Huawei Honor's rising as one of fastest Growing smartphone brand in India

Honor the sub brand from Huawei no longer needs introduction in smartphones world. Honor has made a name for itself in mid-range priced devices. The devices from the brand has brought premium quality devices with latest innovations to Indian market across the price spectrum. With innovative and best in segment products like Honor 7X, Honor View 10, Honor 9 Lite; Honor has shown momentum and growth in the India market.

Huawei witnessed a massive overall growth of 165% in CY 2017 as per Counterpoint, Q4 2017 report. While Huawei focused on wearable devices, it was Honor that played an instrumental role in brand building, and launched global best sellers that became India best sellers. The budget bestseller smartphone, Honor 7X was pivotal in the growth of the brand towards Q4, 2017.

Further, the launch of Honor View 10 and Honor 9 Lite has paved the way for greater recognition of the brand in India, thereby, reinforcing its global leadership. Honor 9 Lite has been a sold out all four times on Flipkart making it one of the most popular Honor smartphone to date.

We talked earlier about rise of OPPO as one of top brands globally, Honor seems to have followed the suite as well as learnt from the mistake of former. OPPO which has seen a phenomenal rise in its market share in 2016, is now slipping from its place. One of the reason for this drop is said to be lack of options in different price segment. Honor has filled this gap with its balanced distribution of devices from Honor6x to Honor View10. 

Another important factor for this rise in country is company's commitment to provide India with Global Best Price which is evident from one of latest launch Honor View 10 which is priced at Rs 29,999/- while it was launched for Euro 499 in European markets which turns out to be around INR 38,000/- .

Honor is the first smartphone brand in India to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven smartphone, Honor View 10 at very pocket friendly cost, in line with brand’s commitment towards the Indian market. The launch of Honor View 10 marked the beginning of a new AI era, making consumers shift from the smartphones to “Intelligent phones. The latest offerings from Honor, Honor 9 Lite and Honor 7X have reshaped the budget smartphone category in the Indian smartphone market, owing to competitive hardware and software features, and have been termed as best budget smartphones by media critics.

Huawei, well known for its excellent R&D, brings out the best innovations in every offering. It invents consumer-centric technology that not only enhances the overall performance of the device but also creates brand loyalty amongst its consumers. Honor has been on a high success streak in 2017 with in-house premium technology and constant innovation.

While there is a lot of stress on innovation and listening to voice of customers , marketing team of Honor has also done commendable job with organizing events in different cities, educating the dealers, partnering with e-retailers etc to keep the ball rolling. The man we know behind all this is Mr P Sanjeev, VP Sales, Huawei Consumer Business group. The team deserves a pat on back to have achieve staggering growth in neck to neck competition. 

In one of the event, the team has announced its ambition to capture 10% of smartphone market share in India by 2019, the task might look tough seeing number of brands (competitive) in the arena. However, the growth rate achieved by Honor has left behind the likes of Xiaomi and OPPO makes it look achievable if they manage to be on the right track and get ahead of competition in making use of available technology if not innovate on its own for all devices.

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GST effect: ASUS Zenfone 3 Line Up gets price cut of Rs 3000/-

On midnight of 30 June- 1st July India witnessed launch of biggest tax reform in country's history in form of GST. Now GST effects are being seen in terms of price changes in markets for the affected commodities. While the reaction is mixed within the public, organisations do have something to cheer or fear. Amidst all this, the chaos is settling down and GST benefits or burden is being transferred to the end consumer. Thankfully our smartphones market have got something to cheer again and that is evident in recent price cuts from different brands after GST rates are announced.

ASUS one of the most prominent brand which has established itself in market with its sub brand Zenfone is offering a discount of upto 3000/- Rs on its Zenfone 3 series most popular smartphones the Zenfone 3 and Zenfone 3 Max variants. The price cut will be applicable across all platfroms including online and offline sales channels.

Below is the existing and updated pricelist of the models benefited from the recent announcement.

Series	Original Price	New Price
Zenfone 3 5.5 [ZE552KL]	19,999	16,999
Zenfone 3 5.2 [ZE520KL]	17,999	15,999
Zenfone 3 MAX 5.5 [ZC553KL]	15,999	14,999
Zenfone 3s MAX [ZC521TL]	14,999	12,999
Zenfone 3 MAX 5.2 [ZC520TL]	12,999	10,999

Peter Chang, Region Head – South Asia & Country Manager for ASUS India said, “Both Zenfone 3 and Zenfone 3 Max series have received an overwhelming response in India, and we are happy to offer a new exciting price for both the models. We are sure that, with this price, both the series will be the best buys in the Indian market.”

Though the presser didn't mentioned this price cut related to GST, however the timing suggests otherwise. GST effect or not, but this announcement is surely going to up the ante for pricing war and benefit the end customer. So if you are in search of a new phone then this is one of the best time to buy one.

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5 Ways to promote an App

In today’s ultra- competitive environment it becomes crucial for companies of all shapes and sizes to be continuously visible to consumers. Regular promotion of the product or service is a brilliant technique that can powerfully help in this endeavor. This technique is universal amongst all industries and sectors, including app developers. Today, app developers beautifully craft layout designs, build engaging content and add relevant widgets but often overlook the need to promote the app. To be ahead in the race to success, it is important not just to understand the need but also to identify innovative ways to promote the app across channels. Listed below are a few such ways which will help you to promote the app and reach customers, like never before.

Social Media

Content plays a major role to spur visibility across platforms, something MakeMyWishes.com  is a great fan of.  Therefore, app developers should regularly build content including blogs and articles that directly or indirectly introduces the brand/ product to the consumer. Furtherance, such content pieces should be uploaded on company website and various social media sites including LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram to garner heightened visibility. Alongside, graphics can be created to convey the story to consumers who prefer watching instead of reading.

Bloggers

Bloggers have the potential and power to rapidly promote the product, through digital channels. They position the product closer to consumers with an encouraging and positive approach. They make up for an opportunity for engagement with niche audiences at a fraction of the cost of traditional media. So, one should identify bloggers who are brand champions or who write on niche that relates to the app, to simply have someone else say good things about the product.

Email

Despite all flashy technological innovations, email is the easiest, convenient and cost- effective solution. It empowers an app developer to reach out to large amount of consumers in a short span of time, locally and globally. So, all that needs to be done is; to craft an impressive subject line to attract customers and build crisp &creative content to ensure easy readability. Besides this, one can also customise the email according to consumer preference and market trends to ensure success in business. 

Traditional Media

There are many consumers who are not active on social platforms but regularly read newspapers. This is where traditional media holds more prominence. This may be the oldest way to promote products and services but it can still diligently and effectively spur visibility from micro to macro level. In a digital era, while majority of app developers harness the power of social media in a business plan to promote products, they should also consider the importance of traditional media in trade.

Advertisements

Digital display advertising can be relatively costly but it surely is a major driver of enhanced visibility at multiple platforms. With such wider reach, it swiftly initiates word of mouth and places the product at the Mecca of limelight. Today, app developers can advertise through various routes such as electronic posters, e- banners, information kiosks, online directory entries and more. 

About Author Anu Gupta:

Anu Gupta, CEO & Co-Founder MakeMyWishes.com

Anu is backed by a strong industry experience in Finance with a high proficiency in Sales, Channel Management, Operationsand People Management. Her versatile professional portfolio includes renowned names such as ICICI Retail, Deutsche Post Bank Home Finance, Jones Lang LaSalle, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation limited.

Anu has been instrumental in the success of numerous organizations, leading various projects on coaching, developing and running competency-based MDP’s and Leadership Academies. She has led many Change Management interventions covering more than 300 locations and has also implemented assignments for Leadership and Mid-Junior Management teams. These efficient and robust activities have enabled tangible shifts in individual and organizational performance, defining her professional capacities and leadership qualities.

Her core competencies are in areas such as Business Management, Learning and Development, Management of Change, Empowerment, Interdependence, Executive Coaching and Achievement Motivation among others.

She along with her partner and best friend, Sapna have weaved their dream together and are edging at making big to in the wish-list industry.

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Pitch Top 50 Brands Awards: An evening with corporate top shots

Yesterday I got a chance to witness a live award show, the Pitch Top 50 Brands awards is an annual property of Pitch, from the exchange4media group which rewards Top 5 brands across 10 categories. The awards acknowledge the impactful, efficient and commendable marketing practices pursued  by the brands over a year of time. The winners are shortlisted from a variety of brands from big corporate like Tata, Hero MotoCorp, Mahindra & Mahindra to relatively small startups such as Practo, OYO rooms etc.

Initially 300 brands were selected across categories in Tier 1 process which was further halved to 150 brands in Tier 2 process after that Top contenders were finalized to further reach at the final Top 50 brands for the year 2016. After you scroll down a bit and see the list of Top 50 brands you will realize how tough a job it was for the Jury which included brand heads and cheif Marketing officers from organizations like Godrej Consumer, PolicyBazaar, Micromax, Renault, Hero MotoCorp etc, to reach to a consensus over the final 5 names in each category.

The host for the evening was energetic beauty Suparnaa Chadda who kept the audience engaged through out the process. I was fully impressed when amidst the corporate English environment she started with Saraswati Vandana in Sanskrit (या कुन्देन्दु तुषार हार धवला, या वीणा वर दण्ड मण्डित करा  ). 

@simplysup is hosting #top50brands and with drum rolls we start the event. Watch it #live https://t.co/7HnL09O7Xs pic.twitter.com/AC5mAuAtf8

— e4m (Events) (@e4mevents) July 22, 2016

After that Mr. Naval Ahuja from Exchange4Media group addressed the audience and wished all finalists. The event couldn't have been such successful without the partners and they were duly thanked on the stage before anything else occupied the stage. The partners for the event were Sakshi Media Group as Gold Partner and Associate partners were 9XJalwa,blogmint, FirstPost, IndiaToday, Laqshya.

The theme of the event was "The Power of Content Marketing" and the same was discussed in a panel of speakers like Avik Chattopadhyay, co-founder Expreal (moderator for the discussion), Anand Ramakrishnan, Head -Content & Digital Marketing, HCL Technologies, Satinder Juneja, VP- Sales & Marketing, NIIT Technologies, Radhika Binani CPO, PolicyBazaar.com. Mr, Satinder Juneja, recited a Hindi poem during the discussion which perfectly defines the power of content marketing.

"राह पे उनको लगा लाये हैं बातों में , कुछ और खुल जायेंगे दो चार मुलाक़ातों में । "

The Panel Discussing - "The Power of Content Marketing"

Word 'control' is irrelevant for today's consumers, they are self aware AND you simply can't control em- Ashwin #top50brands @theblogmint

— Rahul Kasana (@RahulKasanaTech) July 22, 2016

The discussion concluded with emphasis on need to co-create the content with individual content creators as each one of us have the power to create and can be a broadcaster.

The chief guest for the evening Mr. Mahesh Giri, National Secretary BJP and MP from East Delhi arrived shortly after, he addressed the audience in Hindi and emphasized on the work done behind a product by the brand awareness team which includes content creators, PRs, marketeers etc. Mr. Giri, presented awards for five of ten categories before he left for the day.

Top 50 Awards - Chief Guest, Mr. Mahesh Giri Addressing the audience

Below are the list of award winners across the categories. Please note that there is no rank here as all the winners are judged as equal in each category.

Bottom of the Pyramid	Master Connectors	Digital Strategists	Disruptors	Affluent
AAJ TAK	BROOKE BOND RED LABEL	AMAZON INDIA	AMAGI	ARMANI
BIG BAZAAR	CADBURY	FACEBOOK	AMAZON KINDLE	AUDI
COLGATE	COLORS	HOTSTAR	OLA	JAGUAR LAND ROVER
HERO MOTOCORP	HONDA MOTORCYCLE & SCOOTER INDIA (HMSI)	OLX	PATANJALI	MERCEDES-BENZ
PARACHUTE	RADIO MIRCHI	PAYTM	POLICYBAZAAR	PORSCHE
		YOUTUBE	PRACTO

Social Contributors	Impactful Debuts	Evergreens	Globetrotters	Resurgents
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER	ABOF	AMUL	BAJAJ AUTO	BRITANNIA GOOD DAY
MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA	BALENO	FAIR AND LOVELY	GOA TOURISM	HAVELLS
MARUTI SUZUKI	HYUNDAI CRETA	RAYMOND	HERO MOTOCORP	MAGGI
MAX BUPA HEALTH INSURANCE	RENAULT KWID	SAFFOLA	MICROMAX
RELIANCE INDUSTRIES	ROYAL ENFIELD – HIMALAYAN	STATE BANK OF INDIA	TATA GROUP

After all the awards were announced we had dinner waiting outside for us with Cocktail and all, without wasting any time we had our dinner and headed back to home with a new experience and memories to keep. Thanks blogmint for providing me with this opportunity.

Why and How I was there?

As mentioned earlier, Blogmint was one of the associate partners for this event. Blogmint is a influencer marketing program connecting brands with Influencers. I am registered with them as an influencer  and have participated in few of their campaigns. This time I got a request to cover the event , the task was exciting for me and I happily obliged to do that. 

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