A PROJECT REPORT ON MICROMAX MOBILE

SUBMITTED TO: M.S Deepti wadera

SUBMITTED BY: Ambar dua Govind sharma Himanshu bhardwaj

Introduction
Micromax made its debut in 1991 .but it has only become well known in the past few years. the company entered the Indian cell phone handset market march [Link] 6 months it won a market share of 0.59%.micromax has seen a continued rise in market since that time and its now Indian largest domestic mobile handset company, in terms of units shipped during the quarter ended march 31 2010 .and the third largest mobile handset seller in India as of march 31,2010. On March 31 2010, the company registered the market share of 6.24%for that quarter, which grew from 0.59% in September 2008. On July 28 ,2011 micromax had withdrawn its 4.66 billion rupees (about $106 million) initial public offering due to volatile market conditions .the withdrawal was recommend by its board to allow the company to focus on new product launches and product development. Nothing like anything Nokia and four other international players owned the Indian handset market for a long time, until innovation and price wars started to take their toll. Micromax has climbed the success ladder, embracing shanzhai traits of innovative, low cost handsets, with dual SIM features and handsets designed for specific market segment .One of the major aspects that contribute towards the substantial monthly growth of Micromax is its 80% sales in the rural areas .micromax is planning to expand its range in keeping with new market demands. It is readying several high-end handsets including phones that will run on Googles Android and Microsofts Windows Mobile operating systems (market stretch). The handsets are expected to be available in April or May, Jain said having gained traction; micromax is also working on a strategy to create awareness in the metros, which includes tying up with MTV for cobranded phones.

Value & Philosophy

What makes MICROMAX one of the world's leading companies? Ever since it was founded in 1938, MICROMAX has continually refined its mission statement to respond both to change in itself and in the world: "Economic contribution to the nation," "Priority to human resources," "Pursuit of rationalism." Each slogan represents significant moments in MICROMAX's history, reflecting different stages of the company's growth from a domestic industrial leader into a global consumer electronics powerhouse.

IMC tool of Micromax

Distribution channels:
Once you have established a good distributor network and sales are robust, the next logical step is branding exercises to ensure consistent brand recall among your target consumer base, said royal sheety, executive director and head telecom practice at audit and consulting firm KPMG India. Encouraged by its success, the firm expanded to larger cities and now has a distribution network of 55,000 retailers which it plans to scale up to 70,000 by the end of March as part of its strategy to raise sales to 1.5 million handsets a month.

Branding:
Micromax has also tied up with a Bollywood celebrity who will be announced shortly as brand ambassador, Jain said. Bollywood star Aamir Khan endorses Samsung phones. The Micromax phones are designed by the in-house research and development team, as is the embedded software. The on-board chips come from Media Tec Inc., Qualcomm Inc. and Infineon Technologies AGthe last two also count Nokia as a client. Manufacturing is outsourced to about11 factories in Taiwan, South Korea and China. Micromax has invested Rs100 crore to set up a plant in Baddi in Himachal Pradesh as it feels outsourcing manufacturing completely leaves the door open for supply-side uncertainties. Production will be scaled up from an initial 50,000 per month. Micromax is one of the leading Indian Telecom Companies with 23domestic offices across the country and international offices in Hong Kong, USA, Dubai and now in Nepal. With a futuristic vision and an exhaustive R&D at its helm, Micromax has successfully generated innovative technologies that have revolutionized the telecom consumer space. Micromax is on a mission to successfully overcome the technological barriers and constantly engender life enhancing solutions. The companys vision is to develop path-breaking technologies and efficient processes that incubate newer markets, enliven customer aspirations and continue to make Micromax a trusted market leader amongst people. TheMicromax ideology stems from its rooted belief in Innovation and delivering nothing short to best.

Product line:
Micromax has a lot of firsts to its credit on their versatile product portfolio. It was the first to introduce: Handsets with 30 days battery backup, Handsets with Dual SIM / Dual Standby, Handsets Switching Networks (GSM - CDMA) using gravity sensors, Aspirational Qwerty Keypad Handsets, Operator Branded 3G Handsets, OMH CDMA Handsets etc

Promotion:
With a 360 degree advertising (media, internet, TV and print media) and marketing strategy sketched out, the company has an optimistic outlook for the telecom consumer space. Currently present in more than 40,000 stores across the country, the company plans to have an aggressive market incursion to reach out to its customers through 70,000 operational stores in the coming year. After building a strong presence in the rural market, where the prominence of both subscribers and operators is rapidly increasing, Micromax is now progressively moving towards establishing its foothold in the competitive urban towns as well with young enthusiasts as its anchor Micromax Informatics Limitedhas created a niche for itself in the telecommunication industry.

Advertising
Broadcast media Micromax use television to broadcast their advertisements. Apart from using cricket, films, celebrity Micromax also advertise through news papers. They also utilize hoarding and bill boards to advertise their products. Prime site recently kicked off a month-long campaign for Micromax mobile phones in Delhi, executed mostly through hoardings. Going further, this promotion will be extended to the other regions of northern India as well .The city of launch was Delhi to start with, and post which we did the launch in Patna and Jaipur .Indore is next in line. There are more cities where the campaign will be launched in the near future for which we would be briefed accordingly. All the Medias used by Micromax are very carefully selected as to reach its target audience and through each medium the innovative aspect of the product is portrayed.

Advertising Agency - Lowe Lintas

Lowe Lintas is one of the Indias largest and most storied communication groups. It was founded In 1939 as a part of Hindustan Lever. Headed by Chairman and Chief Creative Officer [Link] (Balki) and CEO Charles Cadell, Lowe Lintas employs over 650 people across eight divisions and nine cities all over India .Lowe Lintas is a full service agency, it provides all the service to its clients like market research, production, designing, selecting and purchasing media. Today, Lowe Lintas India is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Interpublic Group, and one of the star offices in the Lowe Worldwide network. Headquartered out of London, Lowe Worldwide has over 80 offices in 73 countries and a client roster that includes Unilever, Johnson &Johnson, Nestle, Ericsson, Sharp, TATA, Saab and many more. Lowe Lintas India leads global and regional communication for several Unilever and Johnsons Baby brands.

Source, Message and Channel Factors

Celebrity: Micromax has used Akshay Kumar and very recently his wife Twinkle Khanna to endorse their brand. These celebrities are used as brand ambassador because of the following reason . Familiarity: Akshay Kumar is a very famous celebrity in Indian villages as well as urban areas, so he is very familiar to the target audience i.e. the youth. It was a good decision to get him to endorse this brand. Likeability: many of the youth in India resemble themselves with Akshay; hence there are great chances that if he endorses this brand, it will become more popular among youth

Message
Through all the medias Micromax is conveying a very clear message that we are best in manufacturing phones which have innovative features which makes yours life simpler and at a very affordable price.

Channel factors
The different channels that Micromax is using for advertisement are Broadcast: It is using television as well as radio to reach the target audience. It use personal channel as all of its advertisement is focused to the youth. Printmedia: : It is creating a lot of noise by using news papers, in these advertisements it also focuses on innovation of their product. Support Media: Micromax uses also support media to reach their target customers. Clutter: Since it an industry where a lot of competition exists. Every company is using all these Medias too; hence a lot of advertisements are aired by different companies, which create a lot of disturbance .

Advertising Objectives and Advertising Budget

When Micromax was launched in 2008 the main objective of the advertisements was to create awareness about the brand as it was a new entrant in the market and very established brands like Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericson were present. So, the initial objective of the advertisement campaign was to catch the attention of the customers and to create awareness about the brand .This phase of creating brand awareness was carried out for 1218 months from the launch of the phone .After that the company realized that awareness was created among the customers but they were not able to recall their brand, hence they shift their focus to brand recall. For this they have sponsored a lot of cricket events and film events. Now since they have attained 10% market share and reach at the 3rplace in mobile handset manufacturers they must focus on creating brand value. For this they have sign up with Akshay Kumar as their brand ambassador.

In short the advertisement objectives of Micromax are

create awareness increase recall of their brand create brand equity. .

Small steps forward: Success of Micromax

The first step of Micromax in India Micromax launched its first phone in the rural market with a very unique USP - a 30 days battery standby time, it had a battery that could last 30 days on a single charge and provide 17 hours of talk-time. Micromax asked its vendors in China and Taiwan to manufacturer 10,000 handsets based on this battery. The brand was launched from a consumer insight that most of the rural households do not get enough electricity to recharge phones on a daily basis. The feature is a boon for the Indian population living in villages, where power cuts are a major problem. Besides packing in a ground-breaking feature, Micromax aggressively promoted it through print and electronic media. Hence a phone with a 30 day battery standby would be a worthwhile differentiation. The first product was a big success. The first product Micromax X1i priced at Rs2150 was lapped up by rural market .According to the news report; Micromax managed this hurdle through this strategy of more margins for advance payment. It is not a new strategy to offer such kind of discounts for advance payments (cash discounts), but to make a retailer accept such an offer is indeed a remarkable feat (if the Forbes report is true).Micromax has also launched a MTV phone, the MTV X360, which is replete with Yamaha amplifiers for listening to the MTV music channel.

Micromax- Manufacturing and Distribution

Micromax phones start at as low as $40 and cater to the local taste by adding in unique features .Micromax is seen as an innovative brand in India, being the first to introduce dual SIM branded handsets. Nearly 90% of Micromax mobile phones come with a dual SIM feature, then followed the handsets switching GSM and CDMA networks using gravity sensors, operator branded 3Ghandsets, OMH CDMA handsets, and more. Micromax has plans to release touch screen phones and embrace the Android OS in the near future. The Company has grown dramatically in a very short time span sell a million handsets a month now. With a market share of about 10%, we are a close second to Samsung. Micromax and several other local vendors are responsible for the downfall of Nokias share from 64% in 2008 to 52% in 2009, grabbing nearly12% from worlds leading phone brand in just one year. Although the 10% figure is still in ambiguity, the company has shown revenues of Rs 1,600 crore and a net profit of Rs 150 crore in the financial year of 2009-10. Micromaxs manufacturing and distribution model is a key factor in its growth. It has be Ends signing phones in-house, pretty much always including a unique feature and then manufacturing is done by vendors in China, South Korea and Taiwan. The company is; however, planning to open manufacturing plants in India to double up the production. Micromax also follows a cash-only distribution service unlike its contemporaries, who offer a 60-day credit line .On the top of these strategies, Micromax has an INR 100 crore (nearly USD 21 million) annual advertising budget. Their brand, which most Indians hadnt even heard of, suddenly flashed to the limelight by sponsoring the Indian Premier League and a lot of other big cricketing events .Micromax also signed up top Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar as its brand ambassador .Micromax is now selling more than a million handsets a month from 90,000 retail outlets in over500 districts of India

Micromaxs growth has attracted a lot of investment as well. Boston-based private equity firm TA Associates has recently invested USD 45 million to buy a minority stake in the company .Naveen Wadhera, TA Associates Advisory director explains, "We did spend a lot of time with the broader universe of Indian phone makers.

Conclusion
In just 30 months, by staying with this philosophy of making handsets that address specific user Needs and are also affordable, its come a long way. With a market share of about 10%, Micromax is close second to Samsung. There are many views on that 10% figure. Citigroup put it at 10% in February, a top executive of a rival says its 8%, IDC India says it was 4.8% in 2009. According to IDC, Nokia had a market share of 54.1%, Samsung 9.7% and LG 6.4%.Micromax has successfully generated innovative technologies that have revolutionized the telecom consumers pace. So far it appears to be on a on aright path to achieve its mission to successfully overcome the technological barriers and constantly engender life enhancing solutions. The companys vision is to develop pathbreaking technologies and efficient processes that incubate newer markets, enliven customer aspirations and continue to make Micromax a trusted market leader amongst people. The Micromax ideology stems from its rooted belief in Innovation and delivering nothing short of the best Never mind the quibbling over numbers. Fact is, the company is mounting a serious challenge to the slippery No. 2 spot in the mobile handset business. In the past four years, the second spot has been lost by Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG. Samsung has held it for the past 24 months ,but Micromax is catching up. We will be No. 2 by the end of this fiscal, says co-promoter Vikas Jain .Micromax had two options compete on price or be different. It decided to be different. In its case, different meant a longer battery life or a phone that had two SIMs. Micromax has taken the utilitarian philosophy to the mid- and high-end also, with a reasonable degree of success.