iQOO: Empowering Consumers With Performance-Centric Products
Nipun Marya
Chief Executive Officer
iQOO engages in an exclusive interaction with the CEO Insights Magazine, here are the highlights.
Define iQOO as a smartphone brand and describe its brand persona. Tell us about the brand ideology or tagline and what it represents.
iQOO, a sub-brand of the vivo group, differentiates itself in performance and esports experience. With products offering esports standard capabilities, we aim to become the top choice of consumers who are passionate about performance and gaming. iQOO disrupted the smartphone market right from its entry in 2020 by launching one of the first 5G phones in the Indian market. In a highly cluttered market, our quest was to build differentiation on the back of a strong performance packed device that’s equally feature-loaded. Out of the 4Ps of marketing we chose to focus on Products and our growth over the last two years has been a testament to consumers’ love for iQOO. We are the fastest growing brand in India with 700 percent YOY growth in Q2 2022 as per Counterpoint, seen 135 percent QoQ growth in Q2 2022. In a short span of time, iQOO has paved its brand trajectory with consistent growth and extraordinary offerings with its performance-centric smartphones.
iQOO's ideology is to bring to life the brand’s core, I Quest On and On. The brand intends to provide its consumers with products and services that offer more performance, more power, and more innovation enabling them to be ahead of the curve.
Tell us about the factors that led to becoming the Premium Brand of the Year in 2022.
iQOO became a premium partner of BMW M Motorsport in 2020. In a short span of time, iQOO has witnessed consistent growth and has been carrying its relentless pursuit of perfection with exceptional performance centric smartphones that offer premium experiences to our consumers. We aim to provide our consumers with the best in technology, the latest processors, enhanced gaming experience, Industry-leading fast charging capabilities, and other innovative technologies. With products offering esports-standard capabilities, iQOO aims to become the top choice of consumers who are passionate about performance and gaming.
Who are the target consumers that you appeal to? What attracts them to choose your products?
iQOO mainly targets tech-savvy, young aspirational Indians who are 18-30 years old and are individualistic, experimentative, and passionate. These are digital natives who expect maximum performance and cutting edge technology as they explore the wonders of the digital world through their smart devices. Consumers today are evolving and so are their needs, be it their entertainment/ productivity needs. At iQOO, we believe in empowering our consumers with performance centric products and services that cater to the needs of today’s smartphone fanatics that want a lag free experience, gaming capabilities, and uninterrupted content consumption.
Tell us about the impacts created through the technological framework built into your product portfolio. How do you ensure a seamless experience for users?
iQOO, a subbrand of the vivo group, differentiates itself in performance and esports experience. It strives to bring innovation to transform the technology of smartphones for consumers
Tell us about the factors that led to becoming the Premium Brand of the Year in 2022.
iQOO became a premium partner of BMW M Motorsport in 2020. In a short span of time, iQOO has witnessed consistent growth and has been carrying its relentless pursuit of perfection with exceptional performance centric smartphones that offer premium experiences to our consumers. We aim to provide our consumers with the best in technology, the latest processors, enhanced gaming experience, Industry-leading fast charging capabilities, and other innovative technologies. With products offering esports-standard capabilities, iQOO aims to become the top choice of consumers who are passionate about performance and gaming.
Who are the target consumers that you appeal to? What attracts them to choose your products?
iQOO mainly targets tech-savvy, young aspirational Indians who are 18-30 years old and are individualistic, experimentative, and passionate. These are digital natives who expect maximum performance and cutting edge technology as they explore the wonders of the digital world through their smart devices. Consumers today are evolving and so are their needs, be it their entertainment/ productivity needs. At iQOO, we believe in empowering our consumers with performance centric products and services that cater to the needs of today’s smartphone fanatics that want a lag free experience, gaming capabilities, and uninterrupted content consumption.
Tell us about the impacts created through the technological framework built into your product portfolio. How do you ensure a seamless experience for users?
Our consumers want smooth performance so that they can have more in their life and use their time fully without the hassle of lagging and hanging issues to deal with. So, in every segment,we ensure to give the best performance and through our flagship products, we always deliver technologies like the latest Processor, liquid cooling technology, advanced imaging chips, and flash charge technology which makes consumer life easy.
What lies for the future of iQOO?
India’s demographic advantage is undeniable. Further, when we look at the next segment of consumers, India perhaps has the largest number of the youth population who are now becoming decision-makers, this new segment of consumers is driven by aspirations, technology, and desire for the latest innovation. We will continue to focus on R&D to bring meaningful and innovative products and services that meet our evolving consumer requirements.
We also have a strong line-up of products and innovations that will surely capture consumer interest this year. These devices will be designed to offer the best performance to the consumers and delight them with unparalleled technological experiences.
With the launch of 5G technology, exciting new developments in terms of new form factors, new brands, new charging technology and disruptive features & capabilities we expect the industry to see an upswing. At iQOO, we have always been ready for the future with a 5G-compatible ecosystem across all our price segments. We were amongst the first smartphone companies to introduce the 5G compatible smartphone, iQOO 3 back in 2020 in India. We believe the bouquet of possibilities for digital experiences will be wider and more diverse with the rollout of 5G services in India, and we intend to capitalize on the same by offering cutting-edge technology and innovation in our product range. All 5G supporting devices are eligible to use the airtel 5G plus network and soon we will release the update for the Jio network as well.
Nipun Marya, Chief Executive Officer, iQOO
Nipun is the Chief Executive Officer and a driving force behind the success of iQOO and has been a key contributor to disrupting the smartphone segment in India. He holds an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, the University of Delhi where he was an IFCI scholarship holder. He has done his Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in Computer Engineering from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh.
What lies for the future of iQOO?
India’s demographic advantage is undeniable. Further, when we look at the next segment of consumers, India perhaps has the largest number of the youth population who are now becoming decision-makers, this new segment of consumers is driven by aspirations, technology, and desire for the latest innovation. We will continue to focus on R&D to bring meaningful and innovative products and services that meet our evolving consumer requirements.
We also have a strong line-up of products and innovations that will surely capture consumer interest this year. These devices will be designed to offer the best performance to the consumers and delight them with unparalleled technological experiences.
With the launch of 5G technology, exciting new developments in terms of new form factors, new brands, new charging technology and disruptive features & capabilities we expect the industry to see an upswing. At iQOO, we have always been ready for the future with a 5G-compatible ecosystem across all our price segments. We were amongst the first smartphone companies to introduce the 5G compatible smartphone, iQOO 3 back in 2020 in India. We believe the bouquet of possibilities for digital experiences will be wider and more diverse with the rollout of 5G services in India, and we intend to capitalize on the same by offering cutting-edge technology and innovation in our product range. All 5G supporting devices are eligible to use the airtel 5G plus network and soon we will release the update for the Jio network as well.
Nipun Marya, Chief Executive Officer, iQOO
Nipun is the Chief Executive Officer and a driving force behind the success of iQOO and has been a key contributor to disrupting the smartphone segment in India. He holds an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, the University of Delhi where he was an IFCI scholarship holder. He has done his Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in Computer Engineering from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh.