Britzo aims to capture the Indian market with its rural-centric approach 

In a chat with VARINDIA, Pradipto Ganguly - CEO & Co-Founder - Britzo discusses the company’s plans and strategies and how it envisions to strengthen its pan-India reach-     
 

The Indian Mobile market is erupting tremendously. The present market has ample scope of growth leading to different players to enter. The new entrants have slowly started getting their foothold in the market and emerging as strong competition for the existing market players.
 

Britzo, the latest entrant in the Indian mobile phone market comes with a mission to provide 'Mobile Phone’ for every Indian at a price and quality which brings a smile to them.  Britzo believes in having satisfied customers by offering the industry’s most demanding standards and practices. 
 

Talking about its inception,Pradipto Ganguly - CEO & Co-Founder - Britzo shares, “For Dharam and I, Britzo is a dream fulfilled in the truest sense. We had been brainstorming on how to reach out to consumers in India’s rural heartland and empower them with the now-ubiquitous digital technology. This idea started condensing into a vision of our own brand. Britzo came into existence soon after, in December 2017. We recruited the best talent and can proudlysay that the cumulative experience of more than 200 man-years in the handset industry is our biggestasset. Our end-to-end products are targeted at and designed keeping in mind the consumers in tier-III, tier-IV, and tier-V markets.”
 

Pradipto reveals that the company aims to secure a market share of 3% in India and generate revenues of around Rs. 3000 crore by end of FY2018-19.
 

Britzo has 10 smart feature phone offerings and 2 smartphones in the product pipeline at present, which will be launched as per their product rollout schedule for the current year. Talking on this, he says, “Our mobile phones are Made in India and, most essentially, ‘Made for the Indian Masses’. Around two-thirds of our nation’s population currently lives in semi-urban and rural areas. Obviously, the price sensitivity synonymous with the Indian market only becomes more pronounced as we make deeper inroads into these regions. This is one of the primary pain points that we have addressed during Britzo’s conceptualization.”
 

He later adds, “We have spearheaded multiple product innovations aimed at enhancing extant Information and Communication Technologies. Certain market developments have also helped in further minimizing manufacturing costs, while simultaneously amplifying the capabilities of our devices. Today, the price range of smart feature phones offered by Britzo starts at Rs. 700, enabling unbridled access to smartphone applications and more than 15,000 songs and videos to customers. This highly-competitive price point is after setting apart more-than-adequate commissions for stakeholders along our distribution supply chain.”

Plans for regional penetration….
Britzo has earmarked Rs. 100 crore for the indigenous development of products, marking its contribution towards the‘Make in India’ initiative. Pradipto tells that a similar value will be invested in R&D initiatives intended to tap into new-age technologies and their adoption for India-specific applications. 
 

When asked about the company’s strategy to strengthen its position in the market,Pradipto reveals, “In the first phase of our expansion strategy, we will launch Britzo’s service in 17 states across the country – including the high-demand markets of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, NESA, and Gujarat – by the end of Q1, FY2018-19. We will undertake strategic geographical expansion post in this phase to establish our presence on a pan-India level.”
 

Explaining further he adds, “Our current focus is to leverage the traditional, 4-tier offline distribution model: Super Distributor -> Distributor ->Retailer -> End Consumer. We are also contemplating partnerships with major online players which have greatservice penetration within the semi-urban and rural markets across India.”
 

Speaking on its target audience, he says, “Anyone who has remained untouched by the ongoing digitization drive in the country is our primary target audience. We will largely be targeting consumers belonging to the C, D, and E socioeconomic classes in tier-III, tier-IV, and tier-V regions.”

Footprint expansion pan-India…
While talking about how it is try to be cutting edge amidst hundreds of other home-grown Indian brands, he says, “Our handsets are the new-age Smart Feature Phones that comeequipped with a customized Operating System and provideuninterrupted access to smart applications, as well as songs andvideos, at an unmatchable price point. In order to generate greater customer confidence, we are also offering a product warranty of 12+3 months and a 180-day replacement warrantyon all our products. We have additionally tied up with 25,000 E-SevaKendras to ensure service availability in tier-V regions and complement our pan-India network of 900+ service centers.”

The marketing plans of Britzo are also thoroughly rural-centric. They encompass customized ‘Below the Line’ activities that include ensuring brand presence in rural haats, increasing brand awareness through nukkadnataks, and tapping all localized modes of communications. 

Abha Singh
abha@varindia.com