Micromax Infomatics has launched a 360 degree marketing campaign to encourage the 20 million consumers still using feature phones in India to switch to smartphones. The company aims to do this by focusing on three key levers. These are faster internet connectivity, large display, and speedy processors at affordable prices. The company has also roped in celebrities to help take the message to different parts of the country. Stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma will spread the message in the North while actor Rana Daggubati of Bahubali will do the same in the South. Micromax aims to use the Bolt Series of phones to succeed in its endeavour. All Bolt series phones will now come with Firstouch, a translator app that can translate from English to their local language and vice versa. Micromax Bolt customers can also opt for free WhatsApp or avail talk time with Rs. 40 per month on Airtel for the first five months.
Read the complete press release below
To accelerate the smartphone adoption in the country, Micromax Informatics, the clear leader in the sub Rs. 7500 handset category, today launched a 360 degree marketing campaign to encourage the 70 million new age consumers using feature phones to switch to smartphones. With a strong portfolio, the company is committed to deliver value to the consumers by focusing on 3 key levers: faster internet connectivity, large display, speedy processors at extremely affordable price points. To take its message to the nook and corner of the country and reach out to the first time smartphone users in the true Micromax way, the company roped in the most popular stand-up comedian, Kapil Sharma for North and the Bahubali sensation, Rana Daggubati for South. The two stars will be seen in a series of films that give very tangible, easy to comprehend benefits of switching to a Micromax smartphone.
Currently, the Indian mobile market is dominated by feature phones with smartphone penetration at just about 15%. Micromax has identified three core barriers hindering the faster smartphone adoption which include the total cost owning the smartphone and data packages, hesitancy around using touchscreen and an evolved Android experience and English language UI making it difficult for consumers to make the shift. Based on these insights, Micromax, has developed a full business initiative comprising key components such as affordable devices with big screen size, regional language support, customized data package and a fully developed customer education program– including printed material, digital content available over phone in local languages to empower first time users of smartphone to set up and use basic functions like email, social networking and other basic utilities.
In line with this, Micromax’s new Bolt series phones offer big screen experience and cuts across various price points to suit the pockets of diverse consumer sets with models like Bolt S302: ₹ 3199/-, Bolt D303: ₹ 3199/-, Bolt Q331: ₹ 4999/- and Bolt Q338: ₹ 6499/-. All the Bolt series smartphones will now come pre-loaded with Firstouch, a patented translator functionality app that will help people translate from English to their local languages and vice versa and access Apps in App Bazaar in their preferred language. Additionally, Micromax Bolt customers can also opt for either free WhatsApp or avail talk time worth Rs. 40 per month on Airtel for the first five months. Micromax has also initiated a tech buddy program which includes trained retail representatives and customer care executives across 850 Micromax service centres to help consumers in seamless transition. To take the message across the length and breadth of the country, a 360 degree marketing campaign using popular celebrities Kapil Sharma and Rana Dagupatti has been launched to promote the entire initiative and explain the benefits of making the switch to smartphones with Micromax Bolt range.
Commenting on the launch of the new campaign, Mr. Shubhajit Sen, CMO, Micromax Informatics, said, “Around 70-80 million Indians convert from their feature phones to smartphones every year and more and more consumers will use a smartphone for their initial computing and Internet needs leapfrogging the PC and laptop generation. We believe that smartphones will play a significant role in meeting PM’s ‘Digital India’ vision to connect the next billion. Micromax, being a front runner in the sub 7.5k mass segment handsets, has taken a step ahead in its philosophy of democratizing technology to the masses and has come up with a special program to enable the consumers to take the next technological leap towards the smartphones from feature phones.”
“To make smartphone adoption a mass phenomenon, we are bringing together an ecosystem of device, services, local language and internet as well as roped in two celebrities with ‘nothing like anything’ attitude and mass appeal -Kapil Sharma and Rana Daggubati to take our message ahead.” He added.
“WhatsApp is excited to partner with Micromax as it continues to offer affordable innovations that enable connectivity. With over 900 million active users around the world and India being an important part of that, we remain focused on helping people communicate in a way that has become a part of everyday life. We are pleased to be working together with Micromax in this unique offering so that people in India can stay connected with their friends and family both in India and abroad,” said, Brian Acton, Co-Founder of WhatsApp.
Rakesh Deshmukh, Co-founder and CEO, Firstouch, said, “We believe that India with its diversity of languages is not well served by English centric smartphones, in fact, it proves to be a barrier and creates a digital divide. We intend to bridge this divide by offering Firstouch Regional Operating System to Micromax Bolt series smartphones and empower consumers to confidently transition from feature phone to smartphones for all their work and entertainment needs in the language of their choice”.