LG MOBILE’S MARKETING CAMPAIGN FOR THE W SERIES
Now it is news that LG mobile is back in the Indian Market with the W Series launching late last month! What is bigger news is how LG Mobile finally got its marketing act together for this launch which has resulted in positive word of mouth and finally resulting in Sold Out Flash Sales on Amazon! LG mobile has NEVER been aggressive in the Indian market traditionally and has never invested in marketing their mobile products especially on the online platform. LG being a traditional legacy brand have always relied on their offline retail chain for all their products. Now while the retail route works best for consumer durables, the mobile category is the one with the fiercest competition in India and demands a stand-alone presence in marketing especially online.
Analysis:
When LG decided to launch the W series, there were “leaks” and buzz around what the Korean giant was up to in the Mobile space in India, a series of articles were floating around that their plant in South Korea was shut and they had moved the mobile manufacturing to Vietnam and that the mobile business was in distress and was unsalvagable. There were numerous videos and articles online that suggested that LG should shut down its mobile business since they were not adding value to the ecosystem!
So when the first leak came on 91 Mobiles that LG was launching something for the Indian Market only, it came like a bolt out of the blue to Indian consumers quickly capturing their imagination. One thing that Indian consumers love is being spoilt for choice especially in the budget segment on the mobile category and LG was going straight for the kill this time!
The PR stories and leaks started churning in, the leaks actually helped the company’s reach to the digital audiences with people making content and tweeting about potential specifications, cost, and other speculations about the phone. This organic route of PR did very well for the brand and the product.
When LG officially released the product of June 26th, it was ragging as the top search term on Google on that particular afternoon! The media words, articles, press releases, youtube videos & tweets started pouring in like never before for a marketing dormant brand like LG Mobile! Another thing LG got right this time is to send their review handset units to all the relevant bloggers, KOLs on youtube and offline so as soon as the pricing was announced, around 15-20 videos reviewing the product were released on youtube simultaneously. LG mobile had never seen this kind of media coverage for a product launch ever in India! It was regarded as one of the best launches of the year for any mobile brand in India this year! The competitors were taken aback with the proceedings suddenly!
Instagram Campaign
To up the W Series online marketing ante, LG proceeded with a large Instagram campaign to amplify their product, the LG W30. Now we have seen several campaigns on Instagram from brands like Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and the likes from the past few years. The campaign on this platform is usually straight forward, the influencer/celeb posing with the handset’s back panel in the frame. Now, this format has been done to death and is no more believable to end audience.
1. Eshanya Maheshwari
2. Ahsaas Channa
3. Sandeepa Dhar
Yes, it is indeed important to showcase the physical back panel but the insta user is always looking for something more! LG again improvised on the Instagram campaign with a very well-curated list to market its W30 handset. LG did not go for mass but went in for class in their campaign as most of the influencers in their list included Fashion, lifestyle, Actors and photographers who were really very relevant for this product. The quality of the post was reflected in each and every influencer putting in the effort to make their image most effective for the campaign, most of them posted 2 images, Image with back Panel and Image taken from theW30 Wide Angle Camera to show the phone’s prowess to the audience making it believable as a use case of the device.
Fashion Life Style Wide Angle Posts:
1. Parul Gulati
2. Prajval Prince
3. glossypolishblog
4. Mythri Iyer
The fact that photographers were used in the campaign shows how serious LG was in promoting this feature online. The images posts by these photographers were the only proof of the handset’s actual camera capabilities which prompted users to proceed to its product landing page on Amazon and click on “Notify Me” through the influencer’s InstaStories.
1. Surbhi Kaushik
2. Mithun Photography
3. Anurag Banarjee
At the same time, the Vivo Z1Pro had its campaign going on on Instagram in the same period but the LG campaign held its own and garnered some amazing engagement figures!
Not only this, even tech influencers helped LG create buzz on video platform YouTube. The smartphones received awesome response on YouTube with positive reviews from popular names like Technical Guruji, Geeky Ranjit among many more.
Youtube Tech Influencers:
1. Geeky Ranjit
2. Technical Guruji
3. Trakin Tech
Final Verdict:
It has been a good start for LG mobile India as far as marketing is concerned. LG mobile has never ever tried marketing any of its products in India to date! It will take time for the Indian consumer to feel connected to the brand and develop loyalty towards it. LG can’t rest on their laurels anymore of yesteryears, today’s Chinese companies dominated mobile space in India give no room to breathe between each product cycle and if LG even hangs back for a moment in their marketing efforts from now on, they WILL be slaughtered in the most competitive category in consumer durables in India. There are mobiles launching every 7 days in today’s market and the only way to sustain any noise if by sustaining marketing initiatives and brand building day on day, month on month, year on year to make any mark in the industry.
Perhaps LG can learn from their Korean compatriot Samsung on how to invest in marketing month on month to sustain interest across all their target mobile handset models and how it has helped them in more online searchability and eventually converting them into actual sales online!
If LG is serious with the W Series, then they WILL have to invest in marketing themselves moving on or the future looks very bleak for the Korean giant in the Mobile category in India.
