Market Trends: Loyalty Programs as Instruments of Marketing – For Indian Smart Phones Market

When we are talking about smart phones we are not talking about any gadget that would just simplifying human effort. Having a smart phone is like having a power full weapon in your hand that can change the world in one simple click to touch. The world has been completely modifying from head to tail because of the smart phone evolution. In this massive world of technology around 3.5 billion people are availing the facility of smart phone. And according to the statics, India being the 2nd largest populated country in the world serves the smart phone facility to around 299.24 million customers. It took almost two decades for the 1st commercially launched mobile phone to reach the establishment of present level of high tech advance phone.

The smart phone users are huge ranging from kids to adults and it is covering more and more segments of the market year after year. It is a wide industry for doing business and many big companies are emerging towards this telecommunication industry to set up their business. Some well-known companies have already established their strong roots in this industry. Now-a-days the telecom industry is one of the widest sectors of investments in all the companies crossing cities, states and even countries. And with the endless possibilities of being creative with the smart phones the companies are putting each and every effort to make the best of the best features to meet the rising day to day demands of the customers. And as we know that the demands of the customers are not static and it is not limited, the satisfaction of the customers becomes the ultimate goal of any products. Looking at the market and the business it is generating, the government too have been changing their ways coming up with more convenient regulations that is facilitating the telecom industry to grow. The telecom industry is now global and the import and export has been a key factor for the widespread of smart phones across the globe. The most interesting aspect of the smart phone industry is the amount of others industries that it is accumulating along with it, the IT industry being its biggest asset. India being a hub of both IT and the one of the largest markets in the world are making the optimum use to develop the economy too. As per the statics of June 2019, India is the 2nd largest market in the terms of telecommunication providing around gross revenue of 8.93 billion and it is only expected to grow.

But before diving more into the whole topic let us understand part by part each and every element. The foremost thing we have to understand the concept of market trend. Before that we need to define what market is. In very simple terms the market can be called a place where goods and services are being exchanged in monetary. In ancient times people use to follow the bata system, exchange of goods with other goods. But with the introduction of the monetary policies the concept of market became more fluid for the easy flow of goods among the people increasing the number of customers. But along the ages the market evolved to be a more developed concept with not only as the financial aspect attached to it but also the psychological understanding of the people and the deep analysis of the customer demands. As said earlier that customer demands are dynamic and the customer satisfaction only exits if benefits of the product and services is higher than the expectations of the customer. And to figure out the demand of the customer along with the financial growth is what known as market trend. The market trend has a direct relation to the financial aspect but we are to understand the psychology of the customers and the markets as well. It can be seen as a technical analysis where we need to study the current requirements of the customers.

Ultimately when the demand of the market is analysed, the business is tending to target in a particular direction to gain profits and thus it provides movement of the financial factor as well. The market trend deals with the rise and downfall of the prices of the products according to the rise and fall of the demands. There are lot tools and techniques which are being used by the market professionals to identify the current market trends. The market trend is like a fashion trend and it never stays static. Therefore it is very important for the business to have the accurate market trends data for the effective input of investment and to gain more sales. Even though the market trend is well develop trading analytical tool it also has the risk factor attached to it because the market trend can change any time so long term investments on a particular market plan can also prove wrong. The forecasting of market trend also plays an important role for the future of the business. There are mainly three major types of market trend in the industries- the bullish trend which talks about when the market is acquiring more demands and price, the bearish trend when the companies is making looses and price is going down and finally the range bound which is basically the middle of both the trend where price remains stable it neither goes down or up.

Well taking about the psychological understanding of the market it also brings us to the concept of loyalty programs. The loyalty marketing completely plays with the human psychological logic. The main motive behind the loyalty program is to retain the customers and not to gain more customers. The idea relays on providing the best of the best quality of services which will satisfy the customers promoting more sales. It is based on the fact that customers like gifts and benefits. It’s like giving rewards on doing some repeat works. The companies has this policy of providing various types of mix services and benefits which will attract the customer’s interest and keep it stable to the particular brand. It is the latest requirement that has been consider as essential marketing tool for all the existing and emerging companies. The history of loyalty in marketing goes back in days from small shops that started giving credits to their regular customers and in turn it was creating a mental satisfaction in the minds of the customers that purchasing goods from the same shops is being more beneficial to them. Within time the wheels of the loyalty programmes changed and got expanded on more elaborate levels. Now every new company is coming up with new types and methods of doing loyalty marketing. The most well-known loyalty programme that we witness today is the loyalty card programme where the reward points are being collected with every purchase on the card that is given to a particular customer whose data is recorded in the card. This card helps to keep a record of history of all the services that is availed by that customer and it shows the loyalty of the customer towards that brand.

And to retain that loyalty of the customer the brand will provide various types of benefits like discounts and coupons which will make the customer happy thus keeping the loyalty static. The loyalty programme is not only for the retention and generation of new customers but it also helps in generating good words of mouth and in creating a brand image. The loyalty programme is different in different sectors like membership programmes to premium guests in the hotels, reward card points in FMGC and food outlets and providing services in gadgets and automobile industries. The same goes quite well with the smart phone industry as the requirement of the customer goes with the free services and replacements over a period of time. And the quality of service which will be provided to those customers will create the loyalty of the customer. The future is being digital so it is important that even the loyalty programme should take a step ahead in terms of providing essential benefits over the digital media to the smart phone industries. Like how Mi Phones provides a mi number to a mi smart phone user and in case the customer changes his/her phone the customer will get all the data and benefits existing in the previous phone just by using that allotted number and it happens due to the involvement of IT industry who feeds every information, requirement and facilities of the customer in the clouds. Mi Phones has also come up with concept of mi coins which basically provides reward points on using mi apps and later theses digital coins can be used to avail services.

Now as a marketer it is important to understand the marketing and how this loyalty programme is being used for marketing. Marketing basically defines the various methods use to collect and analyse the data that is collected from the market and the customers and to incorporate all data to satisfy the customer needs and demands which will prolong to the sustainability of the product or brands life. It takes deep research and a series of processes to formulate the product and making it a power brand in the market. The core of the marketing strategies is to establish an emotional connection with the customers. Marketing is not only about making people aware of the product but also to place the image of the product in the minds of the customer which is known brand positioning. Branding is completely related to attaching the brand name in the tip of the tongue of every customer which is only possible is the marketing strategies are well formulated. The marketing planning is a long term plan and it requires a lot of financial, time and physical investments.

Thus using loyalty programme is also one of the marketing strategies. The marketers of today’s fast growing competitive industry are trying to cope with the demands of the customers to provide the best satisfactions to all the needs. Loyalty programme thus has emerged as a very latest market trend in the smart phone industry where the marketers are utilizing the loyalty as a marketing tool to attract more customers and to retain the existing customers. As talked earlier the smart phone industry is massively huge and it grows in all the types of economy therefore it has become a necessity to understand and evaluate how the loyalty programmes given to the smart phone customer are proving successful strategies for increasing the sales. The whole research will be mainly focused how the loyalty given to the customers are satisfying the expectations from the brands and what effective tool it is in generating sales and profit.