let purpose be noble: will smithbronze lion winner...ched at an aggressive price and reliance will...
TRANSCRIPT
Kolkata: After smartpho-nes, the price war is coming totelevisions. Reliance Jio andChina’s LeEco, two playerswith deep pockets, are soonentering the Indian televi-sion market with an aggressi-ve pricing strategy and bund-led content, which they ex-pect will pose a serious chal-lenge to the three top brandsSamsung, LG and Sony.
Reliance Jio will roll out arange of smart LED TVs withvarious screen sizes underthe Lyf brand, currentlyknown for its 4G-LTE smartp-hones. The TVs will make it tomulti-brand retail stores andecommerce platforms some-time during this year.
LeEco, on the other hand,plans to launch its range ofTVs by next month at a pricepoint where it won’t makeany profits, similar to its stra-tegy of pushing smartpho-nes, said senior industry ex-ecutives. Reliance is current-ly piloting TV sets in threescreen sizes: 43-inches, 50-in-ches and 65-inches. They arehigh-definition 4K screens,which will pair with Jio’s up-coming 4G high speed inter-net services. Currently theyare being sold only at Relian-ce Digital stores and throughemployee referrals.
“Television sets will be themost important category totake 4G services to the con-sumers’ homes and will bethe next thrust area for Reli-ance Jio’s devices businessafter smartphones. The tele-vision models will be laun-
ched at an aggressive priceand Reliance will aim to beone of the leading players inthe market,” a person awareof the plans said.
Atul Jain, COO-smart elec-tronics business at LeEco In-dia said the company will ha-ve disruptive pricing for itssmart televisions with an aimto capture a significant share.
“A lot of brands are trying tobe price aggressive in televi-sions but doing it by compro-mising on technical specifica-tions, features and quality. Wewill not compromise on the-se,” Jain said. He, however, re-fused to share the details onpricing. An email sent to Reli-ance did not elicit any respon-se till Tuesday press time.
As per estimates, Samsung,LG and Sony together controlaround 70% of the .̀ 20,000-
crore LED television marketin India with Sony and Sam-sung competing aggressivelyin the premium 40-inchesplus segment. Videocon andMicromax are the next and to-gether have 15-20% share.
A senior executive with aKorean consumer electro-nics maker said both Relian-ce and LeEco could becomeserious competitors if theystart a price war. “These com-panies are on a spendingspree at the moment and wo-uld surely drum up big mar-keting spend for TVs whichmay require some counter-campaign,” he said, reques-ting anonymity.
Reliance is spending big oncampaign for its Lyf smartp-hones, while LeEco is spen-ding .̀ 60-70 crore every quar-ter on marketing
Rel Jio, LeEco Set toChange the TV Show
Reliance Jio will roll out a range of smart LED TVs under the Lyf brand
It is piloting 4K HD TVs in three screen sizes: 43-inches,
50-inches and 65-inches
LeEco plans to launch its TVs at a price point which will get it no profits, according to industry sources
The Chinese co says it will not compromise on specifications or quality
The two cos are seeing TVs as an important
avenue for 4G services
Soon on Screen
5�WWW.ECONOMICTIMES.COM
Brands: Creating Desire
Cannes: Most of us know abo-ut American actor-rapper-producer Will Smith for hisroles in numerous blockbus-ters from the alien wrangling‘Independence Day’ and ‘Menin Black’ to more sensitiveoutings like ‘The Pursuit ofHappyness’.
His turn as an investor isslightly more obscure. Earlierthis January, there were rumo-urs of his involvement withJust Beverages that claims to“source, produce, and packagewater for improved environ-mental and community im-pact”. Smith had been tight-lip-ped about this until Monday.
In a session at the 2016 CannesLions Festival, Smith spokeabout Just Water (a bottled wa-ter brand under Just Bevera-
ges) in his own inimitable style— by picking up a bottle of thebrand midway through the ses-sion and sipping from it.
Without divulging his stakein Just Beverages, Smith toldus how his son Jaden’s pas-
sion for doing something toresolve the issue of plastic inthe oceans got him to invest inthe venture.
“I thought he was just get-ting excited like kids get abo-ut soccer for some months
and then their interest fadesbut you’ve already bought allthe soccer equipment.”
But his son’s single-mindedfocus got his attention. “Weworked with people from MIT(Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology), put together afantastic board, Grace Jeon isour CEO. It’s hard to go wrongwith this especially becausethe idea is seeded by a 10-year-old’s noble determination.”
The American actor then ma-de a point about how brandsneed to stop reverse-enginee-ring their purpose.
“If your purpose is not noble,it’ll reflect in your product andpeople are going to know aboutit. We keep that in mind for allour companies. I never wantedto make a lot of money. Actual-ly, that’s not true. I wanted tomake a lot of money. But the go-al is to make money while im-proving lives.”
Let Purpose be Noble: Will SmithCANNES LIONS 2016
Cannes: What’s a Cannes Lions without some contro-versy? On a day when there was not much to speak of byway of spectacular wins, the Indian ad fraternity wasbuzzing with news of a Lion-winning entry being writ-
ten off as a scam by press from Mashableto Mumbrella. The work is Grey Singapo-re’s I Sea app (apparently made in collabo-ration with Malta-based Migrant Offsho-re Aid Station (MOAS)) which won a Bron-ze Lion in Promo & Activation on day oneof Lions Innovation.
In the few weeks preceding the festival,there was a groundswell of chatter questio-ning its credibility, leading it to be pulledoff the Apple Store as of June 20. Ironicallyenough, around the same time it was beingawarded. It all began when a tech writer@SwiftonSecurity called the app “feel-go-od bullsh*t” on Twitter on finding out that
it simply didn’t live up to its promise of helping spot boatsfull of refugees in distress.
MOAS said in a statement: “We were dismayed to disco-
Bronze Lion WinnerApp May be a ‘Scam’
Cannes Lionschairman saidthey willinvestigate itafter the festand takeappropriatemeasures
ver that real time images were not being used. We have since dis-continued our relationship with Grey for Good and spoken can-didly about our disappointment to the media.”
Mails to Nirvik Singh, chairman, Grey APAC, and Rob Reilly,global creative chairman, McCann Worldgroup (jury chair forPromo & Activation) didn’t elicit any response till press time.
Cannes Lions chairman Terry Savage said: “The way we hand-le these things is by not reacting in Cannes. To really look at the-se things you need time, you need to take a deep dive. So when weget a controversy — we wait till after Cannes — look at it, inves-tigate it and take whatever appropriate measures we need to.”
WILL SMITHActor & Investor
If your purpose isnot noble, it’llreflect in yourproduct and peopleare going to knowabout it. We keepthat in mind for allour companies
NEW SIGNALS Cos to launch TVs with aggressive pricingand bundled content; may make life tough for leaders
Mumbai: Future group haspartnered Bajaj Finance tolaunch a pre-approved co-branded store card that willallow customers to makepurchases on interest freeEMI or instalments as part offounder Kishore Biyani'sstrategy of 1X1— getting onecrore customers to spend .̀ 1lakh per annum each by 2021.
“We believe credit finan-cing will drive the next ro-und of consumption growth.With this product we willchange the landscape of con-sumption,” said Biyani, Gro-up CEO, Future Group.“Why should we not take cre-dit for everything?” he as-ked. Customers will have apre-approved loan limit from.̀ 35,000 to .̀ 3 lakh. Both com-panies are also developing aunique data mining model.
Future, Bajaj Fin Launch Store Card
US Polo Tops .̀1,000crIndia Sales in FY16 Apparel brand is nowon a par with Zarasince it enteredcountry 5 years ago
Arvind Retail opened the first USPolo store in India in 2011 and hassince added nearly 230 more. The750-sq ft store at Select City Walk inDelhi on average rakes in .̀ 225 persq ft a day. Zara, on the other hand,makes on average .̀ 150 per sq fteach day from the same mall, alt-hough from a bigger store.
According to Suresh, the compa-ny plans to open one US Polo storeevery week over the next few yearsas part of Arvind’s broader pushto grow its retail business. “Twofactors have worked: they are morecasual driven and less about fas-hion and second, they are a valueinternational brand and well posi-tioned on price, which appeals towider audience," said DevangshuDutta, CEO at Third Eyesight.
Sagar Malviya & Richa Maheshwari
Mumbai|Bengaluru: Apparelbrand US Polo crossed the .̀ 1,000-crore sales mark in India in the fi-scal ending March 31, less than fi-ve years after it entered the co-untry, according to a top executi-ve of the company. US Polo’s fast-paced sales puts it in the same lea-gue as Zara, which became thebiggest apparel brand in India wit-hin four years of setting up shop.Zara now clocks over .̀ 1,000 crorein retail sales here. In comparison,brands such as Louis Phillipe, VanHeusen and Benetton had takennearly a decade to reach this mark.
"We caught the consumer trendwith a fashionable but highly affor-dable brand," said J Suresh, mana-ging director of Arvind Retail,which holds licence to sell thebrand. "The iconic logo with two po-lo players on horses helped too. In-dia is possibly fastest growing mar-ket by sales and stores addition."
In Demand Arvind Retail opened the first US Polo store in In-dia in 2011 and has since added nearly 230 more
What worked for Polo?
Fashionable, but highly affordable brand
A value international brand and well positioned on price, which appeals to the wider audience
New Delhi: Top mobile phone ma-kers including Samsung, Micro-max, Intex and Lava expect a goodmonsoon to rev up sales, with ana-lysts pegging an upto 15% growthover the next few months to Septem-ber in the lower priced segment.
With mobile phones becoming anintegral part of daily lives, a signifi-cant amount of spending goes to-wards making phone purchases. Bo-untiful rains could stir spendingamong rural consumers — whoform bulk of the market — attrac-ting new buyers while propelling ex-isting users to move to higher priceddevices, smartphones, say analysts.
"Monsoon has a significant impactand sales can improve if its good be-cause we don’t just have urban cus-tomers but a whole lot in rural are-as," said Lava International’s chiefoperating officer Navin Chawla.
Intex Technologies’ director Kes-hav Bansal expects more rural usersto switch from feature to smartpho-nes, while replacement market willmove towards higher models.
On the back of an expected goodmonsoon, mobile phones priced un-der .̀ 3,500 are expected to grow by 12-15% over the next two quarters toSeptember end, with most of thegrowth being back ended with de-mand coming from rural areas, saidHong Kong-based market trackerCounterpoint Research. “A goodmonsoon can boost short term salesin price segment,” said Counterpo-int’s senior analyst Tarun Pathak.
That should be good news forhandset makers who have had a to-ugh time so far this year. "A goodmonsoon means good disposable in-come for people living in rural areas,which can potentially lead to increa-sed spending on higher priced mobi-le phones,” said Gartner India’s re-search director Vishal Tripathi.
Rajesh Agarwal, co-founder of Mi-cromax Informatics, agreed, sayingit will help India’s largest home bredhandset maker. Nearly half its salescome from rural.
RISE IN CONSUMER SPENDING
Handset CosCount on Good RainsUp to 15% sales growthlikely till September
GE
TTY
IMA
GE
S
GE
TTY
IMA
GE
S