Gionee to double its mktg budget to Rs 750 cr in 2018: Alok Shrivastava

The first Chinese handset maker to enter the Indian shores, Gionee has secured a patron base of 1.25 crore in India over a period of five years. The brand has tapped into Gen Next’s craze for selfies with specific phones such as the A1. The brand operates in the Rs 8,000 to Rs 25,000 price bracket, a segment that has seen the maximum growth in the past few years. 

Despite stiff competition from players like Samsung, Vivo and Oppo in the Indian market, Gionee has been clocking sales of around half a million smartphones every month and has been growing in India rapidly, with nearly 6 per cent share of the Indian smartphone market, as informed by Alok Shrivastava, Director – Business Intelligence and Planning, Gionee India. The company plans to double its marketing budget for the next fiscal year to around Rs 750 crore in 2017-18 from Rs 400 crore. 

Speaking further on the growth in the Indian market, Shrivastava said, “We foresee a growth of 2.5 times in 2017-18 after securing revenues of $1.4 billion (Rs 9,500 crore) since Gionee’s inception in the country.” 

While stating that Gionee sees India as one of the most important markets, Shrivastava affirmed that the brand has been seeing exponential growth here, which will only increase rapidly as time progresses. Riding high on Indians’ passion for Bollywood and cricket, Gionee aims to reach out to every last Indian and empower them with their innovations. While Virat Kohli has helped the brand reach out to the ardent fans of the sport, Alia Bhatt and Baahubali star Prabhas have enabled them to strengthen their connect with the Bollywood fan base all over the country. Gionee has also recently signed up Shruti Hasan, Diljit Dosanjh, and Dulquer Salmaan as its brand ambassadors to further its regional and emotional connect with consumers across the country. 

Gionee supported the launch of its flagship product – A1 – with the #Selfistan campaign featuring Alia Bhatt. Such has been the popularity of the campaign that Gionee received pre-orders for as many as 74,682 units worth around Rs 150 crore in the first 10 days of the campaign launch. 

Meanwhile, in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India drive, Gionee is planning to set up a manufacturing unit spread across 50 acres in Faridabad in Haryana at a cost of Rs 500 crore. The unit, which will be operational in about two years, has a capacity of producing 30 million handsets. In the long-term, the handset manufacturer plans to not only tap the growing demand in India, but also act as an export hub to serve markets like Africa and South East Asia with the handsets made in India. 

While more and more phone brands in India are looking at special sales and online-only products, Gionee does not believe in flash sales and instead focuses on establishing robust customers connect that has been a key growth driver for them in the country. As a result, Gionee today has presence in 42,000 retail outlets across 2,200 cities pan India. The brand sells only 1 per cent of its stock online, while everything else is sold offline. “Our focus is still largely on offline retail in India and not allow online sales unless the e-commerce players agree to sell at the price set by us,” said Shrivastava. 

He further said that Gionee’s focus is on meeting the needs and demands of the customers in order to develop trust in a brand and spread a positive word of mouth. “In the current scenario, where smartphone makers are struggling to establish a reliable after sales service with customers, Gionee guarantees a turnaround time of 72 hours to its customers. Addressing customers even after sales and maintaining a long-term relationship with them is fundamental to Gionee’s fabric, which is evident considering the company has invested in 555 exclusive service stations with plans to expand to 600 to focus on its after sales relationships with the customers,” he concluded.