It is a little crazy for me to suggest that the power of Social Media could be nothing in India. Why crazy? It directly affects my value as a researcher in this space. Nonetheless let us adopt a long term approach on this one and move straight on to why I think so.
These views are a result of the iPhone launch. It was the most hyped product this year, and the product targeted the geeks, the social media users. They were certainly to be amongst the early adopters.
Yet Airtel felt the need to advertise to achieve sales in India. It is understandable if they felt the need to advertise the iPhone – Airtel tie up, but they went on to educate consumers about the product itself, and I wonder if that is not questionable. Either they are wasting good money or some research has shown that awareness is still low.
Though social media alone may not have reached the masses, it combined with Press coverage ensured that the iPhone news reached not just the tech geeks, but the rest of India too. So why advertise the product heavily? Or did they think that was the best route to advertise the tie up too.
Probably price is a deterrent, as the iPhone is priced at around double the price in international markets. Either that or the launch has been timed wrong. The hype is now dead. Those who were desperate for the iphone have picked it up in the grey market. The others have heard about the usability issues of basic mobile features on the iphone and are probably waiting for the next version.
But where did they hear about these issues, yet again review sites, blog posts and word of mouth. So has social media played 2 roles here? Building the brand and yet making people wait for the next version?
