When it comes to branding exercises, almost everything comes with an expiry date. And celebrity endorsement is no different. This is probably a reason why we see celebrity endorsers being dropped or changed by brands on a regular basis. But does a time come, when brands feel that they can do away with the idea of having any brand ambassador? It certainly seems so in the case of a few brands.
Reliance Jio may not ask for a premium for its 5G services in the initial stages of the launch, according to sources in the company. The company will roll out 5G commercial services in four cities -Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata - around Diwali this month and slowly ramp up the processes for other cities, too. A senior executive, when asked whether Jio will charge higher tariffs for 5G against 4G, said: "In the initial stages, customers have to adopt 5G, then they will have to find value in the service, and then one can look at monetisation."
Telecom gear makers, who are in talks with telcos, say that if all goes well, they are ready to roll out the first phase of 5G services from October this year and cover the country's top 30-50 cities (in limited areas) by March 2023. The gear makers expect the telecom companies to give them a heads-up about their plans as well as the equipment required by July, and have promised deployment in three to four months after that. India's main telecom gear suppliers are Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung.
ICICI Bank, the country's largest private sector lender, has introduced an equated monthly instalment (EMI) option for its customers on debit card purchases.
Check out how Google's flagship phablet, the Nexus 6, will take on Apple and Samsung
Apple Inc's leading contract manufacturer, Taiwanese giant Wistron, has exceeded its investment obligation in India in just eight months, although the government's production-linked investment (PLI) scheme allowed it to complete the investment in four years. Between August 2020 and end March 2021, Wistron made an investment of Rs 1255 crore - 25 per cent more than the total investment it had committed to the government. Under the PLI scheme for mobile devices, the government had stipulated that each of the five participating global companies needed to invest Rs 250 crore every year for the first four years, totalling Rs 1,000 crore.
Chinese handset maker Xiaomi has begun covering its retail store branding with white 'Made in India' logo amid fears of vandalism at outlets against the backdrop of Sino-India border tension, the All India Mobile Retailers Association said. The association had written to Chinese mobile brands to highlight the threat of vandalism at offline stores by people amid calls for boycotting Chinese products in certain sections.
Technology companies dominate India's most attractive brands.
Photo-messaging app Snapchat on Wednesday said its monthly user base has reached 100 million in the country, and the company will continue to anchor its efforts towards growing and providing more resources to its community of Indian creators. Snap Inc, the parent company of Snapchat, virtually hosted the second edition of 'Snap in India'. At the event, Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel announced the milestone of reaching 100 million Snapchatters monthly in India.
'Slim Ultra', which the company claims to be the world's slimmest CDMA phone, is priced at Rs 2,999.
The top five most trusted brands are Samsung Mobiles, Sony, LG, Nokia and Tata.
Amazon has reclaimed the top spot as the world's most valuable brand despite its brand value falling 15 per cent this year from $350.3 billion to $299.3 billion, said a new report. According to brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance's report, "Global 500 2023", while Amazon is back at No 1, its brand value has fallen by over $50 billion this year, with its rating slipping from AAA+ to AAA. This is as consumers evaluate it more harshly in the post-pandemic world. Brand Finance's research has found that perception of customer service at Amazon has fallen - at the same time as delivery times have lengthened.
Policies to break down the business group format are far more likely to be effective, argues Simon Commander.
The usually busy Greater Noida expressway is empty except small groups of commuters that gather at its sidelines, seeking lift from every passing vehicle.
Apple and Samsung are international players and should work as a team with domestic companies to transform India into a global powerhouse: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
A number of smartphone players such as Xiaomi, Samsung, LG and Micromax also have smart TVs in their product portfolio.
Despite its budget constraints, the Moto G5 Plus tries to match the mighty Samsung galaxy S7, but fails, says Himanshu Juneja
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel will start rolling out 5G services later this month as it signed requisite agreements with Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung. At the recently held much-awaited spectrum auction for 5G services by the Department of Telecom, Airtel bid for and acquired 19867.8 MHZ spectrum in 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 3300 MHz, and 26 GHz frequencies. "We are delighted to announce that Airtel will commence roll out of 5G services in August.
The telecom regulator on Friday released a list of 40 "defaulter" principal entities, including large banks like HDFC Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank, that are not fulfilling the regulatory norms on bulk commercial messages despite repeated reminders. Hardening its stance on the issue, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) warned that defaulting entities should comply with the stipulated requirements by March 31, 2021 "to avoid any disruption in the communication with customers" from April 1, 2021. "As sufficient opportunity has been given to principal entities/ telemarketers to comply with the regulatory requirements and that the consumers cannot be deprived of the benefits of the regulatory provisions any further, therefore it has been decided that from April 1, 2021, any message failing in the scrubbing process due to non-compliance of regulatory requirements will be rejected" by the system, TRAI said in a statement.
As the rupee continues its freefall against the dollar, cars, TVs, washing machines and other home appliances are set to cost more with companies set to hike prices to offset impact on their margins.
The content discovery platform designed to help you discover content and services in the language of your choice recently turned profitable. It has delivered 1 billion application installs and updates in the past 12 months, says Samreen Ahmad.
The wait for the new iPhone is over as the tech giant Apple officially launched its new iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro on September 14.
Says Make in India could only succeed with Make in UP, given large sized population and market the state offers
A few days ago, Reliance Retail surprised the market by acquiring the Campa brand from Delhi-based Pure Drinks Ltd for Rs 22 crore. A successful cola brand in the eighties, especially in North India, Campa Cola thrived when Coke exited India in the late seventies. When the Atlanta-based major returned and PepsiCo set base in India, it went down fighting.
Though leading brands like Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Oppo managed to absorb the initial lockdown shock and resumed their local production back to 60 per cent, they would likely suffer a 20-25 per cent loss of sales in the October-December quarter.
Which sectors will bounce back fast? Which will lag? Has the consumer changed forever? Here are some answers.
The apex court has settled the long-pending dispute between companies such as Samsung, IBM, HP & others and the tax department.
Apple's decision to launch the eSIM-only iPhone 14 series in the US has American buyers puzzled. Surprisingly, it stumped some Indian folks, too, despite the availability of a physical SIM slot in the India-centric iPhone 14 series. This is because a large number of Apple consumers in India get their iPhones at considerably cheaper rates from the US through visiting relatives, friends, family, et al. Their apprehensions are mostly about compatibility with Indian networks and eSIM availability in India.
iPhone, which accounts for just 3% of sales in India's 100 million-plus annual smartphone market, plans to partner an existing player
Engineers based in India are estimated to be writing roughly 35 per cent of the 100 million lines of codes required to develop one fully driverless car for global vehicle makers.
Cheil India has a strong presence in the retail and shopper marketing space.
Apple Inc is commencing assembly of its iPhone 12 model in the country, a move that is expected to help the US tech giant further consolidate its position in the burgeoning smartphone market in India. Apple has partnered with third-party manufacturers like Foxconn and Wistron to make some of its phones in India. These include iPhone SE, iPhone 10R and iPhone 11.
Known for its phones and emerging from nowhere in the segment, it might take on the scooter Goliaths.
Manisha Sharma (name changed) was always among the high achievers in her company. She was recognised and rewarded for those efforts as well. Mid-December 2022, however, she received a jolt: an email informing her that she had been laid off - along with several of her colleagues. Sharma worked for a big tech firm, which had decided to downsize. And just like that, she was asked to go. "It did come as a shock," she says. "I did not take calls for the first two days, but then realised there is no point in beating oneself up for a situation that's not in your hand. "I thought let this be an opportunity to take a break. I'll now start looking for a job," she adds.
While the government has not barred procurement of equipment from Chinese companies, the process to amend the general financial rules (GFR) 2017 has started. This will impose restrictions on bidders in public procurement from countries that share a land border with India, reports Megha Manchanda.
The government will undertake a detailed evaluation of applications it has received in response to the mega semiconductor scheme and expects to complete the entire process and sign agreements with companies in next 8-10 months, according to Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw. Vaishnaw said he is happy with the response that came in within a short period of time, when the ministry invited applications under the Rs 76,000 crore semiconductor programme. The government is confident of seeing one of the big global players in semiconductor industry coming in the next round, Vaishnaw told PTI in an interview. He asserted that many other players too are "seriously evaluating" India's semiconductor programme, and that the ministry is in discussions with several companies.
From spreading updates about the brand and upcoming devices to creating personalised world-of-mouth goodwill for Xiaomi -- its online army of fans have swelled parallelly with Xiaomi's fortunes in the country.
The US tech major is planning to begin local production of its upcoming iPhone 12 by next April - within six months of its launch.
Home-grown companies, including electronics manufacturing services (EMS) firm Dixon Technologies and mobile device maker Lava International, have started exploratory talks with Chinese sub-assemblies and component players for setting up joint ventures (JVs) in the country. Sources in the industry say many domestic companies have also had preliminary discussions with original design manufacturers (ODMs) in China to look at a JV model for manufacturing smartphones. Key ODM players in mobile devices in China include Longcheer, Huaqin, and Wingtech, which has already set up a plant in Tirupati.
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