Transsion Holdings, a global conglomerate with a strong presence through itel and TECNO, recently announced a joint venture (JV) agreement with Spice Mobility, an Indian Business major across mobility space, to strengthen its foothold in the world’s fastest growing mobile market. Mobility India recently caught up with Transsion Holdings team to know about their fresh plans for Spice brand in India after the JV announcement.
After this new development of the JV announcement, what will be the go to market strategy for Brand Spice?
In line with our new brand identity of “Make Sharing Better” with Spice, our aim is to enable the user to create and nurture the social connections by sharing content that is enjoyable for them. We will leverage the existing distribution strength that we have created for itel and TECNO in India.
Since Transsion Holdings entry into the Indian market, we have been at the forefront in providing high quality products to our consumers and winning their trust. With the launch of Spice mobile, we have become the first player in the industry to offer 1-year replacement warranty across its entire product portfolio including both feature and smartphones. Additionally, Spice offers service touch points as more than 850+ for its consumers.
How this joint venture will make an impact in this segment?
Transsion Holdings has a long term vision for the Indian market and has been actively contributing to the growing mobile phone ecosystem in the country. Spice Mobility has been the pioneer of mobility in India and has been successful in creating a strong imagery for Spice in the country. The intent behind this joint-venture is to explore various strategic opportunities by building on each other’s strengths such as wide distribution strength, understanding of the Indian consumer and a comprehensive portfolio of quality products. Our aim is to translate the company’s global success by designing easy to use products that cater to the local consumer preferences and social milieu.
What are your plans for Spice product portfolio in 2017?
The all new Spice Brand product portfolio was launched in the month of July. It is targeted towards the youth who want to express their individuality without compromising on their traditional values and societal expectations. The Spice Brand offers aesthetically pleasing and stylishly designed phones with unique features that would appeal to the youth and ranges from INR 850 to INR 9,500.
In line with the fresh design created for the Indian youth, the products are segmented as F Series (Music, fun, fashion), K series (Creative & fashion), V Series (Value premium, with focus on performance and camera), and Z series which are essentially the feature phones, offering best-value & quality with great design.
We plan to launch the products in a phased manner. The product portfolio was made available in the markets starting 11th July 2017 and are only sold via offline retail channel. So far, we have launched the Spice product portfolio comprising of 9 mobile devices including 5 feature phones and 4 smartphones in 10 states, i.e. Uttar Pradesh – East and West, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir and Gujarat. These markets are chosen in line with our market readiness in terms of distribution strategy and Service support.
What is your channel strategy for the brand – online/offline?
Spice Devices will be available across offline channel. As our target audience is the youth residing in the Tier II/ III cities, who would want to experience the device before purchase, offline approach is the best way to reach out to them. Also, the stores set an ambience for the buyer and gives them first-hand experience for better decision making.
We are going to leverage the existing distribution strength we have in India, also we will add on more distributors and retailers exclusively for Spice Devices. We have a vast network of over 850 service touch points for our consumers to support them with outstanding after sales service. Furthermore, after massive acceptance of the brand, itel and successful launch of TECNO, Infinix and Spice Devices in India, Transsion Holdings has recently launched its exclusive service brand Carlcare in India, strengthening its commitment of providing world class after sales service and bringing faster and superlative repair efficiencies for Indian consumers.
What will be the key features for Spice’s latest product portfolio?
The current portfolio of 9 devices including 4 Smartphones and 5 feature phones offers the consumers a wide array to choose from. In line with our new brand identity of “Make Sharing Better” with Spice, our aim is to enable the user to create and nurture the social connections by sharing content that is enjoyable for them.
The current range offers:
F Series (music, fun and fashion): This range of stylish devices is created especially for the fun loving young people and offers immersive audio (with dual speakers or headsets) and differentiated design language.
K Series (creative & Fashion): Entering time consuming passwords or sensitive patterns to unlock smartphones’ is a passé for the today’s millennials! The creative K Series comes equipped with fingerprint sensor technology to keep the youth ahead of the league and enables easy access to multiple features such as:
Easy camera access for capturing the perfect look
Easy access to call via click on fingerprint Instant access to favourite apps with customization upto 5 fingerprints as personal shortcuts V Series (Value premium with focus on performance and camera): This range of sleek and ergonomically designed devices are equipped with Front and Rear cameras to provide great Selfies to the Indian youth. The sleek and slim design with outstanding build quality provides a seamless and smooth multi-tasking experience. The V series also comes equipped with fingerprint sensor technology to keep them ahead of the league and easy access to multiple features such as:
Easy camera access for capturing the perfect look
Easy access to call via click on fingerprint
Instant access to favourite apps with customization upto 5 fingerprints as personal shortcuts
Z Series: This colourful series of feature phones is equipped with loud sound, shortcut keys for music player and FM radio along with super battery mode which gives long lasting stand by time. The devices also come enabled with the King Voice feature which lets the consumer navigate through their smart keypad devices, assisted by voice support
Transsion Holdings now has 4 different brands in the Indian market, how will things pan out for the brand in terms of numbers or market share they are looking at by EOY?
We believe in multi-brand strategy targeting different consumers’ segments thereby, addressing the varied needs and preferences. Transsion Holding has four mobile brands itel, TECNO, Spice and Infinix. We entered India with itel a year back and recently launched TECNO. After massive acceptance of the brand, itel and successful launch of TECNO in India, we aim to further strengthen its foothold in the world’s fastest growing mobile market with the addition of its third brand Spice to the multi brand portfolio.
