Company Name: – Xiaomi Inc.
Founder: – Lei Jun
How It All Started
MI is a product of Xiaomi Inc. which is a privately owned by the Chinese electronics design and manufacturing company headquartered in Beijing, China, and was founded by Lei Jun in 2010. It began its operation in August 2010 with Android based firmware MIUI. Its computer hardware and consumer electronics products are some of the fastest moving products in China.
The pace at which Xiaomi is growing is alarming in comparison to Samsung and Apple as the company has managed to position itself as the top selling Smartphone. Xiaomi currently sells its products in all major counties including USA, Australia, India, Russia, and Singapore.
In almost 24 hrs Xiaomi broke the world record for most Smartphones sold on April 6 2015. The sale reached an unbelievable 2.11 million mark within 24 hrs. It is also known as “The new Apple” or “The apple of China”. The company sold over 60 million smartphones in 2014. Followed by Lenovo and LG at fourth and fifth place respectively, Xiaomi is now the third largest smartphone maker in the world. The company’s founder and CEO is Lei Jun, China’s 23rd richest person according to Forbes.
Launching
MI was launched in August 2010 with Android based firmware MIUI. In August 2012, Xiaomi launched the Mi2 smartphone. The company had sold over 10 million Mi2 devices in just 11months. The MI in their logo means Mobile Internet, another meaning associated with it is Mission Impossible, because Xiaomi faced many challenges that had seemed impossible to defeat in their early days.
Following the success of MI2 Xiaomi launched many other new models. They also went for expansion in other categories of consumer electronics including Wi-Fi network routers, tablets, Set-top box, Smart TV, cloud computing service and cloud storage instant messenger, and power bank.
Xiaomi launched their new flagship device MI4 in the first quarter of 2015 and other upgraded versions of their earlier models of MI.
MI uses Facebook to communicate to users on a regular basis, in order to get genuine feedback from the consumers. This unique way to communicate makes the company reach till maximum end customers and has played an important role in the development of new products that would meet the consumer needs.
The effective use of social media also positions Xiaomi as a distinctive company as very few other companies in the world do such a thing. In other words, the company is more customer-oriented and are ready to take feedback in a positive manner.
Marketing strategy and Interesting Facts behind its Success.
Price:
MI sells high quality product and the prices are comparatively low when compared to the other products on a similar scale. The strategy involves selling a low price today and gain profit later strategy. According the board members their aim is to sell the products at the price the product is produced without making any profit.
They generally focus on the accessories, apps, and services that are to be used with their products to generate profit. This is a unique pricing strategy, mostly aimed at gaining a substantial market share. This strategy has enabled the brand to penetrate into a global market and have a maximum market share. They started initially with low end feature phones to enter the market. Now, gradually, MI has also established itself as a leading smartphone player around the globe
Place:
Xiaomi operates in Singapore, China, India and 27 other countries mainly in developing markets of south-east Asia. It has a large presence in many of these countries but major turnover comes from mainland China. MI mainly sells through online mode though it has made some modifications in some of the emerging markets like India where it uses retail outlets to sell its products.
MI operates through Amazon and Flipkart in the online space in India. It also operates through dedicated stores called MI home present in Beijing and now being opened in Bangalore.
Campaigns:
MI promoted its products by selling high specs at lower price to markets where technology savvy people could not afford high spec products from Xiaomi competitors. They have created such a strong brand image by building a strong following around, their custom operating system. “Just for Fans” is a unique initiative by MI where the loyal customers lead the development of the product in every step.
Most of the employees of Xiaomi were previous fans that have become part of the team developing the product. In this way MI has made sure not to use push strategy rather go for pull strategy. MI has used social media to the fullest to spread word of mouth. It promoted through social networking sites and micro blogging sites like Twitter and Facebook.
They organize flash sales on regular intervals which forced the people to buy them due to the urgency. This caused a strong hype for the product and there has been reports that some of the products were sold out in 6 minutes. This type of publicity pushed sales for MI. Another crucial part of MI’s social media strategy is that it runs Weibo accounts for every product range for Facebook and China in other markets.
MI also organizes local meetups regularly and fan festivals like the concept followed by Harley Davidson to try and create a cult following for MI products. The fans are motivated to come along with their friends to these meetings as well. They also combine forces with likeminded companies to promote its products like it did along with Uber to promote its brand. They launched phones exclusively on Flipkart in India. FlipKart being one of the leading online platform helped the publicity of MI.
Conclusion
MI was created with a vision to be focused on being the most user-centric internet mobile .MI constantly exceed expectations through updations in software, hardware and services. It has created such a strong brand image that it is in top list of customer’s choice while making a purchase. Customer centric attitude has made its way to tremendous success. MI aims to position itself in nearing future.
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