Brand realme: A Story of Setting Digital Milestones

‘Dare to Leap’ was indeed a leap of faith into the potentially vast digital market of India for realme, a global brand founded on 4th May 2018, to address the growing user’s demand for digital devices that have trendy designs and offer powerful performance. Proud to be Young, the vivacious realme, attaches great importance to online channels, and also its offline operations, ensuring that it stays true to its entrepreneurial spirit throughout its journey until now.

The merging of innovative minds and experiences resulted in the creation of brand realme which has made waves with its exclusive products and market strategies. Madhav Sheth, CEO, realme India, VP, realme and President, realme International Business Group, spurred the company’s growth with his business acumen within four years of the brand’s market presence to become the second largest smartphone brand in India, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Under his leadership, realme witnessed incredible growth expanding its portfolio with multiple smartphones and increased its market share from 3% in 2018 to 14% in 2021. Madhav Sheth recalls, “When realme started its operations, the goal was to create a brand that resonates with the young generation and enables more users to experience pleasure and efficiency brought by the latest technology. Hence, the realme 1 was launched.” He is also a well-known guest columnist in leading national and international publication. Recognised amongst top 25 Most Influential Young Indians - GQ India (2021), Mr Sheth, packs in as much as can be in a day for optimising time and resources for staying ahead of the curve in the industry sector. realme boasts of a go-getter team kept in sync through motivation and with focus on building agile teams that can quickly comprehend the changing market trends and incorporate them within the product development and delivery dimension. This is among the key to realme’s success.

Reiterating that realme is a truly consumer-friendly brand, with hands on their pulse, Mr Sheth emphasises that the manufacturers of premium digital products strongly believe in constant expansion of its product portfolio and user base. He mentions, “In 2019, we started building realme TechLife Ecosystem by expanding our product portfolio from smartphones to AIoT products with the launch of our first hearable product, and now have a presence across multiple categories such as wearables, hearables, laptops, tablets and other smart home products. Our market share in each of these categories has grown exponentially over the last two years. Our user base in India and in other countries has grown massively - we have over 150 million users, out of which 70 million are from India, and the number is increasing with each passing day. Last year, we also made realme a household name globally, as it became World's No. 6 Smartphone Brand and World’s No.5 Android brand.”

It was an era of digitization when realme was conceptualised and launched in 2018, to become tech disruptor with innovation, customer satisfaction and services at the core of all that it stands for to meet the demands of an evolving economy with a digital interface. realme is credited with multiple industry firsts such as introduction of India’s first 64MP smartphone (realme XT), India’s first 5G smartphone (realme X50 Pro), India’s fastest charging smartphone when launched (realme X2 Pro), 150W fast charging technology (realme GT NEO 3T), India’s only 5G tablet in the segment (realme Pad X) among others. Mr Sheth informs, “As a tech disruptor and innovator, realme entered the 5G smartphone segment when other brands were still inhibited. realme has dedicated 90% of its research and development efforts to 5G technologies and devices and over the last two years, realme has introduced 23 5G-enabled smartphones across price segments and directed all its efforts into being a 5G democratizer for the country.” The start-up aims to launch 100% 5G smartphone in Number Series in 2023.

Way ahead of its league

The brand ambitiously aims to impact the markets further based on impeccable values, excellence, focus on creating highly competitive and diverse product portfolio dedicated to serve a burgeoning consumer base.

Sensitivity towards local culture for strengthening the brand’s connection and integration with the Indian social environment is a defining characteristic of realme’s market cultivation strategy that has paid rich dividends in establishing its market sway. The other sagacious move have been firming up its strategy of online and offline services which include focus on store operation and services, besides collaboration with the two major e-commerce giants Flipkart and Amazon. 

Mr Sheth shares, “As a start-up company, realme entered the mobile phone industry in the first three years and grew savagely. Now realme steps into its second stage of growth, a long term running to create new growth. For this, we have put together three core strategies, which include market cultivation, optimizing e-commerce, and simply better strategy. With our enhanced e-commerce strategy, we intend to strengthen our partnership with Flipkart and Amazon. The smart move saw realme climb to the second slot for a second time, with strong YoY growth of 24% (highest among top five vendors) in 2Q22.”

Trusted Brand Status

Buoyant about the vast possibilities that India has to offer, he proudly informs, “We have also sold over 6 million units of smartphones and AIoT products during the realme Festive Days sale(until publication date). We aim to become the second largest smartphone brand in 2022 and emerge as the No.1 Smart Audio (TWS & Neckband) brand, Online No.1 Tablet brand, and No.1 wearables brand in India.” Currently, more than 85% of realme models support SA and by October, 2022, all variants will have 100% SA support. Enhancing the immersive experience of its consumer beyond their expectations, is realme’s focus in its second stage of growth. realme Care’s seamless and simplified customer support reinforces the brand’s impeccable commitment to service that will benefit the brand’s over 70 million users. 

In just four years of its inception, in 2018, realme has set enviable records in the industry with state-of-the-art technology, AI enabled, bringing about a revolution in the digital industry that looks to serve countries and its people with options of reliable and relevant digital platform and its variables to grow as empowered entities, both at the micro and macro levels. realme has a growth vision where ethics and human compassion are intrinsically embedded in the company’s CSR and ESG endeavours reiterating its commitment towards shared success and prosperity. 

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