Promotion Plan

Promotion planning is defined as the optimum utilization of marketing tools,

strategies and resources to promote a product or service with the intent to generate
demand and meet set objectives. One of the core content of the marketing strategy
is 4Ps 4Cs.
The use of a marketing mix is an excellent way to help ensure putting the right
product in the right place. The marketing mix is a crucial tool to help understand
what the product or service can offer and how to plan for a successful product
offering. The marketing mix is most commonly executed through the 4 P’s of
marketing: Price, Product, Promotion, and Place.

The 4Cs of marketing consists of consumer value, cost, convenience and

communication. It focuses not only on marketing and selling a product but also on
communication with the target audience from the beginning of the process to the
very end.
The 4 P’s focus on a seller-oriented marketing strategy, which can be extremely
effective for sales. However, the 4 C’s offer a more consumer-based perspective on
the marketing strategy.
We have looked at promotion plans of two major players in the mobile industry:
Xiaomi and One-Plus.
Xiaomi
Xiaomi is a seven-year-old Chinese phone manufacturer is taking over the world’s
second-largest smartphone market i.e. India. In the last year, Xiaomi’s market
share in the country has risen to 29% from a meager 6% and constitutes 43% of the
total online smartphone shipments.
Xiaomi is known for its distinguishing strategy of selling only through e-commerce
websites. It has tied up with India’s largest online store, Flipkart to run flash sales
whenever a new model launches, using hunger marketing. These flash sales
usually end within a few minutes of their opening and helps them sell their
smartphones in limited numbers and within limited time period. Thus creating a
desire among Indians to own a Xiaomi phone. This not only leads to sense of
scarcity but also makes the customer want to purchase the product in the next sale.

Source: Canalys estimats, Smartphone Analysis, October 2018

Xiaomi also makes sure its phones have the MI store app pre-installed. It has
entered the offline market since only 1/3 of all mobile sales happen online, this is
so it could create a market share. It has opened stores called MI home to increase
its offline sales and also partnered with some retail chains like Croma.
The company has also created its presence on social media platforms such as
Facebook, which it uses to not only broadcast their promotional messages but also
to remain in touch with its customer base, through the use of tools such as the
official MIUI forum and its points based reward system which has over 15 million
user accounts.
One-Plus
One-Plus is also a Chinese smartphone
manufacturer. It has managed to India Premium Smartphone
dominate the market in a short period of Shipment Market Share
time. It has captured a 36% market share
in premium smartphone market. 10%
33% One Plus
The brand entered the Indian in
Apple
December 2014 and has sold over a 34% Samsung
million phones across the country.
Others
23%

One Plus is known for its unique

strategy of invite-only incentive. The
invite system could first be accessed only by employees and aspiring entrepreneurs
who could send it to others, thus creating a group of influencers who could
promote and create brand engagement for the brand.
However, it has now switched to invite-free days and the popularity of the phone
has been relatively stable.

The tie-up with AmazonIndia helped OnePlus sell more than 20,000 devices in no
time when the very first OnePlus phone was released in India. They developed a
distinctive approach to allow clients from Ola and Air Asia to ask for the phone to
experience it. And they even developed a campaign during the launch of the
OnePlus X, where customers could buy an OnePlus phone.
Sources:
Counterpointresearch.com