Brand takes precedence over product for GenZ to decide about the smartphone.  Poco, iQOO and Nothing emerge as the exclusive three brands that youth identify and relate with

Relatability and exclusivity key factors driving this trend.  GenZ gives 60% weight to the brand while the product factors contribute the remaining 40% in their deciding about a smartphone.

Gurugram – GenZ, which is likely to contribute over 44% of the smartphone sales in 2024, prefers to be a part of a cult or community defined at a brand level that exhibits familiarity with the youth through design philosophy, product features and the experience.  This was revealed in a report ‘India GenZ Smartphone Brands 2023’ released by Techarc today. The report captures insights basis opinion of 1,500 GenZ aged between 18-25 years along with an analysis of reviews of various models of 15 brands that contribute 97% of the smartphones sold to GenZ. Cumulatively over 200,000 reviews of verified buyers from leading platforms including Amazon and Flipkart were analysed during the process.

Sharing the key findings of the report, Faisal Kawoosa, Chief Analyst and founder of Techarc, said, “Youth want to be seen as a part of a cult or community that expresses their personality, lifestyle as well as the life-stage.  Rather than owning any smartphone the preference towards owning smartphone from a particular brand is on the rise among this generation of the market.”

“A brand gives them predictability with regards to the experience they are likely to get, relatability to their personality and exclusivity that they represent youth of the population,” added Faisal.

Among interesting highlights of the report, it is worth noting that 80% of the respondents become sure of the experience by knowing the brand they are going with.  Similarly, 73% of the respondents are of the view that not all brands reflect their personality even if the products may be similar across different brands.  69% of the GenZ respondents feel that by going with their brands of preference they become part of an exclusive club or community that identifies with them being youth.

GenZ Brand and Product Attributes Perception Mapping

GenZ weighs their selection on a number of attributes of the brand as well as the product.  Among the product they consider specifications, pricing and the design to be the deciding factors while as regards the brand their choice is determined by elements like visibility of the brand, recall factor, satisfaction levels, servicing, availability of products and the influencer reputation that measures the feedback of reviewers and bloggers.

Top 10 brands that offer the right mix of product and brand elements

The above chart presents rank of various brands basis a weighted score of the various elements that are considered by GenZ while selecting a brand and the product (smartphone) of that particular brand.  The scores are given out of a maximum of 5 that indicates how closely a brand matches the expectations of GenZ both in terms of product as well as the brand.

3 brands that notch it up with exclusivity at the brand level

While the consumers make their choice from several brands covered in this research, the preference towards the brands that offer an exclusivity is on the rise.  Generation Z wants to go with brands that identify their age, and they need to explain their friends and acquaintances why they have chosen a particular brand, unless for any specific application.  Among the 10 brands that relate closer with GenZ, 5 brands have been able to offer exclusivity to this very important segment of the market.  However, there are only 3 brands – Poco, iQoo and Nothing that have achieved this at the brand level, while the remaining two OnePlus and Realme have done it at the series level. The tilt towards brand level exclusivity is more among GenZ as for specific series they need to add another layer of ‘caveat’ while identifying with the brand.  They may or may not identify with the entire brand portfolio.  Similarly, while Apple is one of the leading aspirational brands among students, it also does not give them exclusivity to identify with as iPhones are used across different age groups. Samsung also has M series that youth identify with. 

Way forward – Is sub-brand an alternative to capture interest of the youth or GenZ?

It appears the conscious call taken by brands like Xiaomi and Vivo to introduce sub-brands exclusively appealing youth has paid them off well, rather than the series level approach adopted by other brands like Realme, Samsung, OnePlus among others.  The only other way to maintain exclusivity is to create only youth centric products, which Nothing is attempting as a brand. Lava has also successfully carved out Agni, Yuva and Blaze series and they might also need to eventually consider graduating Yuva or other series into sub brands reaffirming the exclusivity enjoyed by the GenZ of India.

To read the entire report please click here