Going beyond ‘desi,’ Lava Mobile wants to ‘market on merit’

New Delhi: Brands often embrace the "Desi Tag" to foster a deeper connection with Indian consumers. However, Lava Mobiles, a homegrown brand, has chosen a unique marketing direction.

As Puravansh Maitreya, Head of Marketing at Lava Mobiles, explained in a conversation with BestMediaInfo.com, “That approach doesn’t work in technology.”

Moving beyond the ‘desi’ label

Discussing Lava’s strategy, Maitreya emphasised, “I don’t want to sell my products by using the fact that I am Indian.” Instead, Lava focuses on promoting products purely on their merits.”

Maitreya stated that the marketing team at Lava is trying to showcase a degree of confidence in their campaigns. They’re aiming at establishing that their phones are “no less, in any aspect or experience than the best of brands."

Does the celebrity face say it all?

When asked if this segment can or cannot do without a celebrity’s face, Maitreya noted, “It depends on the product and the target group.” Lava has previously collaborated with Bollywood actor Kartik Aaryan and cricketer Gautam Gambhir for specific product lines.

One of the most recent partnerships Lava had was with YouTube vlogger Sourav Joshi, who became the brand ambassador for the homegrown phone manufacturer. 

While celebrity faces help with younger audiences, sometimes a face does not come in handy. As Maitreya explained, “We never had a face for Agni, a phone falling in the higher price segment. The marketing of such phones is done primarily on the functionality rather than emotional connect.”

The evolving strategy 

Lava is making efforts to position itself as an affordable youth-centric brand. Hence, the products and their marketing are done based on the people using them. Maitreya described how youth from the ages 15-18 look for everyday accessibility, while youth from 18-22 look more into style and look. 

Thus, production and marketing heavily rely on what is the demand in the market. Lava has an edge when it comes to ground intel, owing to its large retail network of almost 60,000 shops for the smartphones it manufactures. 

But despite having an elaborate network of retailers, Lava has rolled out several phones that were exclusive to e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart. 

“We want to interact with the consumers on the platform of their choice. Plus, digital has its own advantages. You can be very targeted, sharp, and precise with your campaigns,” said Maitreya, praising the digital e-commerce platforms. 

Feature phones and offline retail

The product line of Lava is as diverse as the country they have their roots in. Aside from manufacturing smartphones, Lava also makes feature phones in the range of a few thousand rupees. The company, as per Maitreya, has almost 25% of the entire feature phone market in the country.  

But in Maitreya’s view, the feature phone segment is slowly declining. And hence, the company spends less than 10% of their marketing budget on feature phones. “It is more of a point-of-sale marketing rather than online.” 

On a regional level, Lava’s digital tools aren’t sharp as they stick to ground programs, activations, and interventions, taking a more offline-centric approach. Lava, to tap in on the consumers on a regional level, organise activities in local areas, do cluster branding, and reach out to regional newspapers and radio. 

Digital-first approach

While regional activations are a crucial chunk of Lava’s marketing, their focus is mostly shifting to digital. “The majority of Lava’s push has been online,” Maitreya commented. 

Going mostly digital, 65% of their ad spends go to the digital sector. Their ad spend allocation is broadly divided into three main categories. Speaking on it, Maitreya conveyed that 40% of their total spends goes to digital collaborations with platforms like Google, Amazon, and Meta. 

25% of the total expenditure is dedicated to the influencers and the reviewers’ community. Along with such collaborations, Lava also joined hands with Kings XI Punjab in this IPL, Maitreya said. The manufacturer spends the remaining 35% on the offline retail arm. 

Road ahead

Lava Mobiles is one of the participants in the ‘Make in India’ initiative. With its stronghold in the mid-segment market, the company is now eyeing premium segments, with plans to launch phones priced above Rs 30,000.