Why is Xiaomi telling people not to shop for tech yet?

Xiaomi India CMO Anuj Sharma spills the beans on the tech brand's plans ahead of the festive season.

As a curtain-raiser to its annual festive season campaign, ‘Diwali with Mi’, smartphone and smart TV brand Xiaomi India’s advice to its consumers is, ‘Don’t buy tech, yet’. The campaign grabs one’s attention because unlike the usual brand sentiments of making more profits and taking every last penny out of one’s pocket, Xiaomi wants its consumers to wait a little to avail the best offers and discounts.

Diwali and the festive season leads to increased consumer willingness to buy new products or update existing ones. Anuj Sharma, CMO, Xiaomi India, says that sales expectations begin during this time. This is further amplified by the sales expectations set by online players.

As per Sharma, Xiaomi’s consumers include mostly youngsters. Many students, as well as people who have just started working and newly married couples are a part of the brand’s target audience.

The common thing among these user segments is that they are individual decision-makers and control their own purchases. “But while they are doing this, they may also be prone to making wrong choices. Consumers today need to be absolutely sure about what they are buying, is right for them,” shares Sharma.

Most of the brand’s advertising around the year is based on its products - be it around a new product launch or showing the features of its products. However, the brand’s festive season campaign is different from these.

“These communications are product-specific and not usually time-bound. The Diwali campaign is one of the bigger campaigns that the brand does. It is mostly time-bound and event-based,” mentions Sharma.

With the overall consumer sentiment being more healthy and positive this festive season than the last two, Xiaomi is betting its expectations on newer technology.

“Smartphones continue to be one of the biggest industries in the country. With networks like Jio, Vi and Airtel getting 5G network, the sales of 5G phones will be encouraging. Xiaomi also recently launched an affordable 5G phone - 'Redmi 11 Prime' that is expected to see an uptick,” adds Sharma.

The brand is expecting growth in its smart TV category. This is led by OTT-first content and the movies being released on various (OTT) platforms lately.

Not just toothbrushes, but during the COVID-induced lockdowns, Xiaomi also forayed into categories like hair trimmers, vacuum cleaners and shoes. One may not relate these categories with a brand like Xiaomi.

As per Sharma, with the trend of people buying new homes, products like vacuum cleaners will also see growth during the festive season. He reveals that all these launches are largely linked to what Xiaomi’s users are asking. “Some of these products are experimental and the brand launches them through crowd-funding, while others end up being bigger than the community size itself and transact to a full-fledged category.”

Till about four years ago, Xiaomi existed only online, but now, as the brand ramps up the launch of its experiential products, it has expanded into retail networks. By the end of Diwali, Sharma informs, Xiaomi aims to bring up its retail distribution to 50%.

The brand’s retail network is split into three - the brand’s exclusive 3,000 outlets, preferred partner strategy that are multi-brand outlets more focussed on Xiaomi’s products, and the large format retailers. As per Sharma, the offline walk-ins usually start during Dussehra and then peak around Dhanteras and Diwali.

While e-commerce partners like Flipkart and Amazon continue to be important for Xiaomi, the brand’s prime focus remains its own website ‘Mi.com’. It is the third-largest website for electronic sales in India. This is interesting because only one brand sells through the website.

Xiaomi’s competitors change with each category that it operates in. Sharma mentions that with the multiple categories of products that Xiaomi deals in, the competitive landscape becomes huge, and, hence hard to map. “The brand continues to build on its strategy, instead of looking outwards in other directions. Our focus stays on our consumers and being transparent with them,” says Sharma.