With the government’s impetus on “Make-in-India”, the consumer electronics segment, especially the mobile accessories market, has witnessed a significant boost in domestic manufacturing. iCruze is one such brand that is carrying the baton and proudly making its smart wearables and accessories products in India that are crafted for the world. iCruze was founded in 2020 by two seasoned professionals Rajnish Gupta and Uzair Hasan. Where Rajnish brought his industry experience of 16 years and Uzair brought his 12 years of experience to build the brand. In their earlier roles, both have been part of various leadership teams of big brands. With iCruze, they aimed to develop a customer-focused brand by revolutionizing the way the accessories market functions. iCruze, hence builds quality products that are essential for daily use and are available at an affordable price range. DeviceNext had the opportunity to meet the Co-founders of iCruze, Rajnish Gupta and Syed Uzair Hassan, who discussed about the brand and their strategy for market growth in India.
Here’s the excerpt from the interaction:
Kindly share a brief about the brand’s inception journey.
iCruze was founded in 2020 in Delhi, India, with an endeavor to bring for our consumers the products that are essential for daily uses and are of best quality, yet available at an affordable price range. From a limited product range at beginning, today the brand iCruze offers smart wearables, hearables, chargers and cables, laptop bags and sleeves, and home audio gadgets. At iCruze, our mantra is to always gun for the classic and not for massive.
What is the brand’s key focus areas for its market segment in India?
Keeping abreast with the technology and consumer adoption, we are focusing on wireless portable accessories, such as, multi-hub charging station, wireless supportive airbuds, wireless powerbanks, and we have also forayed into the smartwatch space with our Pronto watch. From technology aspect, we are also working to improve the efficiency of wireless charging technology with fast charging that doesn’t impact adversely on the battery life of mobile phones.
With the government’s push for “Make-in-India”, how is the brand working in this regard?
For “Make-in-India”, our 80% products are made in India. We are under collaboration with Indian manufacturers who are into manufacturing of smartwatches and wireless hubs. Due to this, our smartwatch categories will be cost effective and offer great product quality.
Is the brand focusing on traditional offline channels of partners and distributors, or on becoming a D2C brand for market expansion?
In general, many brands like to proceed with Online and GT Market strategies, as these trades are easy to explore. However, in the 1st phase brand iCruze did not go for Online and GT Channel. We started our journey with modern trade and focused on Apple Premium platforms, wherein brand positioning immediately catches eyeballs. Now, in the 2nd phase we are targeting brand presence through our distributors and retailers network.
What innovative strategies are you implementing to have an edge over the competition?
Technology is changing very quickly, and the generation must have to be ready for 5G technology and the brand iCruze has promised to deliver that. We are soon starting research and development for internet-based calling via smartwatches.
