Xiaomi looks beyond profits to improve customer experience: Anuj Sharma

Established with the motto of “innovation for everyone”, Xiaomi today stands amongst the leading tech brands in the world. In its 12-year-long journey, the Chinese tech brand has evolved multi folds, addressing multiple unique touch points in a tech consumer’s life, and created a legacy of its own. At the recently concluded e4m-Pitch CMO Summit, Bangalore edition, the company’s CMO Anuj Sharma narrated the brand story and how it became one of the most popular smartphone brands India, as well.

He said that the idea to establish Xiaomi struck its founders in 2010 when there was a big digital divide in the market with little understanding of digital haves and have-nots. After carefully analysing the requirements of this digital arena, the was established to address this divide.

Sharma added, “Innovation for everyone is the motive behind establishing a brand. Everyone should have the opportunity to use mobile phones. Let everyone in the world enjoy a better life. Technology is the way to progress forward.”  

Focus beyond just profits

Sharma stated that Xiaomi aims at being friends with its customers. The brand constantly keeps innovating without worrying a lot about profits. He further noted, “Xiaomi philosophy is based on the best products, highest quality, and honest pricing. It aims to make a profit of up to 5% only to give the maximum benefits to the users.”

Sharma voiced that the customer experiences over the past seven years has made Xiaomi a ‘Desh Ka Brand’.  “Xiaomi has fan clubs in about 30 cities. And these are not official fan clubs; it is just what people believe in. And we believe in people. These communities are acting more like a guiding team to us.”

Making employees the brand ambassadors

Another unique proposition to Xiaomi’s India chapter is that most of its ad campaigns feature its employees. “Despite partnering with celebrities, the company believes more in its employees. People at Xiaomi are the biggest believers in (its) vision,” Sharma highlighted.

Connecting with people during pandemic

The pandemic times drove the world in a different direction where technology started connecting people at the bigger level. Xiaomi tried to come to people's aid differently by helping them out, changing product strategy, and introducing more products including laptops and vacuum cleaners. During the lockdown, the company also worked on building a platform that linked every consumer to a local retailer called Mi commerce, Sharma noted.

He also mentioned the brand’s Diwali 2020 campaign that aimed at bringing everyone together despite social distancing. The campaign called “Diwali with Mi” had the brand partnering with  leading digital celebrities such as Aparshakti Khurana, Kenny Sebastian, Radhika Madan, Regina Cassandra, Namit Das, Angira Dhar and Anindita Bose. The brand also released a music video featuring Baba Sehgal, created by Schbang Bangalore.

Festive mood for 2022

Xiaomi India’s campaigns are always set to the tunes of the mood of the season. As the country gets back to enjoying the festive season in full fervor with the worst of the pandemic past, the brand this year launched a unique initiative #DontBuyTechYet”. The brand asked people to wait for “Tech Ka Shubh Muhurat” through a series of videos, ATL, and BTL activations.

Sharing the idea behind the campaign, Sharma shared a story, “A friend of mine went to the petrol pump at around midnight and was told to come back the next day as the petrol prices had started dipping down. That meant he could get the petrol for cheaper rates.”

The company used its employee in shooting that campaign. “If you want to be connected with your users then be transparent, have purpose-driven communication and stay honest the entire time and treat them as friends and not as consumers because that over time gives us the results,” Sharma concluded.