Perfomance Management

Micromax : Nothing Like Anything
Corporate Brand : Micromax
Ad Agency : Lowe Lintas

Brand Analysis Count #447

Micromax is a challenger brand in the highly competitive mobile handset market. This Indian firm is shaking up the market dominated by MNCs. Micromax was founded in 1991 by Rajesh Agarwal . Micromax in its original avatar was a distributor of computer hardwares. In 1998, three more people Sumit Arora, Rahul Sharma and Vikas Jain joined Micromax as c o-founders.The company branched out from a mere distributor to a marketer of telecommunication equipments.

It was in 2008 that Micromax ventured into the mobile handset market. The brand wanted to create a base before taking on the large players . Hence as a go-to- market strategy, Micromax concentrated on the rural market first. It was a different move altogether since most of the marketers tend to concentrate on the urban markets then move to the rural markets.

Micromax launched its first phone in the rural market with a very unique USP- 30 days battery standby time. The brand was launched from a consumer insight that most of the rural households do not get enough electricity to recharge phones on a daily basis . Hence a phone with a 30 day battery standby would be a worthwhile differentiation. The first product was a big success. The first product Micromax X1i priced at Rs 2150 was lapped up by rural market.

The success of X1i enthused the company to go aggressively into the market. But tapping the rural market is not an easy task. There is severe logistics pressure in servicing these markets. One of the first things that Micromax did was to establish the distribution network . According to a report in Forbes India ( March 5,2010), Micromax created a distribution network comprising of 34 super distributors, 450 distributors and around 55,000 retailers. The brand could also take advantage of the inroads made by other brands into advantage.

One of the highlight of their distribution... [continues]

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