Zopo aims to provide quality high end products at low price

Every smartphone companies consider India market as a huge opportunity. This market is growing and inspite of India being a price sensitive market, consumers are accepting good quality products. The consumers are now ready to pay high price for a good product.

"India's handset market is very attractive and very interesting; it is a key market for us because the smartphone market is growing and the people have started accepting good quality products from big brands and that is why Zopo is here in India," said Kevin Xu, CEO, ZOPO Mobile.

“India is a price sensitive market but there are people who want only good quality products and are willing to pay a higher price. Pricing is Zopo’s strength as Zopo focuses on providing good quality high end products at a much lower price than the other multi national brands. We also have developed a few models keeping in mind the Indian taste and the pricing strategy has also been developed accordingly,” added Kevin.

Trends Zopo is present in the market for last one year and by this time the company has well understood the consumer behaviour and the demands. Understanding the consumer requirements such as high quality camera, large display, long battery life etc., the company has developed its prooducts keeping these factors in mind.

“It has been one year since Zopo entered the Indian market and we now know the requirements of the Indian consumer, as I said earlier we have developed a few models which focus on the Indian market. The common features that the consumers require from a smart phone are a good design, a good camera, a good display and also a good battery life that lasts throughout the day. We have focused on all such factors and have developed our products in accordance with these factors,” stated Kevin.

Strategy Zopo Mobile is a brand which believes in quality product. It sees multi-national brands as its competition as the company is planning to join the higher segment of the market.

“Zopo Mobile is not competing with any home grown brand in India. Zopo is a quality product and competes with other multi-national brands as it stands out in terms of quality of material and components used in the product. Though we keep a close watch over our competition from the multi-national brands that have already established themselves in the Indian market because we are looking forward to getting in to the higher segment of the market,” explained Kevin.

Service support Service support is a major factor when it comes to buying an electronic product. It helps to retain the customer’s loyalty towards a brand. Zopo Mobile has spread its network of service centres across the major cities of India and also povides support through mails and calls.

“For support or service, we have pan India service centres present in all the major cities and we also setup service centres in cities as soon as we start with distribution operations in that city. We also provide customer care support that can be accessed through e-mail or toll free numbers,” said Kevin.

Make in India and Future Plans While discussing about Make in India initiative of Government of India, Kevin mentioned that the company has started outsourcing from third party manufacturers and will use services of Indian factories. He also put forward the challenges that a brand might face in India when it comes to manufacturing.

“For the make in India campaign we have already started outsourcing from third party manufacturers and will be using the services of Indian factories. The challenges Chinese smartphone makers might face are that the labour in India is not that efficient as of now as compared to China. Then there are a lot of Documentations and licences maybe some excise policies, taxation. I guess these are the only challenges we can face in India,” mentioned Kevin. Kevin has also mentioned the company’s future plans and said, “We have partnered with Adcom in the Indian market and we are further expanding distribution by setting up regional distributors, micro distributors and retailers by associating with more and more of them on a regular basis to cover distribution in areas we still have not touched. Other plans include setting up a manufacturing unit in India.”

Aparna Mullick aparna@varindia.com