Philips Mobiles Giving What Indians Want

Harsh Vardhan
Head – Marketing
Philips Mobile Phones

The market is growing at a rapid pace.The teledensity of the country has increased immensely in the recent past. New operators have joined the fray and are offering attractive schemes to win customers. The price of handsets is coming down month after month. All this augurs well for the handset brands that are serious about their business. If the products are of high quality, good in terms of aesthetics, packed with features and priced just right offering value for money to the end-user, there is no reason why a brand would not succeed. That is what Philips Mobiles has done.

Despite the severe competition, there is enough room for the company to grow and give a stiff fight to some of the top brands of repute which have been here for much longer. All that one needs to do is to work out the right channel strategy, retail strategy, and service strategy to be a winner in this market. Since Philips mobiles have started a little late, it has set modest targets. "By the end of the current financial year, we would be happy to achieve five to ten per cent of the market share," asserts Harsh Vardhan, Head – Marketing, Philips Mobile Phones.

Channel and retail strategies…

Philips is actively seeking more channel partners as India is a very big market and the company wants its brand to be omnipresent at every possible place where there is a customer – right down to the tier-II towns (category B cities), besides metros. There should be no unrepresented market and the emphasis is pan-India, across all regions. It wants the channel partners to share the same vision as itself, have zest in making the brand a leading one and have sufficient resources to invest in the business with the company. Philips provides all possible marketing, pre-sales, technical and after-sales support to their partners.  

"Besides the channel sales, we recognize retail as one of the important mediums to reach the end-user. At the end of the day, our products reach the retailers through distributors and dealers, and these retailers form the last step in the channel chain," says Harsh. He further adds, "However, organized retail has evolved and grown in a big manner in the recent past and emerged as a separate medium altogether. Brands are directly selling to retail operators, especially the LFRs which have a chain of stores across the country. We are in the process of tying up with names of repute in the business. This shall enhance our brand presence as well as sales."  

Range and current market share…

As of now, Philips has launched seven handset models in the market. In the near future, the company intends to launch Android platform-based phones and 3G phones at very affordable prices – making them mass market from the current elite status. The company firmly believes in the fact that the benefits of technology should reach every one and price should not be a barrier in enriching the user experience. 

Market Position…

Harish opines that every Philips mobile phone is high on design and is loaded with features. It does not just compete well but beats the established brands in every aspect, especially when it comes to price-performance comparison. Philips does consumer research and receives market feedback from channel partners and end-users incessantly and incorporates the learning as features into its products that not just meet the user requirements but exceed their expectations as well. And this is done without any escalation in product prices owing to its in-house research, design & development, and manufacturing facilities.

Finally…

Philips is able to come up with quality products at an affordable price – phones that virtually have every feature that the user can dream of within that price bracket. The company believes that making affordable phones has nothing to do with compromise on any aspect whatsoever. India is a price-conscious market and people want maximum for their buck. And there is nothing wrong in this expectation. Philips sees this as an opportunity and these are some of the reasons why it expects Philips phones to be accepted well in the market.