 Hello and welcome to the eForum talk show. Our guest today is Anush Sharma, CMO of Xiaomi India. Unlike other mobile phone makers and device makers who ask people to buy their devices around the festival time, Mr. Sharma is telling consumers not to buy any tech products yet. So we decided to ask him why. Welcome to the show, Anuj. Thanks, Kanchan. So Anuj, I would like to start my conversation with your return to Xiaomi India. I think you would return in June 2022 and it was a time when both Indian and global economy both were undergoing huge churns, inflation, Ukraine-Russia war, joblessness. They are affecting consumer sentiments even now and at the same time markets are fully open right after two subdued years and marketers are expecting a bumper festive season. What kind of challenges you are facing in your second distinct at Xiaomi? Sure, sure. I think that's a very interesting question. You know, when I moved from the Xiaomi marketing role, this was back in 2020, we just gone into the lockdown first phase and stuff like that. I think the biggest challenge that is, you know, coming back after two years is the team dynamics, the way overall communications are happening have changed significantly. So the first aspect or the first challenge I had was, you know, to put a team together that hadn't really worked with each other for almost two years in a physical space and then obviously try and get into a particular direction. And then from that internal challenge, taking it from to external world, you know, there is a lot of different voices that consumers are hearing right now. You know, obviously, one part that's getting affected like you clearly mentioned was the global economy and the effects that it will have. I mean, we are, you know, we are in a global economy, everything that happens in a particular part of the globe will come in. So consumers are also kind of trying to figure out, should I buy, should I not buy? You know, am I making the right options? Am I doing the right thing? And then on the other side, you've got this entire barrage, because again, what you were mentioning, that after two years when the markets have opened, everyone has basically gone a little more amplified, saying that buy us, buy this, buy that now, because obviously everyone's trying to meet their sales targets. So that's understandable. And especially in the telecom space, it's become even worse, because you've got this added complexity of 4G, 5G, should I buy that? Should I buy something else? So from a consumer perspective, obviously, there's a lot of noise that's coming in. While I don't think anyone's holding their hands and guiding them. And that's a challenge that we have because in Xiaomi, right from the start, you know, I remember back in 2019, somebody had asked me this question when I was doing the first tent in Xiaomi. How is Xiaomi marketing like? And I said, this is the easiest job in the world, because all I need to do is educate consumers, right? I don't have to go in hard sell. I don't need to manipulate anyone. And I think that stays there today as well. So yeah, here we are. So as you mentioned that you work pre-COVID and then post-COVID, what kind of marketing strategies are being used now compared to 2020? And I'm asking now that includes the fully open market. Yeah. I think till 2019, creating a marketing strategy was kind of simpler. You know, obviously at that point, we would say that this is really complex and the entire marketing mix is hard. But over the last two years, so one is, you know, OTT is blew up. So you've got this complexity of not only hundreds of TV channels, but then you've got the OTT space as well. And who's where? Are people watching it in families? Are people watching it alone? And then on top of that, of course, the entire aspect of digital and short video consumption went up. I don't see consumers going back to 2019. Markets have opened. We are talking about return to some kind of normalcy, but the media landscape has changed forever. I think one clear indication of that was the IPL auctions where the digital rights went for higher than the TV rights. So I think things are changing. And even for us, then digital or reaching the right consumer at the right time starts becoming more and more important. I think IPL media rights is going to change the entire marketing strategies of all the businesses, all the brands. It's just a first hint that we've seen of changing dynamics. I don't know how far it will go and put direction it will take for them. Some of the biggest festivals during which consumers buy a lot of things, household items, devices, mobile phones, TVs. But you are recommending them to wait and not buy yet. Why? Yeah, that's very, I mean, I would say from outside and sounds like a very weird kind of strategy. But how you're kind of calling out each of these festivals obviously are auspicious in their way. They are heralding kind of a start. Especially like for example, Diwali is very big in my family. And it's taken as a start of new things. It's also obviously a family festival. So you get back, I'll probably go back home, spend, you know, or basically spend the entire Diwali time with family. If not with family, at least people always get together with friends and celebrate Diwali. So it's a community kind of a festival. And here we were looking at, you know, who are our consumers in Xiaomi. And if I could, it's a very hard way to kind of put this in. But if I could put some sort of demographic, a lot of students buy our devices. And they continue buying our devices even into their first job. And now that, I mean, we are only eight years old in the country right now. And some of those guys have gotten married. They may or may not have a kid yet, but they're still young couples. And all of these three had a few common traits. This is where I would probably dive into the psychographics of it. One very important thing that came in, if I could sum it into one word, is control. They want complete control over their decisions. Maybe, you know, for the entirety of their lives, they were told do this, you know, take up science or arts, become a doctor, engineer. Finally, when they've got that freedom, they want that control. But while they've got that control, the second aspect that comes in is or essentially the fears that they have. And one big fear is making the wrong choice. And obviously, you know, I'm not just talking about in terms of our products, but it's wrong choices in life. Obviously, at Xiaomi, we cannot dictate everything that you do in life, but we can definitely tell you as a friend what you should do when it comes to technology products. And this has been in our core philosophy. In fact, at Xiaomi, you know, it's in our brand vision that we are not supposed to treat our consumers. We're not supposed to treat our fans as kings and queens. I mean, is this age-old saying consumer is king or customer is king? We do not believe that. In fact, we say that our fans, our consumers are our friends. Because a lot of times you would appease a king or a queen by telling them lies. But rarely do you see a friend telling you something that you should not be doing. I mean, if a friend is giving you wrong advice, chances are that that person should not be a friend. But as a friend, you always believe you should give the right advice. Essentially, a friend is somebody who will tell you what's right for you. And this is where we come in. And this entire campaign actually was born out of a couple of instances that we had. And one very interesting one is something that happened with Sumit. So Sumit is in my team and he handles our product marketing. And this is, I think around the 12th or 13th of August. So just before the Independence Day, long weekend that came in. And at a whim, in the evening, he's like, Max has never seen the ocean. Max is his dog. So he's got this really sweet eight-year-old lab. And he's like, Max has never seen the ocean. I'm going to go and show him the ocean. Now, Bangalore does not have any oceans or beaches. So he basically decided to drive down to Goa from here. It's a long drive. So on Friday night, I think about 8.30 or 9 in the evening, on his way back home, very close to his house, there's a petrol pump. And he stopped there. I mean, that's his usual place. And in just that banter, the petrol pump attendant asked him, sir, I mean, he asked full tank, the guy said, sir, long drive. So Sumit is like, yeah. And the guy turns around and says, sir, tomorrow morning, are you leaving tomorrow morning? And Sumit says, yes. So he's like, sir, we are at 24 hour petrol pump. Can you come back tomorrow morning instead of filling up petrol now? So Sumit asked, why? And this guy is like, sir, tomorrow, petrol price is going down. So you will save some money because you're going for a full tank. Now, this happened, I think, on a Friday night. And then Saturday morning, on the way to his drive, basically, he was driving all the way to Goa, he did fill up his full tank. And yes, he got some benefit, right? Probably the petrol price went down by like a rupee or two. So it's just 50 rupees, 100 rupees saving. But when he came back after the long weekend to office on Tuesday morning, he was still talking about it. It was so weird that in our space, when everyone is, you know, as a consumer, every time we go there, we think that people are going to take advantage of us. Somebody turns around and is giving you that benefit, it really sticks. And this is where, you know, from a Xiaomi perspective also, a lot of times, when we're talking to our fans, when we fans are talking to each other, we keep hearing this. I remember, sometime back, this guy who had walked up to me, one of our fans in our fan meets, and he said, sir, I'm looking to buy this particular phone, but I'm going to buy this Diwali. So the message basically stays the same, that you will have more benefit. So we thought as friends, because we are friends of our consumers, why don't we extend this message across the board? It is to reduce any post purchase resonance. It is to tell people that if you just wait another 10 days, right? So we're not asking people to give up on their life priorities and say that okay, you know, if you want that new 5G phone or something like that, wait out and don't buy it. We're just saying wait for another 10 days, and you will gain something more. It's just that trust saying that I will not take your money right now, but just make you wait another 10 days so that you can get that benefit. So we're just taking that inspiration and kind of increasing the or amplifying that message for everyone who's looking to buy a Xiaomi product. Very interesting. Anuj, what are your marketing plans around this campaign and also for the entire season? So I think from a marketing campaign perspective, this one becomes very interesting compared to our normal campaigns, because it's event-based, it's timeline-based, you have a very short runway. So we are going to do a combination of print, but stick mostly with digital. So we will have, you know, I'm hoping very simplified, easy to understand print adverts, but then from there we are going to start helping or guiding consumers into, you know, what's right for them. And we're asking them to wait, right? Think see all your options and then buy instead of trying to get into a hurry to buy stuff. So that's where the digital part comes in. So that is the campaign part. And if I ask in terms of ad-ex, in terms of percentage, if you can tell us how much ad-ex you are going to spend this festive season compared to 2020 and 2021. I think compared to the last two years, it probably could be almost about 200%. That's very interesting. And most of it, actually I'm not going to say a lot, but most of it is going towards the digital side, because, you know, that's a little more on the performance side, a little more in terms of reaching the right people with the right message than, you know, just spraying it out there and hoping it sticks. 70-80% you mean to say. Yeah. Okay. So how are you expecting the festive season sale to now to be this year? I mean, nobody knows for sure, to be honest, but from a consumer sentiment perspective, a lot of people are looking forward to it. So that's obviously a positive. I'm also hoping that, you know, in October, we would see some rollout of 5G networks. So at least from a smartphone side of our business, the 5G adoption would start kicking up, which should be good news because recently we expanded our portfolio and we've got 5G phones even under 15,000. So clearly, you know, whether you want like a flagship at 60,000 rupees with 5G or you know, something to get you started, we've got that covered. So one is on the smartphone side, that should take up. Second is, at least from a family perspective, we are seeing a lot more interest in larger TVs now. So TV is around 50 inches. And then considering that a lot of OTTs have also improved their overall offerings, you know, a lot of new movies come on to the OTT platforms now. First, we're also hoping that large screen 4K TVs could become a thing. So intent seems to be there. Finally, if that converts or not, we are keeping our fingers crossed. As you said that you entered Indian market eight years ago, and I suppose one plus also arrived in India around the same time. So but you both operated in different price segments initially, but now you both are almost same size in the smartphone segment. Are you concerned about it? And what exactly are your plans to, you know, go ahead? So obviously one plus has built a very, very strong, you know, brand. And they've obviously been focusing on the higher end, and they've done a really good job with that. However, from our perspective, you know, we believe that innovation should be for everyone. So right from the beginning, we kept all the price bands open. So I think currently, as for the last IDC report, one plus was at about three to 4% market share. We are still operating at about 20 22%. So probably in the premium segment, I think one plus has done a really good job. And this is something that, you know, we also kind of learned from, but at an overall market perspective, you know, we are lucky that we continue to be number one players. But, you know, no specific strategy in terms of market share, I think our strategy will continue to be how do we provide the best products to essentially our friends or fans. And we hope that we continue to do a good job there. So my last question. So there were media reports that says, India seeks to house Chinese firms from sub dollar 154 market. Although government has denied this, but how are you, you know, I mean, are you planning any, any different strategy, you know, after reading this report? No, so we would obviously have to wait because, you know, that's a big segment of the market. So taking any decisions from a business perspective, based on that media report would not probably be the right way of going about it. So we are obviously in touch with the government. We read what the, the follow up, you know, statements that came out from the ministry. So right now, no change in the strategy. Thank you so much for taking them out and speaking to you forever. Thank you. Thank you.