Mobile Phone Industry
BUSINESS SITUATION
The significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has increasingly encouraged the use of mobile phones with advanced features but the prices are still affordable for consumers. This gives rise to quite tight competition in Indonesia market. The entry of various brands from China and Korea has made producers have to be more observant to understand the demand both between the B2B market as a distributors/retailers and the B2C market as the user target/consumers.
FINDING FACTS
There are indications that the demand for sophisticated yet user friendly mobile phone features is quite high among the target consumers. For distributors/retailers, this will increase sales, especially if the producers continue to innovate. Continuous improvement and innovation must be carried out by producers so as not to be left behind by competitors, and not abandoned by consumers.
There are several feature aspects that need continuous innovation, such as: appearance, processor/CPU, screen display effect, size, memory (RAM/ROM), front camera, rear camera, battery endurance, charging speed, speakers, gaming features, business/work assistance features, NFC features, fingerprint scanner, system, UI (User interface, etc.). Each brand must show its unique selling point. In this case, China brands are considered very aggressive in the market expansion currently in Indonesia.
SOLUTIONS SUGGESTED
Qualitative through In-Depth Interview among B2B (Seller) and B2C (Buyer/Rejecter) as well as outlet observation were conducted to get insightful and comprehensive information both from Seller as well as Buyer point of views.
OUTCOME
From Seller point of view:
Updated types with additional features generally sell more than before the update, especially if their wide availability is supported by consistent promotions both online and offline. Consumers usually come with pre-existing decisions and choices, making them difficult to influence. Thus, it takes effort for sellers to offer the advantages of mobile phones with the addition of new features proactively. Usualy aggressive promotion by offering actively in front of consumers (with showing a comparison of strengths and weaknesses between brands) can open opportunities for consumers to choose and rethink about previous choice.
From Buyer point of view:
Buyers usually have favourite brand, and they will buy based on various considerations, one of which is value for money (have various features in affordable price). The more widely used by people, the better it is for potential buyers. So far they are loyal to a brand. For those who are disloyal, it is usually caused by dissatisfaction with the features offered by a previous brand. The switching pattern usually starts with switching to another type; if it turns out that something they were hoping for is not available, then they will consider switching brands. There is a tendency that they prefer to buy offline compared to online for mobile products because they feel more confident about being offline (they are more confident because they can directly sell).
