Xiaomi, Samsung Don't Target Undecided Smartphone Buyers in India: Report

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi and South Korean tech major Samsung are focussing on users who are looking for smartphones within respective brands and not the ones who are undecided, a new report said.

Both the smartphone players are also focusing on users who are looking for smartphones with a decided mind. The share of voice or SOV of Xiaomi is 67 percent and 47 percent for Samsung, said market research firm by techARC in its "Digital and E-Commerce SOV insights for Smartphones" report.

However, when users are searching for Smartphones using generic keywords, where the user hasn't made up the mind, other brands (non-Samsung/Xiaomi) combined Share of Voice (SOV) is 38 percent.

Samsung and Xiaomi have no presence in digital advertising results for such keywords. As a result, people who are looking for any Smartphone end up landing at advertisements of other challenger brands, the report said.

E-Commerce portals like Amazon and Flipkart enjoy 42 percent SOV in case of generic keywords helping other brands to come into the zone of consideration of prospect buyers.

"E-Commerce is becoming an overcrowded space for Smartphones and it becomes very important for their digital marketing teams to play their cards well. They ought to ensure that they are prominently and adequately present in that blink of an eye when a buyer is looking for a Smartphone," said Faisal Kawoosa, Founder and Chief Analyst, techARC.

Market Share In India

According to an IDC report, Xiaomi maintained its leadership position, growing YoY by 8.1 percent in 1Q19. There were multiple new launches by Xiaomi, namely the Redmi Note 7 series along with Redmi Go. Xiaomi also continued to dominate the online channel with 48.6 percent share in 1Q19, while Samsung continued in the second position with a YoY decline of 4.8 percent in 1Q19.

However, the vendor revamped its product strategy by launching its online-exclusive M-series (which raised its online share to 13.5 percent on the back of the Galaxy M20) and its offline-exclusive A-series to counter the Chinese vendors. Offline channels are upbeat about the vendor's schemes and support as it phases out its old J-series.