Q] What was the idea behind ‘mobile ki pendrive’ campaign and why the collaboration with the film Darlings?
The ‘Mobile Ki Pendrive’ campaign is something that we have been running in India for the past couple of years. If you look at the product, it is a USB drive that can be used on both your mobile and your laptop. It has a type C interface on one side and a type A interface on the other, and a regular USB as well. In India, the majority of consumers were calling an USB a pendrive. We really wanted to use a simple communication to inform people that there is a pendrive for your phone too, as typically, you associate pendrives with laptops or desktops. Our partnership with the film Darlings, which is a project of Red Chillies Entertainment, shows the protagonist of the movie running a cloud kitchen and is promoting it through social media. Moreover, we have also provided them Digital storage solutions for safekeeping the content for the production of the movie.
Q] Can you give us an idea about the budget that was allotted for this campaign, and which medium did you aggressively target and why?
We are a digital-first company, and so we were one of the first few brands to move into this space. As a tech company that focuses on providing digital storage solutions for all possible content getting created by consumers, our intent was to use Digital in order to reach out to the people. 65% of our investments are on digital, so we are promoting the digital video that we have created in our association with Red Chillies Entertainment, by using YouTube, Instagram, etc. as the primary channels. We are also using OTT channels like SonyLIV, ZEE5, MX Player to amplify this content, so this is our digital media strategy. We also have an ATL of about 35% of our investments, which includes outdoor and print in about 10 plus cities.
Q] The Indian market is flooded with counterfeit electronic products like pen drives, hard disks, mother boards, etc. How does an electronic brand tackle such a menace?
We always encourage our consumers to make an informed decision, and buy from the right channels. They get the right type of products for investments. So, we are also actively involved in educating our distribution channel, including those retailers with whom we engage to promote our products on the importance of actually selling genuine products. So we have our own ways of actually building the right level of advocacy to ensure that consumers have the information and access to genuine products for purchase.
Q] How different is the market for USB drives, hard disks and other PC and mobile components in the APAC region and the Middle East, as compared to in India?
So, let me explain it in a slightly different manner. All markets, which are mobile, where you find mobile first usage, there we are seeing a good traction for SanDisk dual USB drives. The demand for pendrives for mobile is quite high in markets like India, the Middle East and Africa, as compared to other markets. So, that’s how I see it, but in general, we are the primary device for consumers to transfer content from one device to another. As such, it is a fairly strong market.
Q] When we talk about e-commerce platforms in India, they play a major role for D2C brands and being a Digital-first company, how much percentage of ad spends are dedicated to e-commerce platforms today?
The way to look is that people are at different stages of the purchase funnel, so you have awareness, preference, consideration, purchase, and then post-purchase you have advocacy. Our investment is pretty high on consumer education, and less focussed on hardcore purchases. We have a fairly even focus on education, and at the same time demand creation. So, depending on the category, our focus shifts, either to the upper end of the consumer journey, or the lower end of the consumer journey. Whenever the campaign is at the lower end of the consumer journey, that traffic is then redirect to our retail customers. So, that is how we build our marketing strategy. We do dedicate for e-commerce platforms too.
