💎 Growth Gems #106 - Market Expansion (India), Branding
Hey,
This week, I’m sharing gems on:
These insights come from Joy Howard, Vinay Charaniya, and Ash Dixit.
Enjoy!
🥇 TOP GEM OF THE WEEK
Branding: building a brand, why it’s important, measuring impact
Gems from Joy Howard (Founder and CEO at Early Majority - ex Patagonia, Sonos) in How to build a brand (with Joy Howard) on the Mobile Dev Memo Podcast
Why spend quality time with my family when I can listen to episodes from the new Mobile Dev Memo podcast season?
It was exciting to see Eric Seufert invite a guest who has a different perspective on the role of a brand, so I had to mine that episode!
Deliberately building a brand is essential, even in the mobile industry, where we tend to under-index on branding. These insights are a good starting point to reflect on your branding.
What is a brand?
💎 A brand is a management perspective that shapes the perceived value of your product. There is no “objective value”, and features/quality don’t matter as much as we think they do.
(08:45)
💎 A brand is the culture of your product. There is the internal culture of your firm, which your brand should shape (how you do things, the kind of products/experiences you develop), and the external culture (the role your product plays in the world and how it shapes/influences culture).
(09:35)
Joy explained that she defines culture as a system of norms coordinating repeated interactions. Culture and shared concepts shape the way people connect and interact with each other.
Building a brand
💎 Being a great brand requires being very conscientious about the category and understanding that categories develop orthodoxies. Example: Nike vs. Converse.
(13:05)
Nike disrupted what Converse was doing by emphasizing competitiveness and how the competitive spirit can allow you to triumph over adversity. They almost framed their shoes as technical innovations.
In the wake of that, Converse fell off the map but was picked up by the punk/art scene in New York that fueled a new life and represented the “creative spirit” (vs. hyper-competitive athletes and jocks).
💎 You have to be in tune with what’s happening culturally and figure out where things will go next so you can champion an ideology that will help people with their identity project in this time of cultural disruption.
(18:05)
Joy mentioned her favorite brand thinker was Doug Holt, who wrote How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding.
💎 You have to understand the business/market you’re in. You can not limit your understanding to only your own brand because you’re usually working on something that already has a product and audience.
(19:45)
💎 You want a brand to be very upstream of everything. You must be very deliberate in building it. Your brand should shape your culture and policy, from customer service to retail. Brand sits right before the commercial and product side of the organization so that everyone “lives the brand”.
(20:30)
One example Joy gave is how Sonos is about “the way music can transform your home”. An illustration of how the brand translates into the product: Sonos added touch controls on speakers so you don’t have to pick up your phone and can instead “live the moment”.
Importance of a brand
💎 You can have commercial success without a strong brand, but it will be fleeting. The law of competition means that even if you create a great technology, someone is going to see it, create an alternative to it, and someone is going to fund that alternative. It can evaporate very quickly.
(28:35)
On the other end, she was clear that we’ve lost strong brands that haven’t been able to adapt to a changing commercial environment. A strong brand is not enough. Examples include VanMoof, Parade, and Twitter (before the change to X).
💎 Advertising is just one execution element in what should be a much more vast arsenal to build your brand. Many tools can be used: owned media, earned media, paid media, and shared media.
(33:00)
💎 The importance of a distinct, deliberately constructed brand is a constant regardless of verticals (CPG, apps, retail, etc.) unless you want to be in the business of commodities.
(39:35)
💎 When it comes to the world of media and performance marketing, gaming has been at the forefront. But eventually, it all comes back to the power of creative ideas.
(40:05)
Eric shared the example of the hyper-casual game segment, where building a brand probably doesn’t make sense because the games are similar. For everything else, branding will play an important role at some point.
Measuring value and impact
💎 You should always see more efficiency in your CAC and down-funnel metrics as a result of what you’re doing with brand.
(47:00)
💎 Your strategy should determine the way you measure brand success. Revenue is always the first thing people think about, but there can be more. Example: Lyft vs. Uber -> steal shares, reduce price elasticity.
(47:44)
💎 Pick some metrics to focus on that fit your strategy and can help you shape your future behavior. Stick to those metrics over time: continuity in your internal data is critical. It’s tough to know whether something is working when you don't consistently have the same definition of the things you’re tracking over time.
(48:55)
Brand leader skillsets
💎 It’s important to really understand metrics because they can all be easily gamed. You need to understand the tradeoffs so you can learn. Example: The LTV/CAC ratio is easy to game as you can grow it by cutting advertising. You want to hire marketers who have an appetite for understanding that stuff, to engage in it, and to use metrics “for the greater good.”
(50:57)
💎 When looking to hire great marketing leaders, you want to look for someone with left-brain (quantitative) and right-brain (creative) experience. It might be someone who is very quantitative but also has some experience giving them respect for culture and creativity. Examples:
Old school direct response marketers (with a retail catalog legacy) also know how important it is to tap into creative and culture
People who have worked at an iconic brand and then have done a stint at a VC-backed company
(52:45)
You can read more on the topic of marketing leaders’ skillsets in Growth Gems #99
Market Expansion: the India opportunity, stats, recommendations
Gems from Vinay Charaniya (Gaming Partnerships at Google Play) and Ashnil Dixit (Business Development, Google Play Apps & Games at Google) in The Untapped India Mobile Opportunity on the Deconstructor of Fun podcast
Drop everything, forget the US market, and focus on India!
Don’t do this…But maybe it’s time to pay more attention to the Indian market, including beyond gaming.
Google obviously has an interest in developing emerging markets, but the data points and tactical advice they shared with Jen Donahoe (Gaming Marketing & Growth Executive Leader) are really interesting.
The opportunity
💎 According to Niko partners, the Indian Games market is projected to generate almost a billion dollars in 2023 (21% YoY growth) and nearly half a billion players in the market (12% YoY growth). 97% of India’s players play on smartphones.
(00:56) by Jen Donahoe (Gaming Marketing & Growth Executive Leader)
I also found this ”State of app marketing in India” report from AppsFlyer, where you can find more data.
💎 India is probably the biggest opportunity in mobile games right now. It used to be very early for those emerging markets, but the Indian market has grown a lot (including with Covid). Several external resources underreport by close to 5x.
(06:05) by Vinay Charaniya
Vinay shared that reports often tell you Indians are not spending on games, but it seems it is more nuanced/complex than that. He added that it’s a business error to classify India as a poor country: many folks are willing to pay, and more are on the way. He argues that if you haven’t been able to capture this value, you need to look at how others do it.
💎 India is one of the few places where smartphone adoption is still under 50%, and it’s expected to 2x in the next 5 to 10 years. ARPUs are really low today, but with an emerging middle class that is getting demonstrably richer year after year, ARPUs will go up several times.
(09:37) by Ashnil Dixit
Here is the share of paying users on each platform and by category, according to AppsFlyer.
💎 2021 was an inflection point in India where users started shifting from spending time on games to spending money on games, which brought India into the Top 10 markets in terms of volume of spend.
(12:00) by Vinay Charaniya
💎 There is an overall growth story happening in India, and it would be absurd to think that the gaming industry would be outside of this growth story.
The middle class is growing; there is a large youth population (300-400 million in the 18-30 population).
In the past three years, nearly 200 USD billion of foreign funds have entered India, and India has risen in startups and unicorns (#3 after the US and China).
(12:40) by Vinay Charaniya
💎 The Indian market can be segmented into three:
India 1: people who were online in India before 2016-2017, when it was still expensive. 150-200 million people are “westernized” and speak English fluently (most people you interact with from overseas). They are the only ones that might have credit cards but are not really spending on games.
India 2: people who came online in 2017 when the cost of data decreased. 350-400 million, with a mix of income. They do not have credit cards but are somewhat ok with paying in mobile games. Popular games are social and PvP games.
India 3: 700 million people who are still offline, with an expectation to become online in the next 5-10 years.
(16:40) by Ashnil Dixit
This is a simplification, but it gives excellent context into what might be challenging right now for publishers and how things might evolve.
Payments
💎 In 2016, the government launched the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform. With low credit card penetration, UPI is the default for cashless transactions, including payments for games and in-app purchases (e.g., on Google Play). There are 0 platform fees for users, and it’s removed a massive barrier.
(22:00) by Vinay Charaniya
💎 Some developers have prompts in their games to link their UPI ID to the Play Store because once that’s done, the probability of them making the payment within the app is much higher.
(23:20) by Vinay Charaniya
They mentioned the example of a Cards & Casino game where when you click on the game’s store button you see the gems and virtual goods, with also a button “Link your UPI id” which gives a demo on how to link the UPI id on the Play Store.
It’s a way to make players aware that UPI is a form of payment on the Play Store and to make future payments more frictionless.
💎 The government put in place a tax on RnG games. They’ve made it very clear that it applies only to real-money gaming businesses or businesses with a cash-based outcome. The free-to-play model and the rest of the gaming industry are outside this purview, at least for now.
(28:15) by Vinay Charaniya
They also discussed the Chinese apps banned in India (like Free Fire) and that something like this might happen to Western developers.
It seems that Indian society is still coming to terms with gaming, and there are also concerns about privacy. To better understand what kinds of games are being banned, you can check out this list and this list.
Price and content localization
💎 Almost all of the most popular games in India are real-time, multiplayer, competitive games. Playing with friends in the same room seems very popular in India. If your game has these elements, it’s a great start. Example: Free Fire, Ludo.
(34:25) by Ashnil Dixit
💎 The whale approach doesn’t work in India. You have to go the opposite way and monetize the bottom of the pyramid by getting a huge amount of players to spend $1-$2. To do this, you need to localize pricing and think about sub-dollar pricing.
(35:30) by Ashnil Dixit
Pricing on Google Play is localized by pricing, with the lowest price being around 10 rupees (16 cts.). App Store Connect also introduced sub-dollar pricing in 2023.
💎 You might need to find a kind of items that you can fit in the game’s economy and that you can sell at lower price points. This is easier to do from the start, but otherwise, a “hack” is to break down your hard currency into smaller gems (e.g., go from minimum 100 gems purchase to 10 gems, even if there’s nothing you can buy in the game for 10 gems).
(38:12) by Ashnil Dixit
Vinay shared the example of a US-based game developer who had not done sub-dollar nor created India-specific content before. They picked up Holi as a moment and created a virtual accessory (it’s better if it doesn’t impact the game’s economy), which led to a 2x increase in monthly buyers, a 4x increase in MoM MPUs, and their revenue has been growing since as they continue to do that.
For examples of creating exclusive content like localized items and characters in emerging markets, check out Ash’s article here.
Here are a few games that that have great localized content and introduced localized pricing: Candy Crush Saga, Miniclip's Carrom Pool and 8 Ball Pool, Garena's FF Max and Krafton's BGMI (aka PUBGM).
💎 Sub-dollar pricing happens all the time in the offline world in India (e.g., Ikea food items). In India, the most popular price point for transactions within games (by volume) is 29-30 rupees (35 cts). It is also a price point used by Ikea and the price of a pack of chips.
(43:05) by Vinay Charaniya
This is a great reminder that our app industry doesn’t operate in a vacuum, including when it comes to pricing and monetization. Some things that work in the “real world” can translate into digital (and vice versa) because you’re still talking to humans, and we all have biases.
💎 You have to accept that the ARPUs will be lower, and that scale is important. You need MAUs that are upwards of 10 million since 2-5 million will not help you get the revenue you’re looking for. The flip side is that the cost of UA is cheaper. Create local content to get users into the pipe, as it will be easier to get them to pay for the following purchases afterward.
(46:40) by Vinay Charaniya
You can do the math yourself when it comes to “what’s worth it”, but this gives some guidance on when you probably should be paying attention to the opportunity.
💎 Developers that do well in India look at the annual calendar and break it down into relevant moments for Indian users: Holi, Diwali, cricket season, and Independence Day. Customize their events/LiveOps and price them at sub-dollar. They also create exclusive content.
(42:03) by Vinay Charaniya
If you’re at the scale that makes the opportunity worth looking into, then you most likely have a Google Play team contact. Reach out to them to get a promotional calendar with the key moments throughout the year and start planning around it.
💎 Don’t assume your IP is well known in India, as the level of awareness of IPs can vastly differ from other places in the world. Example: Dragon Ball Z is unknown, but the Avengers is very well known.
(49:20) by Vinay Charaniya
💎 Don’t localize in 8-10 languages in India, as the ROI is not there. Localize for Hindi, and you’ll reach a big chunk of the population. You can also try to take language out of your game, as any game with a lot to read will be a challenge with any language in India.
(49:40) by Vinay Charaniya
Go-to-market tips
💎 Leverage the local content that you’re creating via promotional content. There are also opportunities for Google (not just the Play team) to share influencers, top content creators, local agencies, etc.
(54:40) by Vinay Charaniya
💎 Don't underestimate the role of video in India. TikTok got banned, but YouTube has taken a whole other direction.
(56:00) by Ashnil Dixit
💎 Local partnerships with e-wallets are important. If you want to transact via UPIs, you must go through e-wallets.
(56:50) by Ashnil Dixit
Before I leave, here is a quote on branding:
“Iconic brands function like cultural activists, encouraging people to think differently about themselves.” - Douglas Holt
See you next time. Stay curious!
⛏️ Sylvain
🔗 Sources: