Apple has forever been the company that has never laid much effort on marketing its products in India. They have always sold on the basis of performance as well as brand value. But as the competition is starting to get better, Apple has finally indulged in big time marketing efforts. In 2013-2014, Apple ran a number of offers in the Indian market improve the iPhone sales and it did a pretty good job.
Apple has managed to increase the iPhone sales by 55 percent in India in Q1 2014 when compared to Q4 2013. This increase in sales has primarily been due to the offers that Apple ran on all of the iterations of the iPhone. The increase in the sales can be attributed primarily due to:
- Re-launch of iPhone 4 at Rs 22,500
- Buy-back schemes for iPhone 4S (its price dropped to around Rs 24,000)
- Buy-back and EMI schemes for iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S
- Price drop of iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S
- Trial period offer where prospective consumers could use the iPhone for two week for Rs 1,000
- Subsidizing by Reliance (the offer was so popular that the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C were sold out pretty quick and Reliance then raised the contract price)
- Attractive plans for iPhones by telecom operators
Apple has managed to push the sales of not only its latest models, but also of its older models (read as iPhone 4 and 4S). Buybacks, EMIs, discounts and carrier specific subsidizing, Apple has it all now and is surely witnessing increased sales of iPhones.