Gone within a few seconds!

Can you guess what we're talking about? Yes, this post is about the story behind the rapid sale of the handsets of the newly launched phone, Xiaomi Mi3.

Chinese products are usually considered as sub power, low quality, are not long lasting and not of premium value. A lot of companies have tried to change this mindset for example last year, Gionee tried to change the approach towards a Chinese phone by introducing their line of a smart phones which was well appreciated and accepted in the market. In spite of that, it wasn't able to capture a large portion of the market share. 

Now, as it happened, the biggest online retail store of India- Flipkart- crashed within seconds of sale of Xiaomi Mi3 that began at two pm on the fifth of August. The Chinese phone manufacturing company sold fifteen thousand units of its product in the third phase of the flash sale. Earlier this month ,the company took 39 minutes to sell out all of the stocks.

Now the question arises; exactly what made it possible for a Chinese mobile company sell thousands of phones within a few seconds?

After being marked as the top seller in China, Xiaomi tried to capture the market of India, which is the second most populated country of Asia. Flipkart being the chief of Indian e-commerce joined hands with the Chinese phone maker.

Flash sales helped the company create a buzz. Also, it managed to grab the media's attention by going out of stock within its few hours of the initial sale. Not only is the company’s marketing strategy brilliant, but also the product itself is worth the hype. IGyan quoted in its review about the phone- “It is a Motorola in Motorola.”- which tells the potential of the phone in the market.

It has a Qualcomm MSM8274AB Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB RAM, a 13 MP camera and a KITKAT 4.2.2 android version in just Rs 13,999. The phone also has its own user interface called MUI and as of now, it has been launched in a 16 GB variant. 

Meme of the week

Term of the week: FACELIFT

A FACELIFT is the revival of a product through cosmetic means, for example by changing its appearance while leaving its underlying engineering or design intact.

It is commonly applied to automobiles to keep models competitive during a model's product life-cycle. Web sites and magazines may also be facelifted, for instance when their titles appear outdated.

Do you agree? We definitely do!

Is McDonald's planning to rebrand?

We recently stumbled across this one news article- a very interesting one, at that- the subject matter of it being McDonald's. The popular fast food giant is planning to rebrand itself. 

Rebranding refers to changing the corporate image (of a company or an organization).

Now the question arises, will this be a good move? Is this plan fool-proof? Will this work out well for them?

To coincide with a PR storm that unraveled around tainted meat used by McDonald’s from a food supplier- Husi Shanghai- the chain is embarking on a year-and-a-half-long rebranding plan to reshape its basic offerings including business value, service, marketing and menu.

“During the quarter, we evolved our strategic 'Plan to Win' framework to enhance our focus on the customer through insights, planning and actions. To reignite momentum over the next eighteen months, we’re focused on fortifying the foundation elements of our business. We plan on doing that by concentrating our efforts on compelling value, marketing and operations excellence.” said McDonald’s president and CEO Don Thompson. "We aim to become a more relevant and trusted brand."

The decision about rebranding comes after McDonald’s announced that in its second quarter , comparable sales increased by just 1.1% in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa while the operating income declined by 2% in the same time period. 

Globally, McDonald’s will be reshaping its basic offerings including business value, service, marketing and menu. There will be no overhaul of the logo.

Given the global scale of the Husi Shanghai PR crisis, would this one-size-fits-all template help turn the tide for all local chains around the world?

Rachel Catanach, managing director and senior partner at FleishmanHillard in Hong Kong suggests McDonald’s should better understand the drivers impacting its reputation in different markets. “In China and Hong Kong, it’s food safety; in other markets, it’s dietary concerns or service issues,” she said.

“A rebrand will only have a skin-deep impact unless McDonald’s really solves some of the business issues it seems burdened by, including supply chain integrity and service quality. Otherwise, rebranding will be as effective as a sticking plaster on a deep cut.”

Welcome to the blog!

Hello there. 

As we all know, It’s a small world. With 10 billion voices. How do you decipher one from the other? 

The world is an overpopulated, dizzying flurry of unlimited ideas and it takes good marketing skills to stand out. Every single thing needs marketing. Here at the Marketing Club, we will be organizing events, quizzes, competitions and things like that all throughout the year. We aim at bridging the gap between the student community, faculty and the real marketing world by creating a platform to enlighten the marketing minds into understanding marketing skills.

Through this blog, we the members of The Marketing Club of ASMSOC, NMIMS, will be sharing the best out of all of the marketing related data that we're able to procure. This would include articles related to marketing, examples of successful (online and offline) campaigns, latest innovative practices, marketing terminology and much, much more- all of which will contribute a great deal to our knowledge on the subject. Also, there will be a fair share of memes, jokes, pictures and trivia related to the subject. 

Do subscribe to our blog. We won't disappoint. 

Also, like out Facebook page: facebook.com/TheMarketingClubSoc
Don't forget to follow us on instagram: @themarketingclub

We shall be equally active on all of these platforms. 

Cheers! 

-The Marketing Club, ASMSOC, NMIMS.