Comio seeks to manifest itself among entrenched competitors

In a chat with VARINDIA, Sanjay Kalirona, CEO and Director, COMIO India speaks about the present smartphone market landscape, its different strategies to strengthen its position in the market, strategy around service support, retail, and much more….

The Indian smartphone market is rapidly growing due to the transformation of latest and more advanced technologies. With the robust growth in smartphone shipments, India is now the second largest telecommunication market. The market continues to be dominated by Chinese brands, with China-based smartphone capturing a hefty amount of share in the smartphone shipments of the country. Meanwhile, the low cost and well executed services are also adding to the robust growth of Chinese brands in the Indian market. 

“India has witnessed a boom in the smartphone market and is considered as one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world. The demand for smartphones is growing exponentially in India especially in Tier II and III markets.  50% of the smartphone market is dominated by the Chinese players. This is one the most evolving and dynamic of industries,” reiterates Sanjay Kalirona, CEO and Director, COMIO India.

While discussing the present landscape of the market with VARINDIA, Sanjay discusses how Comio smartphones have been designed keeping the Indian consumers in mind. 

Strategies for market expansion...

As a new entrant in the market, when Sanjay was asked to tell us about the current strategy of the brand to strengthen its position, he revealed, “Our strategy is to position COMIO as a strong emerging brand in the smartphone segment. Also, we are focusing on marketing of the brand for which we have launched a 360-marketing campaign across platforms where we will aggressively look at one-on-one engagement with the youth.”

While sharing his thoughts on the growth of Indian market, Sanjay said that India is the second largest market for smartphones. “From the consumers’ perspective, tier- 2 & 3 markets play a vital role as they will contribute to 80% of our sales. COMIO aims to have a 10-12% market share within the mid-segment smartphone category.” 

When asked about the current market size of Comio in India he discussed, “We have received a tremendous response from North and West India ever since our launch. It is too early to comment on our market share as we have not even been in the market for 6 months. But definitely the response is phenomenal and we are working towards becoming the leader in the mid-segment category in the coming years.  It is a growing and dynamic industry hence brands need to innovative their product with the changing times and communicate with their TG effectively.”

Speaking on the investment in R&D, Sanjay shared that COMIO plans to invest INR150 Crores in manufacturing and R&D.  According to him, the brand has received an overwhelming response for their smartphones in a very short span of time.  This has encouraged the brand to keep moving towards its aim of becoming the leader in the mid-segment category by coming up with even better products for their consumers.

He further revealed that COMIO had sold 65,000 handsets in two weeks since its launch. The three smartphones- P1, S1, & C1 became available at all leading retail chains in North India and key online platforms starting 5th September 2017.

Retail & service strategy….

COMIO is primarily focusing in general trade/offline market and aim to gain consumers’ trust and belief. Offline is the most flourishing channel for the brand at the moment.  Sanjay revealed that they have 30,000 retailers and 800 distributors to strengthen its brand presence in the market while it will also increase its after-sales touch points to 800+, catering to 500-550 towns.  

When it comes to support, COMIO is offering its customers a very special after-sales service. The brand will be offering 30 days DOA, a special buy back and upgrade offer allowing customers to upgrade their old smartphone. 

“The COMIO upgrade offer, allows you an assured 40% return on your old COMIO phone (not more than 12 months old) which will be given if you want to upgrade your existing COMIO phone. Additionally, all three smartphones also come with a free one-time screen replacement warranty within six months of purchase to supplement the one-year + 100 days’ extra manufacturer warranty,” concluded Sanjay.