New Delhi: About 78% GenZ consumers in India are going beyond mere smartphone specifications and looking at smartphones as a ‘symbol of their lifestyle,’ making them feel “powerful and arrived in life” (75%) and offering them “superior experience through the latest tech innovations” (72%). These was revealed according to a new CMR ‘Voice of the GenZ’ survey, conducted across India among premium mobiles user segment (Rs25,000 to Rs50,000 price band).
Increasingly, GenZ consumers are looking for smartphone brands that deliver superior consumer experience with premium tech innovations that provide more to consumers, at entry-level premium prices, whether it be in terms of camera experience (78%), battery life (75%), and smartphone design (72%).
OPPO (78%), Samsung (74%), and Apple (71%) are the three top preferred brands noted for their innovation edge and find favor with consumers.
“Smartphone brands that provide a compelling consumer experience, backed by industry-leading innovations, and the premium experience at good price-points, will find favor with demanding consumers. The GenZ clearly identifies with OPPO as an innovation trailblazer, that offers premium experience to them, with industry-leading innovations, whether it be in camera or battery charging,” said Prabhu Ram, Head – Industry Intelligence Group, CMR.
Further on the brand preferences, the GenZ users pointed to OPPO’s camera prowess, and features such as camera innovations, and long-life battery innovations and fast charging.
Smartphone majors spend heavily on marketing to garner consumer attention and secure market, whether it be through sponsoring large-format events, or getting celebrity endorsements, or advertising on online and offline media. The survey focused on analyzing the return on investments (RoI) of the marketing spend of smartphone majors, and probed consumers on their recall of various smartphone brands. As per the survey results, 80% of those surveyed spontaneously recalled OPPO, and closely followed by Vivo with 75% point to it.
“In a hyper-competitive market like India, marketing is key to gain mind share amongst increasingly attention deficit consumers. Given that consumers are continuously bombarded with marketing messages, we wanted to identify with brands actually capitalized on their marketing spend and won mind share. The survey results demonstrate that GenZ identifies with brands such as OPPO,” said Satya Mohanty, Head – User Research Practice, CMR.
The survey findings point that smartphone upgrades are driving the market, with 55% of the consumers indicated upgrading their smartphone every year. There are few consumers looking to replace their existing brands cause of recurring problems.
The Voice of the GenZ survey was conducted in top eight cities of India in April 2019 and cut across students, teens and young working professionals.