While shopping for a child, one needs to be much more careful than shopping for an adult. The products have to be good and hygienic enough to be used by a kid after all every parent desires to provide their kids with the best things in the world. Extra precautions are taken whenever there is a child involved, the same goes with shopping, doesn’t matter, if you are doing it offline or online.
The E-commerce business in India has been thriving for over a decade. Now a day’s most of the shopping is done online, especially after the pandemic, people started indulging themselves in doing most of their business online.
Amongst hundreds of online shopping sites, Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra are some that are well known in this industry. Apart from all these, we also have different E-commerce sites that specially deal with the products of babies, kids, and mothers. One will find anything that a child and their parents can need in for them in here.
One of them is FirstCry, this offline and online store is said to be the largest store in Asia containing newborn babies and kids products. In this article, we will talk about the brand FirstCry and everything about it. So, let’s dive in.
“Ecommerce isn’t the cherry on the cake, it’s the new cake” – Jean Paul Ago
FirstCry was founded in the year 2010, on the month of September by Amitava Saha, Sanket Hattimattur, Prashant Jadav, and Supam Maheshwari. The main goal of the startup was to provide the best brands of baby care products to babies and their parents.
Any and every type of kids’ products can be found here, diapering, nursery products, apparel, toys, skincare, healthcare, and so many other things. Over 200k products can be found in FirstCry both from Indian and International brands.
FirstCry started its journey at a time when baby care products were not available to buy online. At that time, there was a big need for an online platform that will provide products for kids, so the founders sees an opportunity in this and launched FirstCry, the first online platform that is solely dedicated to kids.
Two subsidiaries Babyhug and Cutewalk are under FirstCry as well, a clothing label and a footwear label respectively. The headquarters of FirstCry is located in Pune, Maharashtra, India, and the company has more than 380 stores all over India. In 2019, FirstCry launched its first official outlet in Srinagar. It has more than 150 franchises in over 100 cities in India now.
As mentioned before any and every kind of babies and kids products are available in FirstCry. Some of them are:
Food Products by Firstcry
Chocolates
Candies
Sweets
Breakfast and Cereals
Snacks
Jams, Spreads, and Ketchup
Milk powder containers
Diapering and Baby Care Products by Firstcry
Diapers
Baby Wipes
Diaper Bags
Diaper Changing Maps
Bed Protectors
Potty Chairs and Seats
Baby lotion
Baby Shampoo
Apart from all these clothes, fashion accessories, footwear and toys are also available here.
Business Model and Revenue Model of FirstCry
FirstCry followed the Online-to-offline (O2O) business strategy which means it opened physical stores to attract its online customers to shop from their offline outlet as well.
FirstCry took an initiative and tied up with different hospitals all across the country; where whenever a baby gets delivered the parents receive ‘FirstCry Box’ as a way of saying Congratulations. Through this initiative, FirstCry was able to promote the brand in front of millions of new parents. The conversion rate was extremely high through this.
Supam Maheswari with Firstcry Gift Box
After adopting the hybrid business model, it is focusing on expanding the offline stores. They are also making money through products from BabyHug and Cutewalk.
Currently, the revenue of FirstCry is INR 897 Crores, and with its value of $1.9 Billion, it has added its name to the list of Unicorns in India. As of 2021 FirstCry has over 2000 employees working for it.
Goals, Challenges, Solution, and Competitors of Firstcry
The growth of a company is necessary and it can only be done when they fulfil all their goals and overcome all the challenges.
Goals of FirstCry
There are some aims that are the prime focus of FirstCry and they are:
The first goal is to increase the number of orders placed for the products.
Pursue the customers so that they can repeat their purchases.
To increase the average order value.
To increase customer engagement.
Challenges of FirstCry
The unorganized market is quite a problem.
Understanding the wants and behaviour of the parents is a hurdle here.
Solutions
To solve the challenges they have taken some steps and they are:
To understand the behaviours of the parents, a feature called Funnel analysis is being used.
Based on the purchase history and the behaviour of the users, products are recommended to them.
FirstCry learned the necessary techniques including user engagement pretty well, which lead to fulfilling their goals of repeated purchase and the increase in average order value. FirstCry now has experienced 10 million downloads on the Google Play store.
Being an E-commerce site specializing in baby products is actually a huge responsibility, especially when you are the first one to do that in the country. FirstCry does whatever they can to keep up with the name of being Asia’s biggest store that provides every kind of baby care product.
FAQ
Who is the owner of FirstCry?
FirstCry was founded by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha.
Is FirstCry an Indian company?
FirstCry is an Indian online store for baby products. It was launched in the year 2010.
As we develop multi-folds in the direction of technological advancements, we leave enormous amounts of things behind this trail. Yes, of course, leaving unnecessary things behind is a good way for going ahead in life. As technology gets more and more compact, we are witnessing the devices also get more compact. Data transfers are fast and now happen at unbelievable speeds. All these advancements are taking us to the new future, the future that is wireless.
Wires are a thing of the past now. Who knows them? What are they? this might not be a valid question today but for real, who knows the future? we might be talking about them in stories only. Like we talk about floppies, telegraph, and analogue television. We live in a wireless world now.
With the onset of the covid 19 pandemic and the spread of social distancing norms, we all are witnessing more wireless stuff than ever. Wireless is not even the near future, it is already here. Not only this it has transformed into multiple forms, like those of wearables.
Technology was in your hands in the form of smartphones, but now it is getting smarter and has even managed to enter your humble wardrobe. As devices are getting diverse in features they provide, they are also turning into something that can be worn. That is what we mean by wearables.
They are wireless gadgets with an inbuilt battery to support themselves. It can be a smartwatch, a fitness band, a wireless earphone, a smart pair of sunglasses and many more. These gadgets have already flooded the tech market in all forms, shapes and sizes, heavily democratising the market.
They are the new trend. I use the word ‘trend’ here because they are used more in a fashion sense rather than being used as a convenient device. The fight between the idea of “need to have” or “nice to have” always goes on. You will find people saying a lot of things about both the arguments everywhere. There cannot be a single accepted conclusion.
In Fact, the way they have entered the market is a unique way and it tells a story when we trace it. Smartphones were not considered something that was needed when they were just starting out. Feature phones were the ubiquitous devices that everyone used to call each other.
Soon when people saw these little palm handed devices, they were in awe. Curiosity drove them to these and smartphones made the magic spell work. The result was that humans fell in love, so much so that it is now a necessity for everyone to have a smartphone. This is the point in time when wearables are at their initial beginning, and they’re already flooding the market.
How Does This Wearables Technology Work?
We can say that wearable devices were present for a long time. Their instances have to be said from the very past of eyeglass discovery. When eyeglasses were popularised, people saw a new perspective of gadgets that can be worn.
Many years after that, when we have evolved technology so far and tiny, this tech is returning with big hope. Now, we can incorporate nano-transmitters coupled with an internet connection to a handheld device. These microprocessors are no less than a computer and can perform almost all the smart functions of a computer bigger in size.
Also, the growth in the domain of smartphones also helped the development of smart wearables. The betterment of mobile networks helmed the development of the wearable industry. That being said, fitness trackers were the first kind of wearables that were popularised around the world. The moment they became famous and made their own market, more features and forms got into the market. The humble wristwatch evolved to incorporate a screen into itself.
Wired headsets went on to rethink their purpose and Bluetooth headsets took their throne. A simple sunglass also was taken hostage by more smart and web-enabled glasses that could do more than just being sunglasses. The gaming industry was also stormed with virtual reality headsets and augmented reality screens and wearables.
India and the Wearables Industry
Smartphones in India and elsewhere started as an item of luxury and wasn’t really something that everyone could own. This situation saw a drastic change as technology penetrated deeper and deeper roots in India and everywhere else. This change can be observed quite easily. There is however a very good chance that smartphones could become a thing of the past in our future.
“Smart wearables are not just something that you can wear on your wrist and it will perform basic already told functions but it will be much more than that. In maybe three to five years this will replace smartphones and phones will be obsolete by then”, says GOQII’s chief executive officer, Vishal Gondal
The above sentence is proven right with these numbers. India’s wearable market grew about 93.8 per cent year on year in the July to September quarter, this year. India shipped 23.8 million units. Moreover, all these skying numbers are despite tough logistics challenges, increased freight charges, aggressive vendors at the other end.
India Wearables Industry
A famous wearable, smartwatch remained a heated up category all the way. It saw 4.3 million shipments in India in the third quarter. Wristbands or the infamous fitness bands saw a decline, IDC reports said.
This is what people are feeling about smart wearables. This really is looking like something that will most probably shape the future of technology in India.
Let us talk about some numbers in this rising trend. Before we go into the shipments and surge in demand for these tech wearables in India, we need to know about the information provider.
May 2021
The wearable market in India grew about 170.3 per cent on a year over year basis in the first quarter of 2021 (January to March). India saw a shipment of 11.4 million units according to the International data corporation, IDC.
The first quarter of 2021 also saw a surge in the domain of the watch and earwear category. Watches saw a growth in demand up to a wonderful 463.8 per cent year on year basis in the very first quarter. Comparing both the demand for earwear and the watches segment watches had a higher share of magnitude in numbers.
Even with that partition, earwear has managed a handsome three-digit growth in the first quarter. All these wearable surges show how people are reacting to the health situation in India. We are all more vocal about our health than ever.
August 2021
Following the previous growth trend, wearable grew even more by now. It saw a massive growth of about 118 per cent on a YoY basis (Year on year) in the second quarter of 2021 (April to June). It also saw a shipment of 11.2 million units of wearables, according to the recent IDC data. Watches continued to be the fastest-growing segment in the world of wearables and covered up to 81 per cent share in the write wear domain.
The category of wristwear grew at 35 per cent from that of a year ago. Another important trend that was seen was due to the COVID 19-second wave. The second wave impacted the overall wearable shipments by about 1.3 per cent in the second quarter of the year. This slump however did not impact vendors because they know that the demand will rise again once the situation is normal. So they tried to stockpile for next quarter.
Over the quarters, the smartwatch form factor seems to be appealing to the consumers, and Indian brands have been quicker to leverage this trend and align their device portfolio.
November 2021,
IDC’s report mentioned that India’s wearable market grew by 93.5 % year over year (YoY) in the third quarter (July to September). India saw shipping of 23.8 million units to its borders. In the third quarter, the growth can be seen even with the fact that logistics was hard and freight costs were increased after the decline in covid 19 cases.
In the month of September, the shipments saw a surge that surpassed 10 million. This was a record growth in wearable devices in the face of the month-long festival season in India. India’s favourite wearable in terms of shipments was again the category of smartwatches. Watches continued to be the fastest-growing pace at 4.3 million shipments in the third quarter.
While wristbands or fitness bands saw a decline consecutively for the seventh quarter. Other than that TWS (Truly wireless) came into the big picture, by reaching a 39.5 per cent share of earwear in the third quarter. However, the ear market is seen to be dominated by over-ear and tethered gadgets.
“The proliferation of new entrants in the mass market segment has increased competition, putting a lot of pressure on brands to differentiate in a market that is getting inundated with lookalike products,” said Jaipal Singh, Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India.
“Celebrity endorsements are a key tactic for brand recall. However, to maintain the growth momentum they must invest more in newer designs and aesthetics, as well as newer collaborations with existing franchises, Singh further added.
All these trends point to a booming future in the land of this diverse country, India. There are many reasons why this type of technology is a hit in India, they are convenient and easy to use in any field domestically.
In a developing country like India where tech is still getting bigger, this technology seems to be driving the growth. Let us see how this field is becoming the trendsetter in India, and thus the advantages it provides to the general tech-savvy public.
Even if you are not a fan of the wireless movement, you will notice some brands that shine all over the place. Yes, we can call this time “The wireless movement” where everything is going wireless. Now we will talk about some brands that are the top players in this market segment.
Even when you think you are away from these names, you will hear them from your friend or a friend of a friend. These brands have made their presence heard, quite literally. The brands that are leading the wearables market in India are listed as follows.
A Gurgaon based company leads the sales and revenue for the sixth straight quarter of the smart segment wristwatch market. That company is “Noise”. Noise is able to create a sound in its wristwatch segment this year. It had about 26 percent of the market share in the quarter that ended on September 30.
After Noise, the next brand is an Indian brand that primarily manufactures audio devices, but also got into the smartwatch segment. “Boat” is that brand after the 26 percent share of Noise, it has more than about 23 percent share of the whole watch industry. After these top two brands, there are several others who are cashing on the growing demand.
The third, fourth and fifth name according to the market share is Fire-Boltt, Realme and Zepp (Amazefit). All these brands are combined covers the hundred percent of shipments that came to Indian borders this year.
After we talked about the watch market, now is the time to jump on another trend. That trend is most recent to get hyped among millennials. That wearable is the Wrist band, or commonly known as the fitness band.
After the pandemic refused to go back, people became super conscious of their health. They choose health over anything else and of course life over death. Among the new year resolutions, this segment also saw a jump in sales. Let us see who are the masters in this product segment,
Top Wristband Companies
Xiaomi undoubtedly rules the Indian wristband industry. The reason is the affordability aspect of their products. Xiaomi bands are easy on the pocket and do most of the work that a fitness tracker does. It has scored decent marks in all the spheres where people want it to perform. This is the biggest reason why Xiaomi alone covers almost 50 percent of all the market share of this product segment.
Followed by the Chinese Xiaomi, Titan ruled the market with a share of about 16.5 percent which is a subsidiary of Tata. Titan has made its place in people who like a little luxury, they have provided value over the past years consistently to increase customer loyalty. That is the reason why they now cover 16 percent but it has declined from the Q2.
Then comes the OnePlus, the brand that is originally a startup but has managed to own brand equity and great goodwill. OnePlus is seen as the premium segment of smartphones and wearables. It is the reason why it has seen a jump in market share from quarter 2 to quarter 3.
The wearables market is not complete if we do not talk about the earwear product segment. Ear Wear products include all ranges of sound devices. It includes headphones, earphones, and everything that has to do with sound. This product segment has also seen immense growth in the recent past. Let us see which brands rule this product segment,
Top Earwear Companies
Imagine marketing or the famous brand “Boat” is the top player in the earwear industry. The marketing is so smooth and viral that it covers almost about half the total Earwear market (shipment of units). Not only this, Boat has managed to increase the market share from about 45.5 percent in quarter 2 to 48 percent in quarter 3. This proves how people love products from Boat and how it delivers on the value that it stands for.
Next in the line is Realme, it is also a famous brand but it lags much behind Boat in terms of market share this year. Realme has to work hard to gain more market share next year. Then there is the premium smartphone producer OnePlus that has its Oneplus buds in the market and is quite famous among brand enthusiasts.
Samsung saw a decline and went from 7.9 percent of market share in quarter 2 to 5.3 percent market share in quarter 3. Ptron became a little famous but the growth seems to be declining for the brand.
It is to be noted here that even though most of the market is covered by these key players, there is still about 27 percent of the market that is free. That 27 percent of the market is owned by other brands that are not mainstream. This creates enough space for the above-mentioned brands to work harder and poach more market share for themselves.
Seeing the current trend we can predict that these brands are already fighting for more market share for the bright future in India.
While they are compact and pocket friendly, they may raise concerns over the effectiveness and efficiency of these gizmos. That is quite a legit question which we will be covering in this paragraph. For example, Smartwatches can help people with Parkinson’s disease track symptoms and then transmit the data to authorities, so that more personalised treatment plans can be developed.
We will see here how these devices are changing how we track, move and live our everyday life. Read on to remind yourself how useful these apps are.
Fitness tracking
Smartwatch
As watches and bands have conquered the market, the most famous purpose for wearables is to track fitness norms. It is however to be noted that we are talking mainly about smartwatches and fitness bands. They help in tracking calories, steps walked, heart rate, blood spo2(Oxygen level) in some pro gizmos and many more. It helps all the fitness freaks stay on track and be honest about their calorie intake. This also helps as a motivator for workout sessions.
Location and direction
Smartwatches in these times also have a feature of maps. They can help provide accurate direction and location services, that too without looking at your phone screen again and again. This helps for people who are mostly on road or travelling often.
Portability (Hands-free)
The most useful aspect of all the best features is the portability of these devices. Portability is the ability to be portable, that can be taken anywhere without much of a hassle. Whether you are using a truly wireless headphone or a smartwatch, this feature is the prime one that comes in handy. It lets you move freely and you can now do more activity than before.
Wireless Headphone
Here the winners are the headphone segment as wireless is winning every now and then. If you are in a gym, running or doing any physically taxing work then being hands-free or portable feels really helpful. That is why people are forgetting wired earphones or headphones and buying earwear that is wireless.
Key Challenges in the Wearables Industry
There are many challenges in this field of technology. We have made it possible for devices to be that small that can be worn but still there is some time left to truly reach a point in time of efficiency.
There have been notable failures too like that of Google Glasses. With these failures, it raises questions of feasibility in this segment of products. While the future of smart glasses is in an uncertain circle and that too we will have to see by ourselves. There are however more universal problems for smart wearables that have to be constantly tackled to provide value uninterrupted.
Battery Life
Due to the compact size of these devices, it is relatively harder to put batteries in there. Thus, they have to rely on smaller batteries that are easily discharged if not taken enough care of. Moreover, as these wearables get smarter and smarter, they get more features than before, which is also a load on the battery. It is not a new issue but an age-old issue with consistency. However, brands are trying their best to tackle this problem.
Inaccuracy
This is a highly debated issue but the news and further testing and testing tell us that there can be inaccurate information on your wearable screen. That little compact device may not be able to fully function as the big machine for a purpose. For example blood oxygen data or heartbeats information can be a little inaccurate.
Sync Issues
Larger brands with deep pockets don’t have these issues. But however, the market being open and everyone trying to tap the potential in this sector has enabled issues in the working of wearables. A brand like Apple cannot afford to have even a little problem with their devices like its watch series or Airpods.
Apple Watch
Trying to be like big brands, have led companies to just release stuff without proper user testing. Sometimes, there are syncing issues or irregular syncing with wearables like wireless earphones and smartwatches.
Data security and privacy issues
With the internet being the place where now most people live, privacy concerns are at an all-time high. With compact devices all over the place, this has further widened. Moreover, with the presence of China as a key player in the fitness band range, a red alert on privacy can be seen. We are not really sure about how companies use our data, what purpose that data fills and how it can be used in future. Our data ownership is being shared with big corporate technological giants and we have to be cautious of this act.
Technology was in your hands in the form of smartphones, but now it is getting smarter and smaller and has even managed to enter your wardrobe. As devices are getting diverse on the basis of features they provide, they are also turning into something that can be worn. The demand is massive in this sector. These smart wearables can be multi-purpose. The hands-free nature of these devices acts as the prime differentiating factor from other heavy/bulky gadgets.
They are changing and getting smarter, Microchip implants are now being used to replace keys and passwords. They are placed on your fingertip and the chips use near-field communication (NFC) or radio-frequency identification (RFID). IDC reports forecast good demand generation in the future for their smart compacts. There exists also Indian players like that of ‘GOQII’ in line who are trying to tap this huge potential. Whatever the future holds, one thing is for sure that it is interesting.
FAQ
What are the leading brands in the Indian wearables market?
Noise, BoAt, and Realme are some of the leading brands in the wearables market in India.
What is the market size of the Indian wearables market?
India’s wearable market grew 93.8 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in the July-September 2021 quarter.
Would you wear a counterfeited shoe, if nobody else around you can tell if that is fake or not? The answer may vary as it is a very subjective thing. However, we can note that most people will say yes. The reason is simple. Brands are super expensive and if you want to look trendy and all cool, then you might want to consider counterfeited stuff. A counterfeit good is relatively highly cheaper than the original. Not only this, but the fake product will also look exactly the same as the original product, making it more likely to be bought.
I bet you have already seen counterfeits or fakes of originals, even for once in your life. They are quite everywhere. You can find ‘Air Jordans’ at a price of a cake, a ‘G-shock’ bad copy at about four dollars and Adidas apparel at a local market. All of these are obviously fake or counterfeited to look almost exactly the same. The quality? not at all the same. This article is about the unseen black market of counterfeits at the global level. Read on to know how and why their business is booming and how you can not fall for them.
“Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.” ― Samuel Johnson
Counterfeited goods are goods that are not original. They look the same and has all the features but are fake. The hype for fashion brands is so much all around the world. This hype has led to people trying to tap into the market with copies of the original. The fakes look the same with no guarantee of quality.
Not to mention, counterfeiting is a crime and has legal consequences. Most of the time, a counterfeit uses the very mechanism that a consumer uses to buy original brands. They use the brand name, logo or a phrase that only the real and original company uses to fool customers. For example, the famous “Just do it” phrase of the sportswear brand Nike is hugely counterfeited to lure people into buying fakes.
Knock Off of Nike Airforce One
Brands such as Adidas are also not lagged behind in this, they are copied too. Fake producers or manufacturers try to steal the very authenticity of a brand and in doing that deceive people with fakes.
In Fact, the most copied brands are those brands whose market value is high. For instance, the most counterfeited brands are – Nike, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Rolex and Prada. All these brands have the best goodwill in this world.
Counterfeiting, as mentioned before, is a fraudulent imitation (a forgery) of a trusted brand and product, and it is considered a serious crime. Under U.S. federal law, criminal counterfeiting offences can be punished for life (in the prison) and up to $30,000,000 can be asked to pay in fines. Counterfeiting can also be prosecuted as a felony (acquisition or concealment) in most states in the United States.
Why Do People Buy Counterfeits?
There can be many reasons why people buy counterfeits. However, there can be many common and obvious reasons for people buying counterfeited products, the list surprisingly does not end here only. Among all the reasons that are common let us discuss every reason why they do this. Let us dive into why this type of industry is booming without any sort of recessions,
Cheaper in price
This one is an obvious reason. People tend to turn towards products that are fake because they are much cheaper. They are much cheaper than the relative original products. For example, a counterfeit bag can be purchased for 12 dollars while the original branded bag may cost as much as $500 dollars. This huge price gap makes brand lovers move to a counterfeited product and thus this keeps the industry of fakes moving.
Latest trends
We live in a world that is changing at a super rapid pace. Not only technology is becoming obsolete fast, but fashion also is not behind in this race. You jump on to one trend and voila! There is another trend waiting to happen. The fashion world has also turned into a hyper changing world. Everywhere you go you see fashion trends, be it on print media, social media and whatnot.
Making a fashion statement every time you go outside can be hazardous to your pocket. This is not a bad trait or a bad thing. Everyone is just trying to look cool and stay on the trend that’s running elsewhere. Sometimes this pressure to stay in the trend can lead a person to buy first copy products. It is easier on the pocket and makes you the centre of attention instantly.
Ignorance at work
In this modern era, where we jump to a website for even small little things, it is normal to fall for fakes. Anybody can sell anything online, without much of a hassle. Sometimes what happens is that people buy products online believing that they are buying an original.
Many times, they are sold counterfeited or knockoff products that can lead to a damaging effect on the original brand name. While people buy it in ignorance, the revenue generated by these deceptive businesses is often quite huge.
A famous example can be taken off Amazon. Anyone can sell anything on Amazon without much pre-requisite. This has taken hostage the hopes of many online shoppers and now they only believe the brand’s original website.
Types of Counterfeits
Any product that steals the charisma of a reputed brand is a counterfeit. However, when it comes to the legal aspect of counterfeiting, the definition has many types and turns. We are trying to discuss some of them here.
Piracy
Piracy is the most common type of counterfeiting that involves people obtaining copies of the original work, and that is done without the maker’s permission. They copy it from the internet, or they download it from somewhere (If that is a digital asset).
Piracy is a big problem for all artists in and around the globe. Music can be made freely available easily and that too without the artist’s permission. It is the same with sneakers, same with clothing and all sorts of accessories.
There are many laws to protect it like one that says – Making unauthorised copies of copyrighted music recordings is against the law and may subject you to civil and criminal liability. A civil lawsuit could hold you responsible for thousands of dollars in damages. Criminal charges may leave you with a felony record, accompanied by up to five years of jail time and fines up to $250,000 (Title 17, United States Code, Sections 501 and 506).
Trade Secret Infringement
A trade secret, as the name suggests is a set of rules or checkmarks that a company follows internally for its products. The secret formula for Coca-Cola, which is locked in a vault, is an example of a trade secret that is a formula or recipe.
Coca-Cola secret vault
Usually, patent infringement and trade secret infringement go hand in hand and they happen together. If that secret of a brand is made public then, it will have a catastrophic impact on the brand value of that corporation.
Patent Infringement
This law is broken when someone breaks the rules of someone’s patent. A patent can be defined as a contract that excludes or stops others from making, using, or selling an original invention by the patent holder for some years. If someone does anything against that patent, that is known as patent infringement and is liable for punishment or penalty as the law suggests. However, it is to be noted that patents are territorial in nature.
So that means, if a patent is registered in the United States, then anyone in the United States is prohibited from disobeying the patent. However, elsewhere in the whole world, the invention can be exploited to any extent in their country where the patent is not registered.
The Market Size of the Counterfeit Industry
The industry’s scale of counterfeited goods is as big as the fashion industry itself, if not bigger than that. The hype of fashion and trendy wear is so much and thus they invite fakes from every nook and corner of industries.
According to the International Anti Counterfeiting Collision (IACC), the total market value of all the counterfeiting sold products all over the world, was 1.5 trillion dollars in the year 2015. This is a huge old number and we can only assume how much in magnitude it is growing and at what pace.
If we talk about scaling the counterfeit industry at the global level, the numbers will be shocking. The global counterfeiting industry is literally expected to hit the $4.2 trillion mark by 2022. Moreover, with these skyrocketing numbers, fashion industry losses are also skyrocketing.
The fashion industry according to reports lost about 50 billion in 2020 alone, due to the sale of fake products. Clothing, as we note later on in this article, appears to be the most counterfeited product in the market. They are followed by the products in the cosmetic industry, personal care, watches and jewellery, luggage and luxury handbags.
The growing importance of intellectual property rights in knowledge-based economies has generated concerns about the potential adverse effects of counterfeiting and piracy on governments, rights holders and consumers. Footwear is the most counterfeited category amongst all.
A recent OECD study on counterfeiting and piracy (in 2008) attempted to quantify the scale of the effects due to these illicit activities. This study focused on the infringement, through counterfeiting and piracy, of trademarks, copyrights, patents and design rights, to the extent that they involved physical products.
Counterfeiting is not a small business but is a very big and scalable business. It can be stretched to any point if not checked and regulated. In the Fiscal Year 2020, the Department of Homeland Security seized over 26,000 shipments of counterfeit goods valued at over $1.3 billion at U.S. borders. This is just random news of one locality but globally the counterfeiting industry is so huge. Not just on the producing side but as well on the consumption side. The trends of growth in the global counterfeit market are led by consumer demand and then an equivalent supply comes out of the blue.
Total Value of Seized Counterfeit in 2016 by Industry
What is the Effect of Counterfeiting Products on Luxury Brands?
This is obvious to note that when a counterfeit is sold in the market and someone purchases it, the loss is borne by the original brand. The original brand whose products are being counterfeited has to bear the loss of revenue due to the fake product. Each and every sale of this type further and further decreases the profitability of brands.
Sales Losses due to Counterfeit Goods
We can easily see from the above graph that the most counterfeited products are in the clothing industry. The reason can be easily ascertained in a manner that “clothing” is the most visible item of attire. So people love to buy these products that are noticed easily without further (and forceful) flaunting. The second most counterfeited item lies on the face of pharmaceuticals all over the world. All these cause losses of real cash for globally reputed brands.
What’s in the Logo? (The logo game)
Fake vs Original Nike
A logo is the main point of identification, it is the first thing that people notice. It also works as a differentiating factor from other products. Thus, it acts as a quality stamp for a product or service or even experience.
Honestly, it’s all about the logo. A famous logo helps connect instantly with the values that the brand follows. It is a super important thing to be working at because it is the first impression. It is literally the first impression that customers get of the brand. If it is bad, it will lead to a bad impression and if it is thoughtfully made then it will lead to a good first impression.
A first good impression then can lead to a customer walking in your store and then most probably buying something from you. It’s memorable, acts as a separator, and even customers expect it.
Business people or entrepreneurs spend a good amount of time and money on making designs for their brands. They know how crucial they are in building a brand image out there in the public. All the things have to be taken care of while making a brand logo, be it the size of the logo, the story it tells, the colour it wears and much more.
Speaking of counterfeited goods, a logo is their main attraction. The quality might not match with the real original product but the logo is mostly a work of fine art. People buy it for that specific purpose only, they just want to look good from a distance. No one checks the quality of a product, the logo is the only thing that shines and can communicate fashion trends.
After-Effects of Counterfeiting
Once you buy a fake product and show it off to your circle of friends, the story doesn’t end here. There are many after-effects to it. The most common and easily seen effects that can affect you are listed here –
Stealing taxes
The counterfeit product not only costs some bucks to the company or to you, but it also costs the city where you reside. Why do you ask? Because counterfeiting people don’t pay taxes. Tax comes from products that are rightfully made and supplied, it comes from legit sources and legit manufacturing. All these aspects are not present in the fake market, so it is clear stealing of taxes.
It’s Illegal
This point has been seen over and over again in previous paragraphs, that it is illegal to manufacture fake products and it is also illegal to buy and promote fake products. It hurts the company that puts in all the original efforts to make and market the products. This hurts the creative process and literally every process (Unique to itself) that the company goes through to get the product on to customers.
Health Hazardous
Again, any fake good or product of any sort can be hazardous to your health. As we saw in the above graph, the pharmaceutical industry is the second most counterfeited industry. This raises concerns about which medicines are real and what are fakes. If chosen wrong, they can be bad for your health. So, a small discount can go a long way in deteriorating your health.
Brand’s Response to Counterfeiting
In the year 2017, top sportswear brand Nike thought of selling its products (shoes and clothing mostly) via Amazon. They were determined to cut off the fake products being peddled over Amazon. Soon after, they had to cut off the strategy and they began to pull out all their ties with Amazon. The reason was again “fake counterfeits”.
Amazon even tried to filter out all the fake names but it didn’t work. Even after delisting, the fake stores popped up again on the website with another name. Due to the high magnitude of fakes in the Amazon market, Nike’s originals were even badly rated.
Since then, Nike has been investing in customer relationships with direct connection to them and thus on brick and mortar stores. Nike has been investing in creating new store formats, such as a 68,000 square foot flagship store in New York.
Nike Store
Nike’s response denotes what the brands are doing in this regard. While they can’t shut each and every counterfeit producing entity, what they can do is educate their customers. That is what brands are doing, they are trying to reach out to customers directly. They are investing in brick and mortar stores, maintaining their websites like there is no tomorrow etcetera.
All these tricks are working too, they are able to capture quality customers. Now, people who want to buy originals know where to get them. The most trusted way to buy any genuine product still remains the brand’s website and its brick and mortar stores. This is the way out, to educate customers.
Another way is to track every item the brand produces, all its appearances and where they live at the moment. To note everything also includes leveraging new solutions, like the blockchain. Louis Vuitton is working closely with Microsoft and ConsenSys to create the Aura Ledger, which will closely trace the origins of their luxury products.
The industry’s size of counterfeited or first copy products is as big as the fashion industry itself, if not bigger than that. The hype of fashion and trendy wear is so much and thus they invite fakes from every nook and corner of industries.
The game of counterfeits is run by the fashion trends and the people who will go to any length to hop on every trend wave. Any fashion that changes rapidly is known as fast fashion. In this ever-changing world, fast fashion is the keyword in any fashion industry across the globe.
The hype around these topics and the urge to look good at any cost are setting the fuel for counterfeit markets. The price of these fakes have eventually to be paid by originals and the middlemen who manufacture these products get to earn some real quick cash. However, some believe that these counterfeits are free marketing for the originals but the big picture tells a different story.
Nike’s are the most copied brand and this establishes some curiosity to try out the real originals. Whatever is the conclusion on the counterfeiting industry, we know that it is fishy in quite every sense. Henceforth, when you want to buy some trend-setting products, go to the store directly or shop from their official website.
FAQ
How big is the counterfeit industry?
The counterfeit industry is worth more than $500 billion.
Which country imports the most counterfeit goods?
China is the biggest exporter of counterfeit goods with on the top with estimated half-a-trillion dollar worldwide imports of counterfeit and pirated goods.
What is the most counterfeited brand?
Rolex is one of the most counterfeited brands in the world.
Think about this, You met two people, one of them is a normal repetitive behaving human and the other person is wacky or amusing. Who, out of these two people, will you like more and thus befriend them? If your answer is the wacky casual person, then you belong to the majority of people who chose this.
This is normal human behaviour to look out for something that is different than the rest. Something that is unique to the herd. This analogy does not only apply to people but everything. By everything I mean, quite a lot of things.
Speaking of differentiating factors, let us talk about something that we all are always covered with. ‘Advertisements’. ‘Go anywhere and you shall find ads’. This is not a movie dialogue, but it can be, who knows the future? Most of the ads we see are generic bull crap. Same repetitive things over and over again. Which most of us of course don’t mind at all.
We ignore most ads except a few iconic ones. Those are the ads with wacky traits ! One of the trending examples are for instance Cred ads. They are really turning the air. This is an article about those ads and why Cred has resorted to having these ads.
Cred is a 2018 startup. Lead by Kunal Shah and a smart team. It primarily rewards people for paying credit card bills on time. The company is quite making the headlines. From going a unicorn to making funny ads on the internet. Cred is a member only club that entertains only some people with a certain credit score.
In its future, it will become a big club of trustworthy people. Individuals that can be trusted with money. This group once made can be made or converted into many useful permutations. Imagine using it as a dating platform of trustworthy people.
Suppose it is a platform where trustworthy people get more and better discounts than others. This in the long run is expected to make everyone want to be trustworthy. So it rewards people who pay bills on time. Moreover it urges everyone to honor their commitments. This is the end goal of the company according to the charioteer Kunal shah.
Cred was officially announced as official partner for IPL. IPL is one of the most watched sports of all time. With the perfect mix of cricket, Bollywood, and big money, IPL is in a league of its own. Though the franchise is loved for its cricket, it thrives on its profits. Cred paid a huge amount to be the official partner for IPL.
This is a little about the company. Now let’s talk about the campaigns it does. If you live online, like most people in the last one and a half years, then you must have come across these. The company is quite famous for its hilarious advertisements.
The Wacky Cred Advertisements
If you notice everyone talking about a funny advertisement, you can safely assume that Cred is stirring the trend. The reel shows celebrities doing weird and funny things. Activities that are not in their set of usual behaviour. We can call it anti behaviour. For instance, Rahul Dravid having anger issues, Kapil Dev the OG, acting like Ranveer Singh. However weird the ad may seem, they are the ones who set the charts now.
Auditioning celebrities
During IPL 2020, videos of celebrities getting auditioned for Cred ads went viral. They were thoughtfully made to propel views. As we told earlier, Cred is a members only app. They kicked “Not everyone gets it” as their tagline. The ads showcased celebrities dancing and singing weird dance numbers to get selected. They were not selected because ‘Not everyone gets it’.
Making top celebrities and singers dance on hilarious songs, made the campaign viral. They are shown as if you were watching a funny meme video.
The reason for tickling your funny bone is to make you remember. However if you look at the description of the video, you will see, “We are not in the ad business but in the credit card business”, “Our search for the next ad continues, till then voice over has to be done”. This subtly tells the motive behind the company ads.
Generally speaking, the motive of any advertisement is to get the message of the company to the public, In a clear and precise manner. This is exactly what the “celebrity auditions” did. It showed stars not getting selected for Cred ad. This showcases exclusivity. Which is the basis of the credit card reward club.
Great for the good
At the time of IPL 2021, another campaign that was shot and became a hit too. This time the tagline was “Great for the good”. Which simply means that Cred is great for the good. Shifting the focus point on rewarding good behaviour. As the company packages itself into a reward generating app. That is exclusive for creditworthy people.
The campaign starred celebrities, yet again in never seen before roles. These went more viral than the previous.
One of the ads showed Rahul Dravid “angry” in a road rage.
Another one had Kumar Sanu selling insurance via singing.
Kapil dev acting like Ranveer Singh.
Neeraj Chopra going frenzy over his own achievement and more.
All these lineups of ads were a hit, instantly. The reason is the ‘absurd’ behind these videos.
The Concept
The concepts of these ads are unbelievable. Which lays the foundation of the advertisement itself. It shows how Cred rewards are unbelievable. It shows how the idea of ‘paying your generic credit card bills’ and getting rewards is unbelievable.
This clearly communicates the idea of what the brand has to offer. Cred has to offer rewards to bill payers. The fact that you are getting incentivized for good behaviour is unbelievable. This marks the inception of this campaign.
Efficacy means the ability to produce desired or intended results. It is a medical term but we are using it in this context. The ads are doing well. They are quite able to stir the trends here and there.
I mean, if you see Virat Kohli tweeting about an ad or Deepika Padukone posting on IG captioning “Indiranagar ki gundi hoon main” or “I am Indiranagar’s gangster”, you know it’s a quirky Cred ad.
Deepika Padukone Instagram
They are criticized by some for being too much, but the majority just enjoys it. They are quite far successful in creating a stir. Their app as of now has more than a crore installs. The only thing left here is to look at what this startup achieves at this scale.
Follow ups and downs of Cred Ads
So we all read about how Cred is making their own sort of advertisements. It has started a cult of quirky marketing campaigns. For instance, the ad video of Magicpin that follows the exact analogy as that of a Cred ad. The company came into the picture to dig out the point of apps that reward points.
The video had comments, some criticizing the Cred ad and some appreciating the good parody. This clearly shows how the internet janta, is of various views. Some criticize the pointless points that these apps provide. Some frequent users are good with getting better deals with these points.
The video was aired on 16th of April. Here we are quoting Kunal’s tweet that was posted on the same date. It can be related or it cannot be related.
Not just tickling ads but Cred is also making a social presence. The startup is also focusing on creating content around the domain of money and investment. They are hosting a YouTube series titled “On the money”. They also hosted a playlist named “Cred curious” in the past.
If you visit their Instagram handle, you will get crazy insights on how money and economy works. Moreover, they also manage a blog of the same nature. So ads are just the upfront to add a pinch of quirk.
These advertisements, due to their peculiar nature are both criticized and praised. If we notice skewness of data, we will find praises more than critiques. With our attention spans getting lower and lower, we want concise information. This is when meme marketing comes to mind. Some people like to follow the trend while companies like Cred like to reinvent the wheel again.
With every advertisement campaign, Cred keeps increasing the bar. whatever they will do in future, “Paying your bills on CRED hits all the right notes”. This far, they are quite successful in clubbing trustworthy people. This is a good view of their goal as well as ongoing efforts on building a brand value. So, next time you see a celebrity acting all frenzy, you know it’s a Cred ad.
FAQ
Why Cred is advertising so much?
Cred is investing in advertising campaigns to highlight the use of the Cred app and the rewards that one gets on paying credit card bills.
Who are the competitors of Cred?
CRED’s primary competitors are MobiKwik, PhonePe & Paytm.
Humans are amazing animals, I mean we are smart and can do almost anything. Be it flying, cooking, innovating, and even revolutionizing the whole world with unbelievable technology. Think about this, the first computer was built in 1822, by a smart human called Charles Babbage. It used to have vacuum tubes and large compartments for storage. We have grown from that time at a rapid scale and efficiency, we have seen multifold growth in technology.
So much so, that the computer that once occupied a whole room by itself, now sits in your hand. Moreover, it just sits on our palms for a long time now as our screen times jump.
The smartphone industry has grown and has become one of the biggest industries in the world. Right now, there is a smartphone user base in the billions. This growth has led to the establishment of smartphone giants. Behemoth organizations like Apple and Samsung.
We all have that friend who is an ardent fan of apple, and we all have got a friend too who is always in love with Samsung. This takes us back to the smartphone war that has continued since time immemorial. The android vs apple war. This disparity in demographics is a good indicator of the product market. The user market is much skewed in different directions.
This article is the dissection of the silent raging war between Apple and Samsung. Read on to discover stories and not many known facts about the tech hulks.
It’s not a necessity to introduce Apple. The reason is that it is already a brand, a valuable brand which has managed to make a place in the hearts of people all around the world. That also explains why the company has no ‘about us’ section on its website.
Apple is the brainchild of Steve Jobs. It is an American multinational company specializing in consumer products in the tech line. The company is the biggest technology company with its magnanimous revenues and the most valuable company in the world. That too started from a garage and managed to become the most recognizable company in the world. It has been revolutionizing personal tech for decades.
Apple Product Line
Apple 1 was the first computer handmade by Steve Wozniak (Apple co-founder) under the name Apple in 1976. It was a computer encased in a wooden block. Then followed by Apple 2 which was more successful than the predecessor. After the success, they faced good losses in the fall of Apple 3. It faced overheating issues.
After seeing such failure they started to work on innovating something new. To come out of this deep pit, Something that will hopefully revolutionize personal computing.
They began to work on the Macintosh. It was their first computer that supported GUI or Graphic user interface, which allows the user to communicate with the computer in graphical mode. Launched the Macintosh in 1980 and this began the winning strike for apple.
Steve Jobs with John Sculley
It was in 1983 when Steve Jobs famously asked Pepsi CEO John Sculley to be Apple’s next CEO or if he wanted to “sell sugared water for the rest of his life or change the world? ” The relationship went bad later.
To remove him, Steve initiated a move that backfired and ended up removing himself from the board. The company saw good growth under the leadership of Sculley until he was removed because of some failed products.
Later Apple bought ‘Next’ which was founded by Steve Jobs bringing him back as an advisor. He immediately trimmed most of the product density in Apple and made the company as slim as possible and launched new sleek products.
Steve Jobs with the First iPhone
He worked secretly on the first iPhone and launched it in 2007. It was an instant hit. Since then, iPhones have been the most popular phones in the world. A major part of Apple’s revenue comes from them.
The Samsung that we know today, wasn’t this when it started. It has gone through enormous shifts. Surprisingly, the company was not even in the technology business at its inception in 1938. It was a small company dealing in fried fish and noodles. In the 60s it entered the smartphone segment and today is the largest manufacturer of smartphones, televisions, and memory chips in the world.
In 1938, Lee Byung-Chul dropped out of college and founded a small business he named Samsung Trading Co. The initial corporate logo had three stars and was based on a graphical representation of the Korean Hanja word Samsung. It operated with the same Japanese culture as every corporate body, the employees did as they were told.
Soon with a good culture and with government assistance it entered domains like sugar refining, media, textiles, and insurance and became a success. So at this time, it was in good economic condition.
After the succession of third heir Kun-hee, the company saw an opportunity in technology and he invested heavily in semiconductor technologies and transformed Samsung from a manufacturer into a global technology powerhouse.
After Kun’s death, his easy-going son succeeded to the throne and began investing more in smartphones and more in tech. Later the company saw the most profits from smartphone sales. The most famous Samsung phones are Galaxy, after the first launch in 2009. During the third quarter of 2011, Samsung surged past Apple to the number one spot among phone manufacturers, based on shipments.
Samsung, as it saw handsome revenues in the smartphones segment, mocked Apple in many ways. You can still see those commercials on YouTube. So did Apple. They released commercials that defame other pioneer brands openly. This makes the rivalry public and leads to polarisation in the market. Let us discuss it in further detail.
The Rivalry Inception of Samsung and Apple
As the smartphone market and the hype around this continues to grow, smartphone leaders fight for greater dominance in this segment of the product. Behemoth organizations Samsung and Apple are the pioneers in this segment and one of the most famous rivals in the world. They not only fight for a greater market share but the main rivalry is a little off topic, it is a long legal battle into dark plagiarism.
Samsung not only competes with Apple in the notebook, tablets, and smartphones market, It also supplies Apple with crucial items for iPhones like OLED display and flash drive memory chip for storage. The Samsung we know today has not been constant as we consider its long history.
In the 80s the company was primarily focused on the semiconductor business. Apple was one of Samsung’s largest buyers, ordering billions of dollars of parts for electronic devices. Its CEO at that time did meet several times with Steve jobs for advice or negotiations. The two companies had friendly relations with each other. Until something happened.
In 2007 the first iPhone was unveiled to the world. Two years later, in 2009 Samsung came up with a touchscreen device for their market running on Google’s android system. Apple CEO Steve Jobs called Samsung a Copycat. ‘POOF’. Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung. The rivalry began.
According to Walter Issacson, Steve’s biographer, He wanted to start a thermonuclear war against Android in this case of plagiarism and copying apple’s authenticity. From that event, Samsung dared from being a supplier of technological equipment to a competitor in market share. It went from being an ally to a fierce enemy.
Apple was extremely infuriated with this and dragged the matter into court, showcasing that the company is super sensitive about this issue. It filed a lawsuit against Samsung in serious violations of patents and trademarks of Apple’s property rights.
However, the court case wasn’t the first guard of Apple against Samsung. Both the companies Apple and Samsung had a long history of cooperation, so Apple first thought of talking the matter out rather than taking the case to court.
Apple proposed a licensing deal for Samsung for the patents and trademarks. The document stated that Samsung will pay 30$ on selling every smartphone and 40$ on every tablet.
Samsung ofcourse declined the offer, stating that the company hasn’t done anything wrong and is not involved in copying Apple or violating any of the trademarks mentioned in the lawsuit. Not only this, Samsung reversed the licensing agreement onto Apple stating that they are the ones who are copying. This began the row of court cases by these tech hulks against each other.
The lawsuit filed by Apple was specific about the number of patents and the type of patents Samsung violated, let us discuss a little about the violations Apple mentioned.
The Billion Dollar Samsung Apple Lawsuit
The first lawsuit demanded 2.5 billion dollars in damages from Samsung. So we can assume it wasn’t a normal lawsuit. Apple was very serious about their smartphone launch and now with this case too. Samsung however seemed like it was ignoring Apple’s claims of plagiarism and trying to put the burden on Apple themselves.
Trade Dress
It is a visual form of patent, that deals with the visual and overall look of a product. Sometimes companies copy some famous brand’s product look and hope to generate sales. As people tend no not to look about details of a product, rather they just pick up based on the appearance of something. It instills confusion in consumers. Samsung Galaxy phone was the first touchscreen phone in the Samsung product line and it looked mostly the same as the newly launched iPhone.
Trademark Infringement
Apple Samsung Design Similarity
While Samsung could argue on the physical appearance being similar with iPhone but another thing the lawsuit included was trademark infringement. The icons on the iPhone were strikingly similar to those in Samsung’s phone. This turns the eyebrows up for Samsung. As there can be thousands of ways of designing icons and GUI effects, Samsung chose in most cases icons similar to that of the iPhone.
Other than these the lawsuit also concluded the methods of copying of the home screen, the design of the front button, and the outlook of the app’s menu. All these were some specific irks for Samsung.
The case began in 2011 and went on to go worldwide. By July 2012, the two companies were still tangled in more than 50 lawsuits around the globe, with billions of dollars in damages claimed between them.
Hearing both sides, the law court ruled in the favour of Apple. The basis was their legitimate concerns about their product being copied in the open market. Samsung paid $1 billion in compensation to the iPhone designer.
“I am talking to you on a phone right now that Apple just copied,” said Brian Wallace, Samsung’s former vice president for strategic marketing. “It’s a giant phone that Steve Jobs made fun of. Who was right? Samsung was right.”
After this and all the cases in between this first court case, Samsung didn’t stay shut. It widely talked against Apple and filed lawsuits claiming infringements of their company policies and patents. These behemoths fought each other like wild animals. Suffering millions on each side, Tore each other apart in claims.
Conclusion
Apple claimed that Samsung had copied the iPhone, leading to a long-running series of lawsuits that were only finally resolved in 2018, with Apple being awarded US$539 million. Issues between the two companies continue. They are now perhaps best described as ‘frenemies’.
While tech hulks like these two fight for global dominance and the crown of the most innovative technology pioneer, it is sure that smartphones are a hot topic. It seems like everyone wants the latest phone to set a trend. From the latest Samsung foldable phone to the iPhones sold as a jewel. This market kind of seems like a fashion innovation.
Apple and Samsung will most probably rule until someone innovates in between. Whatever it will be, humans are fascinated and the future is exciting.
FAQ
Who won the Samsung Apple lawsuit?
Apple won the patent dispute against Samsung and was awarded $1.049 billion in damages for 6 of the 7 patents brought to bear.
Why did Apple sue Samsung?
Apple initially sued Samsung on grounds of patent infringement.
Who launched first smartphone Apple or Samsung?
Apple iPhone was launched in 2007 and two years later, in 2009, Samsung released their first Galaxy phone on the same date.
Gillette is one such brand that you have most definitely heard of, through your parents or in your friend circle. Over the years, Gillette has managed to become a common household name thanks to its popularity across all demographics. I have personally seen my grandfather use the same Gillette brand, which my dad has been fond of too for ages. So Gillette has been a part of this hierarchical journey in my family and is being passed on for three generations and would most probably be in use by the fourth generation soon.
Although Gillette is an American brand that sells personal care products, including shaving supplies, a large sum of customer base and profits comes from India. Gillette has an approximate global brand value of around 7.55 billion U.S. dollars. The Gillette Company was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, by King C. Gillette in 1901 as a safety razor manufacturer. King Camp Gillette was a salesman and investor who came up with the idea of disposable safety razor blades way back in 1895.
Gillette entered Indian markets in 1984 when it was bought by Procter & Gamble. Gillette had to tackle and overcome various problems if they had to survive in India. The company’s main hurdle wasn’t any brand or competition. Instead, it was the Indian mindset that had to be changed. Gillette has only started its advertising journey in the late 2000s and has believed solely in providing high-quality, uber premium, and longer-lasting products. Midinstead low-income Indian customers would hesitate to get their hands on any Gillette’s premium double-edges shaving system products as they were priced at premium rates and would rather get the same shaving services by any local barber at a nominal price.
Concerns such as it were time-consuming, caused skin irritation, and was an unpleasant experience were the main highlighted reasons which were found after extensive consumer research. Over the years, Gillette evolved and moulded itself to adjust to this weird Indian terrain and tried to educate Indians regarding grooming products. Gillette’s top ten competitors are:
Harry’s, 800Razors
Schick, Edgewell
Grooming Lounge
Braun GmbH
Dollar Shave Club
Raz*War
Custom Shave
ShaveMOB
Only a handful of Indians know about these brands, this is the current hold which the brand has over the Indian market.
Gillette usually relies on extensive market research and development in order to cater to a global customer base through a single product. Still, this approach was bound to fail in India, and therefore the company dropped this worldwide strategy and instead focused on India as a whole and soon after saw dramatic growth in market share. Gillette launched various campaigns in India to make people think over specific questions like:- Are clean-shaven men more successful? Did the nation prefer clean-shaven celebrities? And the big one: do women prefer clean-shaven men? It’s questions like these that made men think over their choices and consciously make an effort to look better.
Upon research, Gillette came to an understanding that customers want not only affordable products but also safe and easy to use products, and Gillette was able to deliver just that in October 2010 when it launched Gillette Guard, which was the first product created for the Indian market, pricing at just 15rs per razor and 5rs for the refill cartridge.
It had of a kind and unique tagline.
“The best a man can get” is known to most people as it’s unique and evokes a feeling of responsibility. It focuses on individuals trying to be the best version of themselves by making the right move and choosing Gillette. Gillette also played around the survey, which suggested that men who groom themselves and take care of their hygiene are looked at as more responsible, attractive and of higher status.
Additionally, getting young Indian celebrities ranging from film actors and actresses to athletes also helped them build a company image and cater to a younger consumer base. The advertising and marketing department of Gillette also did a fabulous job of making ad films, such as the one with an army official talking about his close call during the war and proudly boasting his 7-inch battle scar and gliding his Gillette blade over it without any hesitation. It is because of advertising like this that the brand image and its perception have been absolutely top-notch and unshakeable.
Gillete Implementing The Golden Strategy
Gillette could very well have been one of many international brands which tried and failed to adapt in the Indian market, but what helped Gillett was their open-minded and flexible approach. Gillette’s business model in India shows that they dropped the idea and approach of a “one-size-fits-all strategy” wherein they would mass-produce a product and sell it globally.
They took their time and contributed it to research and development for the future of Gillette in India. Gillette spent time, money, and resources in trying to understand the Indian market and customers’ wants and needs. This understanding helped Gillette innovate and develop new and improved products and various unique methods of communication to engage and attract new and existing customers.
The company is showing no signs of stopping or even slowing down anytime soon with their market share as huge as it is, no other brand is even in close comparison to Gillette. The brand keeps on coming up with new and improved ideas for marketing and advertising, with the recent one including rising young talents of the Indian cricket team. The company’s ever-evolving strategy and ability to adapt in any situation helps them keep a clean and smooth track and glide across smoothly. Because of this approach from Gillette, it is not only dominant in India, but it is completely dominating across the world.
FAQs
Which is the best Gillette razor in India?
Gillette Mach 3 Turbo is the most trusted razor in India.
Who are Gillette competitors?
The top 10 competitors in Gillette’s competitive set are:
Harry’s
800Razors
Schick
Edgewell
Grooming Lounge
Braun GmbH
Dollar Shave Club
Raz*War
Custom Shave
ShaveMOB
How did Gillette enter India?
Gillette was launched in February 1993 with the launch of Gillette Shaving Products in India.
What was the firstly launched product of Gillette in India?
Gillette launched its first shaving product in India – Gillette Presto Readyshaver.
Who doesn’t love to watch their favourite country in the Olympics but have you ever thought about the expenditure incurred to host the Olympics? For instance, the Olympics is the most awaited international leading sports event that every sportsman will look forward to.
Whereby different countries compete with each other in various competitions such as- Athletics, Baseball, Archery, Gymnastics, shooting, Rackets and many more.
Usually hosting an international event, especially the Olympics, demands a tremendous amount of money to conduct as, every year, different countries make bids million or billion bigger in order to host the Olympics and take charge of the spending that literally covers around tens of millions. So, Let’s understand the economic impact of the Olympics.
Why is there a Concern about Investing Money in Hosting Olympic Games?
Regarding hosting the Olympics, the priority task for the hosting country is to fulfil the demands & requirements of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) such as infrastructure updates, Olympics village, operational cost, transportation, maintenance, accommodation and so on.
Apart from the benefits of the augment in tourism (travel to watch the games) and infrastructure update in the countries or cities, the hosting country has to defray the expenditure of renovation which are accountable to incur beyond the expected budget of the hosting country.
As is the case, it is reported that many countries encountered an economic downfall and bankruptcy after hosting the Olympics. Instead of uplifting the economy in terms of unemployment, poverty, and many other opportunities, those countries misspent millions of million in hosting the Olympics which seems irrelevant according to the national spending.
Since the Olympics 1960, No countries or cities haven’t witnessed profit from hosting, though London and Seoul found profitability as they took advantage of existing structures in updating infrastructure and corporate sponsorship in funding other expenses. While the other hosted countries fall into a massive debt that can take decades to pay off.
Many hosted countries failed to maintain their finances which made them insouciance about investment in the Olympics again and not ready to face tremendous financial instability after hosting the Olympics.
Here, one such country is taken into consideration, the Rio de Janeiro, When the state won the bid back in 2009, for hosting the Olympics 2016, didn’t see the preordained financial catastrophe after the Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016. Although for the very first, the country received a global audience of more than 6.6 million in the Olympics, it failed to meet crucial financial arrangements for the games.
In order to appeal to the audiences as well the IOC, the country did things beyond imagination, where the act of demolition and displacement of the country’s heritage sites occurred, fomented human rights in the nation.
The former governor Francisco Dornelles at the time proclaimed ‘state of calamity in the country, where the state’s government is bankrupt and failed to meet further requirements in the upcoming game of Olympics 2016.
Another example of financial disaster after hosting the Olympics was Montreal’s 1976 Summer Games where they were liable to pay around $1.5 billion, which took three decades to repay.
The Economic Impact of the Olympic Games
Instilling in hosting the Olympic tournaments is beneficial and productive is a counterfeit presumption. The government’s agenda on constructing modern arenas is the perception that it will generate fresh careers and the arenas will succeed to be beneficial in the future but it never takes place.
For hosting the 2002 World Cup, South Korea subsidized a hefty number in constructing 10 new arenas with a capacity of holding 40,000 to 60,000 people. But the aftermath was disappointing, to date they operated simply five of the stadiums and the typical crowd stature for soccer games is roughly 3,000.
South Korea 2002 World Cup Stadium
Likely, Nigeria built a stadium for the 2003 African Games with a capacity of holding 60,000 people, but the arena hadn’t been utilized due to the high keeping and conspiracy rate in the area.
Likewise, there were several further countries like Chicago and Rio de Janeiro that hosted the tournament in the notion that it would boost tourism and also enhance the infrastructure. Nonetheless, some of the countries didn’t achieve the outcome they foresaw but few managed to succeed.
Sydney developed over 100,000 new job vacancies, Atlanta Olympic Organizing Committee created 77,000 new jobs, South Korea profited an $8.9 billion.
Organizing the Olympic Games costs high budgets and the allowance for the Olympic Games can be halved into two sorts:
OCOG (Organising Committee For the Olympic Games) Budget:
The IOC contributes a large amount of money. They subscribe from the dividend they receive from the top Olympic Partner programme and from the capital they obtain from the firm they trade the broadcast ownership for the Olympic Games.
A hefty sum of capital is mandated to coordinate an Olympic Games and IOC subsidies fill in a considerable portion of it. In the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the capital required to organize the event was 1.5 billion USD.
The country that owns the Olympic rights should also provide the ticketing of the event. The money for host broadcast operations is also contributed by the IOC. The federal partnership programme is also the basis of income for the provincial organisers. Around 880 million USD will be invested for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
NON-OCOG (Organising Committee For the Olympic Games) Budget:
The regional councils hold control of this budget and it has several divisions in it.
Systems budget: The operative services for general administrations like transport, customs, immigration, safety and medical assistance for athletics succeed under this budget.
Capital Investment budget: The private or civil administrations undertake the financing of particular ventures. The edifice of tournament outlets succeeds under this allowance.
Conclusion
Hosting the Olympics is not a susceptible task and it arrives with a hefty price of ventures. Many countries imply no attention in hosting the occasion reckoning about the obstacles in undertakings and insurance.
Usually, the nations who have investors and are inclined in boosting the technology of the nation put up with this as a recourse.
With a substantial portion of capital, the nation hosting the Olympics obtains undisputed recognition. Around 880 million USD will be subsidized for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
FAQ
What was the cost of Tokyo Olympics?
The cost of the Tokyo Olympics was $15.4 billion.
Do Olympians get paid?
Yes, In the Tokyo Olympics the athletes were rewarded $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze.
Which was the most expensive Olympic ever held?
Sochi Winter Olympics was the most expensive Olympics which a total cost was $51 billion.
ITC Limited is an Indian global aggregate organization headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal. Established in 1910 as the ‘Magnificent Tobacco Company of India Limited’, the organization was renamed as the ‘India Tobacco Company Limited’ in 1970 and then to ‘I.T.C. Constrained’ in 1974. The specks in the name were expelled in September 2001 and the organization was renamed as ‘ITC Limited’.
The organization completed 100 years in 2010 and during 2012-13, it had a yearly turnover of $8.31 billion and a market capitalization of $52 billion. It employs more than 30,000 individuals in over 60 areas in India and is part of the Forbes 2000 rundown.
Since the organization was to a great extent dependent on horticultural assets, it wandered into associations in 1911 with the ranchers of southern India for sourcing leaf tobacco. Under the organization’s umbrella, the ‘Indian Leaf Tobacco Development Company Limited’ was framed in the Guntur area of Andhra Pradesh in 1912. The principal cigarette processing plant of the organization was set up in 1913 in Bangalore.
In 1918, leaf-purchasing focuses were made in southern India. ITC’s cigarette manufacturing plant at Munger was outfitted with a printing office in 1925, clearing the path for its first non-tobacco business. Even though the initial six years of the company’s presence were essentially committed to the development and union of cigarettes and leaf tobacco organizations, ITC’s bundling and printing business were set up in 1925 as a key in the reverse mix for ITC’s cigarettes business. It is today India’s most complex bundling house. More industrial facilities were set up in the next years for cigarette producing capacity all over India.
In 1928, development started for the organization’s central command, the ‘Virginia House’, at Calcutta. ITC procured Carreras Tobacco Company’s plant at Kidderpore in 1935 to further fortify its essence. ITC set up an indigenous cigarette tissue-paper-production plant in 1946 to essentially lessen import costs and an industrial facility for printing and bundling was set up at Madras in 1949. The company obtained the assembling business of Tobacco Manufacturers (India) Limited and the integral lithographic printing business of Printers (India) Limited in 1953.
The organization was changed into a Public Limited Company on 27 October 1954. The initial move towards Indianization was taken around the same time with 6% of the Indian shareholding of the organization. During the 1960s, innovation was given more concentration with the setting up of cigarette hardware and channel pole fabricating offices planned for accomplishing independence in cigarette production.
Ajit Narain Haskar became ITC’s first Indian director in 1969, and this was important for encouraging Indian administration within the organization. As the organization’s proprietorship was logically Indianized, under Haskar’s authority, the name of the organization was changed from ‘Magnificent Tobacco Company of India Limited’ to ‘India Tobacco Company Limited’ in 1970.
ITC likewise turned into the first organization in quite a while to begin staged-Indianization of capital; the Indian shareholding component of ITC developed from 6% to 25%. ITC went into brand sponsorship for different games, beginning from the Scissor’s Cup in 1971. Creative market crusades and electronic information handling began during the 1970s.
In 1973, ITC set up its incorporated research focus in Bangalore, went for expansion, and wandering into innovative work. With the unfurling enhancement designs, the name of the organization was changed to ‘I.T.C. Limited’ in 1974. The Indian shareholding aspect increased to 40% during this time. ITC went into the cordiality part with inn business in 1975 with the ITC Welcomgroup Hotel Chola in Madras.
ITC picked the cordiality segment for its capability to procure elevated amounts of outside trade, create the travel industry framework, and foster a huge scale of immediate and aberrant business. The shareholding went over 60% in 1976 and more lodgings were started by the organization in the next years. In 1979, ITC entered the paperboards business by advancing ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited. J N Sapru took over as the organization’s director in 1983 and universal development began with the obtaining of Surya Nepal Private Limited in 1985.
The year 1986 saw overwhelming moves from the organization with the opening of an Indian eatery in the city of New York, the securing and renaming of Vishvarama Hotels to ITC Hotels Limited, and the setting up of two new pursuits – the ITC Classic Finance Limited and ITC Agro Tech Limited. ITC likewise went into the eatable oils industry with the dispatch of the ‘Sundrop’ brand of cooking oils in 1988. Tribeni Tissues Limited was gained in 1990. K L Chugh accepted the job of administrator in 1991, and ITC Global Holding Private constrained was launched as a universal exchanging organization (Singapore) in 1992.
In 1994, every one of the inns under the organization was moved into the recorded backup organization ITC Hotels Limited. ITC, through the brand ‘Wills’, supported the 1996 Cricket World Cup.
Y C Deveshwar took over as the organization’s administrator in 1996, and the corporate administration structure was re-framed to help the successful administration of various organizations. ITC left the eatable oils business and monetary administrations, sold the ITC Classic Finance Limited to ICICI Limited, and handed the ‘Sundrop’ business to ConAgra Foods Limited in 1998.
In the year 2000, creative activity for ranchers called ‘e-Choupal’ began in Madhya Pradesh 2000. That year saw the dispatch of ITC’s ‘Wills Sport’ scope of easygoing wear with the first retail outlet in New Delhi and ITC’s entrance into stationery items and gifting business through the ‘Articulations’ scope of welcome cards and ‘Cohort’ note pads.
An entirely claimed data innovation auxiliary, ITC Infotech India Limited was launched in 2000 and ITC Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited was converted into ITC Limited. The name of the organization was changed to ‘ITC Limited’ precluding the spots and adjusting the system ‘No stops for ITC’ in 2001. A representative investment opportunity plan was presented, and a web-based interface for the organization was propelled. Backups for ITC Infotech were set up in the United Kingdom and the USA.
Cigarettes: Insignia, India Kings, Classic, Gold Flake, Silk Cut, Navy Cut, Scissors, Capstan, Berkeley, Bristol, and Flake.
Prepared Foods: Kitchens of India, Aashirvaad, Sunfeast, Mint – O, Candyman, and Bingo.
Way Of Life Retailing: Wills Lifestyle, John Players, and Miss Players.
Individual Care: Essenza Di Wills, Fiama Di Wills, Vivel Di Wills, Vivel, and Superia.
Welcome, Gifting, And Stationary: Brands incorporate Classmate, PaperKraft, and Color Crew. Propelled in 2003, Classmate proceeded to turn into India’s biggest scratchpad brand in 2007.
Security Matches: IKno, Mangaldeep, VaxLit, Delite, and Aim.
Products under ITC
Incense Sticks: Ship, I Kno, and Aim brands of security matches and the Mangaldeep brand of agarbattis (incense sticks).
Nourishments: ITC’s real sustenance brands incorporate Kitchens of India; Aashirvaad, B common, Sunfeast, Candyman, Bingo! what’s more, and Yippee! ITC is India’s biggest vendor of marked nourishment with over Rs. 4,600 crores in 2012-13. It is available crosswise over 6 classifications in the nourishment business that include nibble sustenances, prepared to-eat suppers, organic product juices, dairy items, and dessert shops.
Individual consideration items incorporate aromas, haircare, and skincare classifications. Significant brands are Fiama Di Wills, Vivel, Savlon Soap, and Handwash, Essenza Di Wills, Superia, and Engage.
Lodgings: ITC’s Hotels division (under brands including WelcomHotel) is India’s second-biggest in-network with more than 90 inns throughout India. Brands in the friendliness area possessed and worked by its auxiliaries incorporate Fortune Park Hotels and WelcomHeritage Hotels.
Paperboard: Products, for example, claim to fame paper, realistic and other paper are sold under the ITC brand by the ITC Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division. Classmate stationery products that are popular for their quality are manufactured by ITC.
Bundling And Printing: ITC’s Packaging and Printing division work producing offices at Haridwar and Chennai.
Data Technology: ITC works through its completely possessed backup ITC Infotech India Limited.
Established in 1910 as Imperial Tobacco Company of India, the organization at first managed tobacco items for a considerable length of time before broadening into non-tobacco items during the 1970s. ITC from that point forward has developed as a multi-business combination having business in different enterprises: Hotels, Lifestyle retail stores, prepared to eat division, confectionary segment, Paperboards portion, body care items and so forth.
ITC is one of India’s prominent multi-business ventures with a market capitalization of $52 billion and a gross sales value of $10 billion. ITC is crowned among the world’s best big Companies, Asia’s FAB 50, the World’s Most renowned Companies by Forbes magazine, and as ‘India’s Most Admired Company’ in an overview directed by Fortune India magazine and Hay Group. ITC was also included as one of the world’s biggest practical worth makers in the buyer merchandise industry in an examination by the Boston Consulting Group. ITC has been recorded among India’s Most Valuable Companies by Business Today magazine. The company is among India’s ’10 Most Valuable (Company) Brands’ as indicated by an investigation led by Brand Finance and distributed by the Economic Times. ITC likewise positions itself among Asia’s 50 best-performing organizations arranged by Business Week.
Big Conglomerate: Throughout the years, ITC has turned into a huge combination offering a huge scope of items and administrations running from agri-products and nourishment items in the FMCG segment to IT solutions. Involvement in such a differing cluster of items and administrations has helped the organization raise as an unmistakable player in the market: cigarettes, hotels and paperboards, and packaging divisions.
Vast Experience: With 108 years of involvement in the Indian market, ITC has built a hearty conveyance structure that is parallel to none of its rivals present. This has helped the organization to comprehend the needs of the customers, making it monetarily solid and aggressive.
The X-Factor: ITC’s E-Chaupal activity planned for making the web accessible to Indian ranchers has contacted the lives of a large number of ranchers and their families in the provincial piece of the nation. ITC has expanded brand nearness through this social activity and has brought some brand quintessence focus to the firm.
Use Of BCG Matrix
ITC’s business sections are FMCG-Cigarettes, FMCG-Foods, ITC Infotech, Agri-Business, Hotels, Paperboards and Packaging, Branded Apparels, and Packaged Foods. Out of these, FMCG-Cigarettes is its money cow while Agri-Business, Hotels, Paperboards, and Packaging come in the “star” section for ITC. FMCG-Foods still gives off an impression of being a question mark for the firm while Branded attire and Packaged substances are ordered as canines for the firm.
Distribution
The organization works with its business channel; items are made accessible to the discount vendors through Carried and Forward Agents (CFA’s) which is then sent to the retailers in towns directly or through Small Wholesale Dealers to reach the customers in the remotest of Indian areas.
Brand Value
ITC has been positioned 772 on Forbes magazine rundown of top 2000 organizations all around. The brand has been esteemed at $51.5 billion as of June 2018. ITC also found a place at 239th position in the universe’s best bosses rundown of Forbes Magazine and Asia’s 50 greatest performing organizations rundown assembled by Business Week.
Investigation Of Market
Under the GST system, extra cess being charged over the GST of 28% on cigarettes and tobacco-related items, ITC has assessed a steady taxation rate of over 20%. Investigators have assessed that the organization’s deals volumes of cigarettes have endured a shot and has declined by over 5% in the last quarter. Remote trade profit over the most recent 10 years remained at $7.1 Billion of which agri fares comprised 56% of the offer. In the social division with direct work to more than 32,000 individuals and through drives like e-chaupal, social and homestead ranger service activity, and ‘Mission SunehraKal’, ITC has contacted the lives of a huge number of ranchers and their families in provincial India.
On the earth front, ITC has been a Water Positive Enterprise (16 years straight), Carbon Positive Enterprise (13 years straight), and solid waste reusing Positive (11 years straight). This is the main undertaking in the realm of practically identical measurements to have accomplished and supported the 3 key worldwide lists of natural maintainability.
Analysis Of Clients
With its different scope of items and administrations, ITC caters to a diverse scope of clients going from the age group of 5-60 years and even more with its items running from Candyman and Mint-o to Aashirvaad and so on.
Cigarette-to-cleanser producer ITC has revealed 10.69% year-on-year development merged net benefit at Rs 13,162.30 crores for the money related year 2018-19, driven by paperboards, paper and bundling, lodgings and FMCG business.
“The organization had posted a united net benefit of Rs 11,890.78 crore in the budgetary year 2017-18,” ITC said in a recording to the Bombay Stock Exchange. United income from tasks expanded possibly by 4.55% to Rs 49,862.11 crore in FY19 when contrasted with Rs 47,688.5 crore in FY18. On the quarterly premise, the FMCG major posted an 18.72% development in net benefit at Rs 3,482 crore in the Jan-Mar period when contrasted with Rs 2,932 crore in a similar quarter of the most recent year. Income expanded to Rs 12,206 crore in Q4FY19 when contrasted with Rs 10,586.80 crore in Q4FY18, helped by exchanging openings oilseeds, wheat, and espresso in agribusiness, higher volumes and improved acknowledgement in paperboards and improvement in RevPar in lodgings. The working benefit (EBITDA) of the organization expanded to Rs 4,572 crore against Rs 4,144 crore in the year-prior period.
“The organization conveyed one more year of strong execution despite a difficult working condition. The Cigarettes Business, affected by soak increment in assessments under the GST system, honed centre around conveying world-class items through nonstop advancement alongside top tier execution consequently solidifying its market standing,” ITC said in the trade documenting. A week ago, rival Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) revealed a 15.98% y-o-y development in united net benefit at Rs 6,060 crore for the money related the year 2018-19, against income of Rs 39,860 crore. ITC’s board has prescribed a profit of Rs 5.75 per customary portion of Re 1 each for the monetary year finished 31st March 2019, subject to the imperative endorsement, which will be paid on July 16, 2019.
In a different advancement, the organization delegated Sanjiv Puri, Managing Director, as the Chairman of the Company with impact from May 13, 2019. Puri’s advancement comes after YC Deveshwar, ITC’s longest-serving Chairman, passed away on Saturday. Thus, Puri’s new assignment is Chairman and Managing Director of the organization. Following profit declaration, portions of ITC declined in negative territory to exchange at Rs 288.50 each, down 3.09% on the BSE.
Conclusion
ITC ltd. is a leading FMCG Company in India and for the last three consecutive years, it has shown accelerated growth in the FMCG portfolio. ITC has placed itself successfully as a market leader in various verticals and will continue to dominate through several brands.
FAQs
What is ITC Limited?
ITC Limited is an Indian global aggregate organization headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal. It has a diversified presence across industries such as cigarettes, FMCG, hotels, packaging, paperboards and speciality papers and agribusiness.
What is the main business of ITC?
ITC Limited is an Indian conglomerate with diversified businesses in Fast Moving Consumer Goods comprising foods, personal care, cigarettes, apparel, stationery products, incense sticks, safety matches, hotels, packaging and others.
Surviving in the market with so many competitors around is pretty tough. Many companies don’t even run a month before they shut down! And among these, one of the biggest failures was Quibi. You may not even hear about this company. But this is of a very recent time- 2020.
In early 2020, the co-founder of Quibi- Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the directors of DreamWorks Animation studios announced that Quibi company is shutting down, within 7 months of its launch! Sounds scary, right?
Quibi was basically a video streaming service platform with its original environmental content of environmental, developed by Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Meg Whitman, a former CEO of Hewlett Packard raised over $1.75 billion for the company- Quibi.
Similar to the original content created by Netflix and Amazon Prime, Quibi also took a step forward and produced its own category of shows and movies. Although Quibi made only five to ten minutes of episodes, it charged $4.99 per month.
With such a great mindset and planning, you might be wondering what went wrong with Quibi? Well, to clear this we have presented this article. Let’s get started!
Katzenberg and Whitman are incredibly successful businessmen but when it comes to streaming services, they don’t have the right instincts. This became clear with their ultimate creation- Quibi.
Quibi was launched in times of pandemic, 2020, with the concept of giving people good content of merely 10 mins which they can watch anytime and anywhere like a doctor’s waiting hall, public transport, and others. But what they forgot was all these could not be possible in the pandemic.
Quibi
Quibi entirely targeted the youth as they always find new content. But as the pandemic struck, people considered watching long-term content which was available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and others.
The biggest cause of failure of Quibi is considered the awfully smaller audience and very few numbers of downloads. Apart from this, Quibi made many more mistakes like low social media presence and others.
Any video streaming platform requires content that keeps the users interested. Especially when it comes to the title, as that is what is going to convince the audience to watch the show and to subscribe to the platform. But, Quibi created a whole set of mediocre content that was not given any brief thought upon.
Although the developers spent a lot of money and effort but still could not pull out the standardized content. The shows on Quibi’s were extremely ordinary and the audience did not find anything interesting.
High pricing
Being such a mediocre content provider, Quibi’s pricing was pretty expensive. Its price was around $5 for a normal subscription and $8 for a non-advertising subscription. These were very very high for a terrible content provider such as Quibi.
Failed to Attract Audience
In today’s time, there are tons of platforms that are incredibly interesting and user-friendly. People are spending great time at Netflix, scrolling TikTok and Instagram. That’s why for any other similar company to gain an audience needs to provide such services that the users cannot refuse.
Quibi failed in providing such service and grew the users’ count on platforms like YouTube and Twitch.
No-specific Goal
Competing with Netflix and other streaming platforms, Quibi did not have any specified goal. With such bad content in comparison with other streaming platforms, Quibi needed something to beat the opponents.
But unfortunately, Quibi failed in all aspects of a good video streaming platform and did not even provide any valid or reasonable reason to convince people to download it.
Internal Problems
Quibi had major internal problems between the two founders. According to The Wall Street Journal, Whitman even threatened to leave when found out that Katzenberg was dictatorial which weakened her authority and humiliated her.
Apart from this, Whitman and Katzenberg, both didn’t have any idea on how people use their phones for streaming purposes. They did not actually understand the concept of Netflix and TikTok. In such wide competition in the market, one needs the proper strong strategies and planning so that it could thrive in the market. But Quibi failed on all grounds!
The Pandemic
The biggest drawback of Quibi was it came out in a pandemic. All the planning and strategies of Quibi were based on public places and gatherings. And these were highly restricted in the times of the Covid-19 crisis.
Quibi failed to adapt to such major changes and formulated a low social media presence and bad content without any effective marketing. The main reason behind all these failures was poor management, low insights on consumer behavior, needs, and wants.
Quibi was meant to be shut down even without the pandemic. The company did not have any proper functioning of management.
The company with no proper planning and ideology, Quibi was implied to fail. And that’s what happened! Quibi failed, basically from all aspects. With no adequate leadership, poor content, no customers preferences and extremely disturbed management Quibi was nothing but a disaster.
Although the founders invested a great sum of money but with no idea how a video streaming platform runs, it all became worthless.
FAQ
Who is the founder of Quibi?
Jeffrey Katzenberg founded Quibi in 2020.
How much money did Quibi lost?
Quibi lost over $1.75 billion in less than 6 months.
Why did Quibi failed?
The reasons why Quibi failed were vast. They included burning through too much cash, poor content, high prices, missing features, personal issues between the founders, as well as legal troubles.
Xiaomi Corporation is a Chinese gadget manufacturer established by Lei Jun in 2010 and headquartered in Beijing. Xiaomi makes and puts resources into cell phones, versatile applications, trimmers, headphones, television, and numerous other products. Ranked 468th, Xiaomi was the most youthful organization on Fortune Global 500 List of 2019.
Xiaomi launched its first cell phone in August 2011 and quickly picked up a piece of the overall industry in China. It became China’s biggest cell phone organization in 2014. At the beginning of the second quarter of 2018, Xiaomi was the world’s fourth-biggest cell phone manufacturer. Xiaomi later built up a more extensive scope of hardware catalog, including a brilliant home (IoT) gadget ecosystem.
Xiaomi has 15,000 employees in China, India, Malaysia, and Singapore; it is now expanding to different nations like Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Africa. According to Forbes magazine, Lei Jun, the CEO of Xiaomi, has more than $12.5 billion in assets.
Lei Jun is China’s eleventh most extravagant individual and 118th in the world. Xiaomi is the world’s fourth most important innovative startup in the wake of getting $1.1 billion subsidizing from financial specialists, pegging Xiaomi’s valuation at more than $46 billion.
Xiaomi was founded in April 2010 by Lei Jun. MIUI, the ROM made by Xiaomi, turned into an immense achievement and has been ported to numerous gadgets. Since 2014, MIUI can be downloaded and installed in more than 200 gadgets in both English and Chinese. By the end of 2013, Xiaomi had more than 30 million MIUI clients around the world, an impressive figure for a youthful organization.
The MIUI ROM isn’t as user-friendly as Apple’s iOS and gives modern administrations, for example, cloud reinforcement, simple to utilize music player, and an application store. The group at Xiaomi joyfully takes on fan criticism using numerous channels and updates the ROM regularly with bug fixes, improvement, and extra highlights.
In 2011, Xiaomi launched the Mi One phone. Xiaomi just doesn’t make its own product, but it fabricates its own equipment. The Mi One was a top-spec phone with signigicant features.
While commentators rush to call the Beijing-based organization “The Apple of China”, Xiaomi likes to contrast itself with Amazon. Xiaomi makes ground-breaking equipment which it sells and depends on administration and substance to make up a greater part of its income.
Xiaomi Ceo – Lei Jun
Xiaomi’s income in 2013 alone was over $5 billion, very noteworthy for a young organization. There are comparisons between Xiaomi and Apple as both are equipment and programming organizations, both have solid power over stock-chains, and both have a hot fanbase.
Aside from this, the two organizations don’t share anything else practically. Apple prices its phones at unbelievable costs and doesn’t take on a lot of client input, whereas Xiaomi is polar opposite.
Xiaomi dispatched 7.2 million phones in 2012 and 18.7 million phones in 2013. It even sold more than Apple in one quarter. In the principal quarter of 2014, Xiaomi sold over 11 million phones, more than what it sold throughout 2012.
The demand for Xiaomi keeps increasing because of the good-of its gadgets and the economical price at which its products are sold in universal markets, for example, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Hugo Barra (ex-Google android official) has been tasked with the job of overseeing Xiaomi’s expansion beyond China. Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and India will see Xiaomi phones straightaway.
Xiaomi had some wonderful achievements in its third entire year as a device creator. The Company is on course to sell 60 million phones this year, and it has ensured footed (if rather moderate) strides into various markets in Asia, for example, Indonesia and India. The organization’s development is amazing given the the variety in its product catalog aside from phones.
An ongoing social marking report on Xiaomi by Resonance China dissects an enormous assortment of the startup’s procedures and shows how pleasantly they are working out.
Xiaomi’s Business Model
The business strategies are described below:
Xiaomi – A Web-Based Business Organization
Business visionary and Xiaomi prime supporter Lei Jun states Xiaomi as a web-based business organization—one of the numerous reasons he loathes the successive examinations among Xiaomi and Apple. They feel a comparison with Amazon is more relevant. Xiaomi has its e-store and has a customer-facing facade on Alibaba’s Tmall. The numbers back up Lei Jun’s case.
Xiaomi’s site is the third biggest business-to-customer (B2C) internet business store in China in terms of deals volume (behind Tmall and nearest rival JD). On China’s Singles Day on November 11, a business bonanza saw $9.3 billion spent on Tmall; and Xiaomi was the top brand on Alibaba’s commercial center that day.
Xiaomi sold 1.2 million telephones during the 24-hour deals occasion, piling on, alongside offers of some different devices, RMB 1.56 billion ($254 million) in items sold.
Xiaomi by and large sells its gadgets in constrained glimmer deals, ordinarily in clusters of around 50,000 to 100,000 in China and bigger sums abroad. Thus, Xiaomi fabricates only what is certain to sell.
The upstart organization’s attempt to close the deal doesn’t stop once somebody has purchased a phone. New clients find that their phone includes a pre-installed Xiaomi store application.
Most device brands use their landing pages as showrooms or celebrated online adverts. Xiaomi gets to the point by making its landing page into an unadulterated web-based business store.
Xiaomi’s e-store is updated every day to put an accentuation on which items are next accessible in its progressing streak deals. “Xiaomi’s item pages copy best practices from Tmall,” says Rand Han, the organizer and overseeing chief of Resonance China.
Tmall is China’s greatest image-arranged online commercial center with a huge number of merchants, for example, Uniqlo, Costco, and Burberry. That makes Xiaomi’s site design recognizable to the huge number of customers on Tmall and other mainstream online business locales in China.
It has the typical tabs to switch between pictures, details, and purchasers’ audits and appraisals. Apple’s site isolates all that stuff into the Apple Online Store, whereas Xiaomi keeps it upfront.
Uses Another Sort Of Social Trade
Since Xiaomi generally sells its phones over the web, online networking is significant. It does this in China, for the most part, using Weibo, and in new markets, Xiaomi uses Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
On Weibo, Xiaomi regularly observes commitment levels well more than 60%, as per the Resonance China report, on account of incessant everyday posts on an amazing assortment of themes.
Not exclusively is there the standard buzz for items and news about glimmer deals, yet also motivating forces for retweets, how-to aides, and fun things like photograph challenges. Xiaomi’s Weibo will likewise retweet some popular substance significant to its users by circumventing China’s web. The retweet also binds into social issues around contraptions and innovation.
Each Item Range Has A Social Center
Xiaomi has 10 primary Weibo accounts, the most prominent of which is the Xiaomi Mobile Weibo with near 11 million fans; the latest account for the MiPad has crossed 500,000 followers.
Xiaomi’s corporate Weibo account has 4,000,000 adherents, demonstrating that individuals would prefer to communicate online with contraptions (as it were) as opposed to an organization.
Notwithstanding Xiaomi’s social records, the company’s administrators are likewise active on Weibo and fill in as brand representatives. Lei Jun has more than 11 million supporters, while Lin Bin has more than 4,000,000.
Consistent Shortage
Xiaomi’s glimmer deals help it get control over stock and lessen wastage, staying away from the sort of over-creation calamities seen as of late with Amazon’s Fire Phone and Microsoft’s Surface RT.
Xiaomi’s online life accounts, especially on Weibo and WeChat, play a key job in driving individuals to the enrollment page for each new blaze deal.
At that point, when a glimmer deal is finished, Xiaomi uses “fast sell-out” stats in further online networking postings; for instance, 50,000 Mi4 cell phones sold out in only 25 seconds. Not every person invites streak deals. The procedure is unquestionably much more mind-boggling than the typical snap-and-checkout on most online business locales.
The framework appears to have met with more analysis outside of China than it has in Xiaomi’s home country. When Xiaomi propelled in India in September, it confronted a reaction as interest exceeded supply by a factor of two-to-one, bringing about a rush of baffled and disappointed remarks on the brand’s Facebook India page. Notwithstanding those disadvantages, new phone manufacturers are imitating Xiaomi (OnePlus) using blaze deals.
For Apple, premiums start at about $700. For Samsung, it’s about $600. However, Xiaomi slashed it in half in 2011 by offering phones premium specs (yet a simple, blocky structure) at low prices – just $325. Xiaomi has also increased its equipment configuration game with the goal that the feel of the phone doesn’t contrast with the amazing specs.
Enlivened by Apple, Xiaomi instructs purchasers on its plan reasoning, underscoring attention on straightforwardness and usefulness in its items. Xiaomi’s very own rendition of Android, called MIUI, has additionally assisted with this superior feel as it is more preferred than most of the Android skins out there.
Runs Its Locale
Alongside its cautious online networking stratagem, Xiaomi is likewise starring dynamic in running its locale gatherings, or BBS. This is the place the brand’s most bad-to-the-bone fans, named “Mi fans,” meet to examine devices, share information, and by and large hang out.
This is something regular to Chinese organizations, yet to a great extent unused by significant brands abroad. Xiaomi’s BBS has 30 million enrolled clients and sees 579,000 new posts day by day.
Q2 of 2018 saw Xiaomi a 152% hop in its abroad income which is esteemed at about Rs 16,700 crores. The internet services help Xiaomi get a net benefit of around 60%. At the point when it at first began its tasks in India, Xiaomi profoundly relied upon informal publicizing to spare any kind of overhead cost.
This enabled the Chinese giant to sell its items (cell phones particularly) at a lower cost than its rivals. Xiaomi was able to pull in more clients as a result. More procurement implies more clients who use Xiaomi gadgets.
Some of its clients will, in general, become faithful to administrations like the MIUI, Mi Store, and so on. This is what Xiaomi needed ever since it began manufacturing phones. Selling the best of equipment at a lower cost and creating a dedicated fanbase is Xiaomi’s plan of action.
Xiaomi’s Smartphone Sales
Things weren’t, however, that simple for the Chinese company. After an underlying lift to its cell phone deals, Xiaomi went down in positioning not long after players like Oppo, Vivo, and Huawei (with Honor) overwhelmed the phone space through disconnected streams. Even though Xiaomi was the pioneer in the online space, individuals still favored purchasing phones physically.
Therefore, Xiaomi started to grow its disconnected nearness by opening Mi Home stores and joining hands with the neighborhood merchants. Opening Mi Home Stores achieved two targets:
Xiaomi now had one more channel to sell phones.
People visiting the Mi Home Stores would regularly wind up purchasing different extras like power banks, earphones, and other accessories fabricated by Xiaomi.
Business Growth Of Xiaomi Corporation
In the second quarter of 2021, Xiaomi’s total revenue amounted to RMB 87.8 billion. Xiami has recorded an increase of 64.0% year-over-year. It adjusted net profit for the period was RMB 6.3 billion.
The Chinese have a fixation with establishing world precedents. So when Xiaomi propelled 500 disconnected stores in India in October, 2019 at the same time, it registered a global record to its name. For a brand that has greatly depended on web-based blaze deals, opening so many stores was a new strategy.
Internationally, cell phone shipments declined 4.1% in the last quarter of 2018, topping off the “most noticeably awful year ever” for cell phone shipments as reported by industry tracker IDC. Be that as it may, India hasn’t seen any stoppage.
In 2018, almost 142.3 million cell phones were dispatched in India. That implies a development of 14.5% over the earlier year. Among the cell phones sold in India, Xiaomi has seen significant strides with a 58.6% year-on-year increment in unit deals in 2018 to capture a piece of the overall industry at 28.9% (IDC stats).
It has been in the Indian phone market for just four years but has overtaken Samsung. The latter has a 22.4% share of the overall industry. India represents more than 33% of Xiaomi’s cell phone deals all around.
In 2018, Xiaomi India booked an income of Rs 23,000 crore ($3.24 billion), a 174% development over the earlier year, selling telephones valued at a normal price of $142.53. Samsung’s cell phone business in India rounded up about Rs 37,349 crore ($4.82 billion) in a similar period, up 9% from the prior year.
The South Korean organization’s phones are valued higher with the catalog starting at $250.
Xiaomi’s Full Year Revenue
In 2016, Xiaomi propelled the RedMi Note 3 and the RedMi 3S — both selling like hot cakes and helping the organization cut into the offers of Indian makers such as Micromax and Lava.
Xiaomi presently sells disconnected in more than 40 urban communities and has more than 4,000 favored accomplices who sell Xiaomi phones. It likewise propelled enormous organization retailers that year through Sangeeta, Poorvika, Croma, and Reliance Digital. The third mainstay of the organization’s disconnected procedure was propelling Mi Home stores, which only sell Xiaomi gadgets.
One aspect that has worked very well for Xiaomi is the organization’s evaluating procedure. Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun broadly said a year ago that the organization could never make over 5% edges from its equipment portfolio, adjusting the organization to its vision of going past being an equipment creator.
“India is very value touchy and almost (every) client survey of the Xiaomi telephone will say that it is useful at the cost,” says Vijay Raj, a Bengaluru-based blogger and analyst.
It’s not just about making modest smartphones. There’s likewise something exceptionally shrewd affecting everything here. As a Harvard Business Review article brings up, Xiaomi keeps its models in the market longer than other telephone producers.
So when segment costs fall, Xiaomi makes a benefit. A half-year prior, it posted a $2.1 billion benefit for its first quarter of business as a traded-on-an-open market organization.
According to one gauge, Xiaomi’s MIUI has around 70 million month to month dynamic clients. That makes it a ground-breaking conveyance stage. “They would need to investigate what we can do to make extra dollars of it,” says Kawoosa of TechArt. Xiaomi is making Rs 40-45 for each client for each month, he says.
MIUI was one of the earliest cell phone working frameworks making use of locally available infrared blaster to control apparatuses at home. It additionally presented clever highlights that make it simple for clients to duplicate one-time passwords for online exchanges and organize train booking affirmation messages to conspicuously show the PNR number.
Xiaomi’s Vs Other Brand Growth
Xiaomi likewise lets clients arrange two WhatsApp numbers on the same phone.. Xiaomi, generally speaking, has an arrangement of more than 200 items — extending from a pen to a cleanser gadget to consoles and PCs — a catalog created through its “biological system accomplices.” Most of these aren’t sold in India yet.
The organization plans to get as many brilliant gadgets as reasonably possible on a typical Internet of Things platform it calls the “Mi Home application”. The primary classes in India are presently telephones, TVs, control banks, sound, wearables, and air purifiers. In September, Xiaomi propelled a home surveillance camera.
During his visit to India, Xiaomi’s Founder and CEO Lei Jun discussed the organization’s arrangements, techniques, targets, and a few indications on the upcoming product offerings for the Indian market. Here are some key highlights of his discussion:
Plans To Expand Disconnected Piece Of The Pie
“If we see by and large market, online is a little piece… so it’s somewhat reliant on what number of individuals embrace the Internet. In China, after we have accomplished such a scale (in the online market), the test is how we can accomplish the equivalent in disconnected with effectiveness.
In India, after we accomplished over half piece of the pie in online space, the inquiry is how to do likewise in disconnected,” Jun said.
New Assembling Plant
Xiaomi recently enlisted a assembling plant in Andhra Pradesh and guaranteed that over 95% of its phones for the Indian market would now be produced locally. As indicated by this ET report, the organization may even take a gander at sending out Indian produced phones later on.
The cell phone producer as of late guaranteed that it has crossed $1 billion in income from its India operations. Xiaomi makes money by selling phones, wearables, frill, air purifiers, and so on.
In Q4 2016, Xiaomi was the second biggest merchant in India as far as phone shipments were concerned, as indicated by IDC. The organization’s Mi Band shipments additionally represented 10.3% of the Indian wearables market in Q2 2016.
More Stockrooms And Administration Focuses
The organization is additionally setting up a third distribution center in Delhi NCR and plans to twofold its administrations focus check from 250 to 500 by the principal half of this current year.
Note that Xiaomi has its web-based business store named mi.com in India. In July 2015, Xiaomi declared that it would also put in resources for setting up a claim distribution center and coordinations.
Plans To Enter The Money Related Division
As disclosed to The Hindu, Xiaomi will dispatch another arrangement of items, although Lei Jun didn’t mention what sort of items they would be. Jun additionally implied that the organization is keen on venturing into the money related segment in India.
We are investigating the probability of giving budgetary administrations in India. Be that as it may, this part is exceptionally managed. It requires various licenses. If we could get such licenses, we are glad to be a piece of this monetary administration’s development in India.
We have to comprehend if there are confinements on remote substances,” Jun says. Xiaomi additionally has an installment administration called Mi Pay that is only accessible in China at the moment and has tied up with Bank of China and Union Pay, a card arrange in China.
On Creating New Openings And Income Targets
Jun likewise talked about how the organization focuses on making 20,000 new openings in the following three years by venturing into disconnected retails, assembling, and dissemination. Addressing ET, Jun said that the organization plans to create near $15 billion in general income by concentrating on developing markets like India and Indonesia.
FAQs
What is the origin of Xiaomi?
Xiaomi was established in April 2010 by Lei Jun and headquartered in Beijing, China.
Who is the founder of Xiaomi?
Xiaomi was founded by Lei Jun, Lin Bin, Zhou Guangping, Wong Jiangji, Wang Chuan, Liu De, Li Wanqiang, and Hong Feng.
How does Xiaomi make money?
Xiaomi makes money by selling phones, wearables, frill, air purifiers, and so on. In Q4 2016, Xiaomi was the second biggest merchant in India as far as phone shipments were concerned, as indicated by IDC. The organization’s Mi Band shipments additionally represented 10.3% of the Indian wearables market in Q2 2016.
What makes Xiaomi unique?
Its varied and unique ecosystem of products and the different way of marketing makes Xiaomi Successful and unique from others.
Is Xiaomi trusted brand?
Xiaomi Corporation is a trusted Chinese gadget manufacturer established by Lei Jun in 2010 and headquartered in Beijing.
Why Xiaomi is successful in India?
Xiaomi propelled 500 disconnected stores in India in October at the same time, it registered a global record to its name. For a brand that has greatly depended on web-based blaze deals, opening so many stores was a new strategy. Internationally, cell phone shipments declined 4.1% in the last quarter of 2018, topping off the “most noticeably awful year ever” for cell phone shipments as reported by industry tracker IDC. Be that as it may, India hasn’t seen any stoppage.
Is Xiaomi and Huawei same company?
No, Xiaomi Corporation is a Chinese gadget manufacturer established by Lei Jun in 2010 and headquartered in Beijing, While Huawei is another multinational company of China and a competitor of Xiaomi.
Devashish Shrivastava
