'Our market share has doubled in the last 2 years'

How has the response to Karbonn been in India so far?

Understanding consumer needs, creating a cutting edge product range, and continuing to bring product innovations to compete with the constantly updating competition base, have helped Karbonn Mobiles in creating a successful brand and paved the way for thriving company-building measures.

It is herein that Karbonn Mobiles finds mention as being a symbol of Indian robustness, and emphasizes on traits that are Indian and on quality that's truly world-class. Our brand philosophy is that our products redefine life in every way and thus the core values that drives our brand.

What are the kind of investments you are looking at?

For this year, we are planning to step up our marketing expenditure by 30% of `150 crore, which is what we spent last year, ie, which will be to the tune of `195 crore.

Over the past financial years, Karbonn Mobiles market share has increased from an impressive 3% in FY10 to 6% in FY12, which is expected to reach 10% by the financial year 2012-13. Also, the sales volume has increased from 3 mn units in FY10 to 10 mn units, which are expected to reach around 20 mn units in the financial year 2012-13.

The growth of the Indian handset market has been driven by the growth in 'medium' ASP devices (`2,000-5,000). Any expected offering in this slab?

Karbonn has been a market leader in 'firsts' wherein initiatives by the group is followed in by the competition. Innovations like popularizing dual SIM phones, providing affordable Android phones, and others prove a point of the business leadership of the brand.

In the past, Karbonn Mobiles has pioneered the 'Medium ASP Device' market with a bouquet of product offerings which includes K1616 featuring 3D user interface, which was enlisted in the top 5 smart feature phones across the country for the year 2011; the Karbonn K1818 with super smooth touch experience and 3D user interface; and Karbonn K9 Jumbo featuring big battery, big memory, and big screen.

What is your distribution strategy in India? Are you planning to come up with your own branded stores?

Karbonn Mobiles at present has more than 400 re-distribution points covering 90% districts, which are catering to more than 35,000 outlets across the country. Serviced by a dedicated sales team with a workforce of more than 250 employees, Karbonn Mobiles takes the help of an advanced sales tracking mechanism to pursue sales, which forms an effective part of the go-to-market strategy of the brand.

The plans of creating a signature brand of stores is in the offering, and Karbonn Mobiles plans to spread its network of distributorship across the length and breadth of the country in the times to come.