Roll No.

166

Sagar Gupta

BM Assignment

Micromax Association with Hugh Jackman

What Micromax portrays itself as

Caters to a niche category Affordable Unique offering Youth centric

What Consumers percieve it as

Cheap Chinese (or Chinese like) brand Focussed on rural market

What the numbers say

60% users between ages 20-40 Introduced many firsts - eg. gaming deivce with gestrue control, built in bluetooth headset, universal remote 22% share in the Indian smart phone market (2nd largest) Sourced from China, Taiwan based manufacturers

The rationale behind signing Hugh Jackman for being the Brand Ambassador Till now Micromax has been focusing on taking the rational route to reach brand resonance according to the brand pyramid. But now, it wants to also capitalize on the emotional route by improving the imagery and the social approval aspect by associating itself with an International celebrity Hugh Jackman. They wanted someone who is relatively famous in India and has recognition on the world stage as they have plans to set shop in various countries across the globe in a phased manner. They want to expand in Russia (by December), to be followed up by Romania and the rest of the European market subsequently, African subcontinent etc. Micromax is upping the ante on the visibility front. o Plans to increase the number of retails outlets and providing service centers the much needed limelight o Holding road-shows from Delhi to Pune and Chennai showcasing their portfolio range. So an association with the internationally recognized face is part of the strategy. This will help improve TOMA of the brand. Apart from entering into high-growth markets, it is also clear that the company is looking to tap into the high-end buyers who are somewhat attracted to an Apple or a Samsung phone, for which it is ready to shell out extra for the brand alone. Mr. Rahul Sharma - Micromax co-founder feels that by appointing Hugh Jackman as a brand ambassador, Micromax will improve its image on the world scale so that people will not

Roll No. 166

Sagar Gupta

BM Assignment

consider it to be an inferior or unreliable product. Our smartphones are multi-taskers and who can be a better ambassador than Hugh Jackman who embodies the aspirational, re-invented, fearless persona, multi-tasking Sharma says. This because of his role as the Wolverine in the Hollywood fiction movie series The X-men. So all in all there will be a transfer of values from the celebrity to the brand itself. The endorsement furthers the positioning statement Nothing like anything as signing a Hollywood star of Jackmans stature by a mobile company is a first in India, it makes Micromax stand apart. The fan following of Hugh Jackman is mostly in the young age brackets which is exactly the target audience of Micromax. With this endorsement, Micromax wishes that some of the fan following rubs off onto its sales as currently the audience group prefers to pay more for a big brand such as Apple or Samsung. Also, off late Micromax has been marred in controversy regarding the involvement of its cofounders in a bribery case. So this association with Jackman will definitely shift the focus of the media and generate some positive news.

First Reactions: Micromax posted the announcement about Hugh Jackmans endorsement around mid Friday on Facebook. It took merely 24 hours for the post to go viral. By Sunday evening, the post had earned over 6,800 Likes, 315 comments and 700 shares. By Monday lunchtime, the number of interactions increased even more to 9,600 Likes, 377 comments and over 900 shares and the numbers increase with every page refresh. On an average day, Micromax gets about 60 people that mention the brand in a tweet, on Friday, this number shot up to 381, six times higher than normal. What remains to be seen is if this ploy shall work and provide the much needed impetus to catapult Micromax into the international market with gusto while gaining on its already substantial market share in India. The biggest challenge for it is to shake off the cheap tag and to elevate its image from rural to urban. Further, since they are now entering into the premium phone category to cater to the international markets, it will be difficult to maintain a balance between premium and affordable pricing which has been a mainstay of their branding communication till now. Jackman is relatively less known in India without his wolverine-ness, so maybe picking an international model would have worked better along with its advertising campaigns featuring international locations. It could also be that Micromax is a bit late in suppressing the Made in India tag. This effort might not lead to the results that Micromax expects.

Rest its still early days to gauge the overall impact of this association on the Micromax brand, rest assured it will remain much talked about in the time to come.