children below the age of 10 and those with a weaker financial background. Gionee India, along with its partner, The Bansi Vidya Memorial Trust, has initiated a cause for supporting children suffering from Leukemia under its initiative called “Leukemia Crusaders”. For every mobile phone sold in India, our company has pledged to donate ` 10 from the MOP of the device, which would go straight towards the initiative thereby raising a fund for the treatment. Every child has the right to life and the initiative “Leukemia Crusaders” is an effort to channelise this belief into action.

Add new comment

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.