“There is a huge potential in the Sri Lankan smartphone market, we have seen it grow rapidly in the past one year and we see a great opportunity,” said Keshav Bansal, Director, Marketing Intex Technologies (India) Ltd, during a recent visit to the island.
Commenting on their decision and plans to expand marketing activities in Sri Lanka, he noted “We plan aggressive 360 degree marketing campaigns in Sri Lanka in the next 6-8 months, which is definitely going to increase the brand image and brand acceptance among Sri Lanka consumers.”
“We know the requirements of the Sri Lankan people, so having sync with all of them, launching products is going to give us a competitive edge over others.”
Recognised as India’s No. 3 smartphone brand in the last quarter (Oct-Dec 2014) and the No. 1 Smartphone brand in January the Company’s strength lie in ‘providing innovative products at an impeccable price range.’
Their Matrabhasha app lets consumers communicate in 22 (Indian) regional languages with plans to launch the same app incorporating the Sinhala language.
Intex also recently launched Cloud FX, Asia’s most affordable smartphone partnering with Mozilla.
Intex entered the Sri Lankan market in 2013 and today commands around 7% of the local mobile phone market and is ranked 6th in terms of percentage share.
“In Sri Lanka we are focusing on bringing state-of-the-art technology to products with the best prices, not experimenting in new ways, just focusing on what the Sri Lankan people need,” Bansal stated.
The Company plans to consciously ‘develop products as per the local requirements and roll out around 15 smartphones in the next 6-8 months.
’This will include new smartphones with special features; slim and curvy, a big battery phone designed to delight customers and improved RAM/ROM.
Bansal noted “Technology is becoming more affordable day by day and ultimately the (local) smartphone base will increase.
Customers can choose depending on his or her purchasing power so the basic phones for basic needs, and the high-end phones with different features and specifications.”
Operating in over 70 countries coupled with their ‘global vision’, Intex Technologies is confident of its competitive advantage in the smartphone space.
According to Bansal, “We have got various advantages over other brands; our partnerships, our innovations; quality of products, there is a lot of difference in buying Intex.”
He firmly believes “We have got a strong team which understands the Sri Lankan market”.
This includes their current partnership with Singer who according to Bansal, “We have a wonderful partner in Singer and that is the biggest advantage, which made us enter the Sri Lankan market”.
“With Singer there were many positives, they are one of the most reputed brands in Sri Lanka, their distribution network, their after sales network, the team is fantastic, their financial strength is very strong” he added.
Commenting further on their Sri Lanka foray, Vishwas Agarwal, Head, International Business, Intex Technologies (India) Ltd. said “On average we will be launching 2-3 smartphones per month and basically our strategy is now to cover the entire segmentation.
The strength with Intex is that we have all the ranges starting from Rs. 2000 to Rs 25,000.”
“We work towards a global strategy that will be tuned to suit the country’s requirements,” Agarwal added.
In recognition of Intex’s immense contribution to the Mobile industry, the Company received the prestigious award for ‘The most reputed Indian handset brands’ at the recent Mobility Excellence Awards 2015.
Echoing these sentiments Bansal noted “We try and over deliver what we promise and that is the same reason for our growth and success”.
Photo Caption:
Keshav Bansal, Director, Marketing, Intex Technologies (India) Ltd., (left) and Vishwas Agarwal, Head, International Business of the company.
