India has given so many gem-stones and presented them to the world. And we get inspired to know about them. People always think to achieve their dream, and others make the dream happen. This happened with an Indian businessman, the owner of Micromax, Mr. Rahul Sharma. On 29 March 2000, in the city of Gurgaon, Haryana the company Micromax was founded and the face of the Indian mobile market shifts to a new generation.
Micromax began its journey like a pro but after few victories, it began to fade away. Why? Will discuss that here. And when the startup becomes a brand, it’s hard to match the expectation and compete with other established competitors. The same story happened to Micromax. It was the one and only Indian brand, which ruled the Indian market for a while. Let’s see what happened in detail.
But first about the founder-
In the year 1991, Micromax was founded by Rajesh Aggarwal. It was originally build to supply computer hardware to companies like HP, Sony, and Dell. In 1999, three more people joined Rajesh Aggarwal by the name of Rahul Sharma, Vikas Jain, and Sumeet Kumar.
In the era of the Dotcom boom, the four entrepreneurs found themselves surrounded by lots of opportunities. The software market was blossoming and they found themselves at the top position with Micromax software.
How Micromax was built?
The four people were working very hard, and their first contract was with Nokia. At that time, they were introduced to the concept of fixed wireless terminals. Micromax started wireless telephones, which use sim cards. Even where there was no landline connectivity, this revolutionized the Indian market. Then Nokia started to make the distance from Micromax. But they have tested a new success in the field and focused all their time and effort on that.
When Rahul Sharma was passing through rural-Bengal, he saw a truck loaded with batteries and giving energy to the telephone booth. He was even more shocked when talking to the truck driver. He said that he makes his daily living by transporting the batteries by truck and sell to different villages.
Sharma was amazed by the astonishingly clever arrangements and started to understand the benefit of a battery-powered portable phone. Sharma convinced all his partners about venturing into the mobile phone industry. And there were giants presented in the market. Those were Nokia, Samsung. And others. Sharma realized that the people of the country need a mobile phone which has higher battery capacities and a long duration of the battery.
Then the company was built. Looking at the rural area’s market conditions, it launched its first mobile phone named Micromax X1i. It has a longer battery capacity and was only built for the rural areas of people in India. This phone was a big success for the company in the year 2008.
How Micromax grew?
One of Rahul Sharma’s principles was, first find the gap in the market and find the solution to it with a low budget. This philosophy paid off and within 2 years Micromax raised its market share from 0.6% to 5%.
The entry into the mobile phone industry turned into a massive success for Micromax. In 2008, it grew exponentially. From 10 crore business expansion to 100 crore business expansion within a few months.
Micromax and its product line-
Micromax is not only in the mobile phone industry but with a lot of electronic gadgets.
Those are-
- Smartphones
- Tablet computers
- Air conditioners
- LED TVs
- Laptop
- Powerbanks
- Soundbars
In 2010 Micromax launched a line of Tablets, namely the fun book series. Soon with the advent of powered software, it launched its first Android-powered smartphone, Micromax A60. In November 2014 Micromax partnered with Cyanogen Inc to provide cyanogen-based smartphones in India under the brand name YU. At the launch of YU Micromax entered the fitness gadget market sector in India. The operating system of Micromax was android but the company also operates smartphones on the Microsoft windows phone.
The company is the official windows phone 8.1 hardware partner.
In 2017 Micromax launched its bezel-less smartphone. This phone was priced at Rs.5000 but had a 16-megapixel camera, which made it popular among the users.
Celebrity endorsement and branding
- Micromax is always the stylist brand till the launch of its phone Micromax bling. It was endorsed by Bollywood star Akshay Kumar and his wife Twinkle Khanna. And they were the first celebrity to endorse Micromax across India.
- Hollywood actors also endorsed this brand. Hugh Jackman was associated with it in 2013 and people praised the ad. He endorsed the Canvas Turbo A250 and made it a big hit in India.
- Anil Kapoor, the Jhakaas man of Bollywood is the brand ambassador of this brand. He endorsed smart tv or led tv, air-conditioners, and laptops over the last year and invested 200 crores in the existing products.
Top reasons for the success of Micromax-
- Manufacturing base- The manufacturing base of the company is in China. The company was hiring the top talented people who were working in giants like Apple and Samsung to make it big in India. A company called Foxconn is also manufacturing handsets for them.
- Target market- The target market has always been in rural India. It always thought for people who wanted more in less. The launch of the higher working battery phone and the dual sim smartphone makes it the no1 position in India. The genuine Indian brand is only Micromax, which has impacted the market.
- Brand endorsement and targeted marketing- Micromax believes that loving celebrities should focus on the product through the ads. And people like celebrities like Akshay Kumar and Hugh Jackman. And it focuses strongly on the satisfaction to the consumer by its product and its features. Whenever they launched a product in the market, it became the buzz.
Why They Failed
The main reason for its failure was the reliance Jio 4G. When Micromax was running well, the competitors were not that big. And Micromax was running only on the 3G mobile network. And when the sim recharge cost was Rs.150, the Jio gave free internet on 4G and free calling facility for 1 year. That was the turning point of Micromax. Because all the competitors from china came to India with 4G smartphones. While Micromax was only used by a 3G sim card. The Chinese giants like Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi dominated the market and Micromax was even unable to compete with them. So it became the failure of the Indian giant.
The last words
No matter how big you are in the market if you cannot understand and change according to the market requirement you will lose the race. This happened to Micromax.
I have given the reasons for the rise and fall of Micromax. If I missed something and you liked something, then please feel free to comment. We will be glad to hear from you.
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