Marketing Cell Phones to India

Part One: Executive Summary

Nature of the opportunity

1) India has a young consumer market.

a. This will be a potential target market because young adults in the India community want to be up to date with technology.

b. Young people of India today are more likely to spend money on technological items.

c. India will be advertising cheaper cell phones throughout the country so that more young people can afford them based on their income.

d. With India’s increasing GDP and average income, younger people will benefit from this growth and purchase more expensive goods.

2) The cell phone trend is going to take off within the next couple of years throughout India.

a. Rise in per-capita will allow people to spend more on luxury items.

b. The phones will be less expensive.

c. There will also be declines in tariffs throughout India.

d. The cell phone will eventually be considered a necessity.

Scope of the Opportunity

1) Market Size

India’s current cell phone population exceeds the total amount of cellular users within the United States of America. However, India has a substantially higher population and an ever-increasing younger generation. The market size is in the hundreds of millions.

India’s market is growing at a significant rate – where November alone had over 6 million cell phone sales. Seeing that growth, GDP and per capita income are all on the rise this number should increase dramatically over the next few years.

With a population of over 1 billion (approx 1,120,866,154 people as of July 07) there is a huge amount of users who may turn to cellular phone technology. This along with a high literacy and education rate should lead to the continuation of the technological boom within India. This technological boom will increase consumer spending dramatically within the next few years. With this technology boom Indian residents will have more disposable income and will likely consider purchasing cellular phones. Lastly, since India is a high context culture the adaption curve should indicate that cellular phones should soon approach higher levels of purchasing in the near future.

2) Potential Market Share

The potential of cellular phone sales within India are in the hundreds of millions. However there is much competition in the cellular phone market. Despite this large competition, there is a shortage of cellular phones compared to the projected number of potential cellular phone users. Considering that India is highly brand aware the potential market share will all depend on which company you partner with. With a superior company that has a good brand marketing plan you can take a high percentage of the market share.

There are many companies that are established in India, Spice, Airtel, BSNL, Vodaphone, Reliance, Tata, HFCL, IDEA, Shyam and dishnet are the leaders in the field. Spice, Airtel, BSNL and Vodaphone contain most of the market share currently. Currently only a small percentage of the country has cellular phones and if our company can manufacture phones to a company it could help that company rise above the rest. With competitive pricing integrated with good quality you can establish a brand a take a good portion of India’s cellular phone market. Based on our research, any company with over 5 percent of the market share would be considered extremely profitable within India.

Why this country?

The population of India is more than 1.1 billion. India’s economy is expanding and is experiencing a technological boom. Wireless communications are increasing dramatically due to the technology boom. Cellular phones in India are also becoming increasingly popular due to various reasons. One reason is that wireless infrastructure is cheaper to install and maintain as compared to using landline connections. Also, in order to have a landline phone you must undergo an eight year waiting period.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has announced that 8.74 million telephone connections have been added during the month of January, 2008. The total number of connections has reached the 272.88 million mark. Wireless subscribers are at their highest rate increase per month than any other country. Total number of wireless subscribers is at 242.4 million, leaving approximately 900 million of India’s population without a