Noticed Xiaomi India head, Manu Kumar Jain, thanking people for the Diwali flash sale they conducted on November 3rd. This is what he said.
Remembered that he had tweeted something similar earlier too. This.
I’m genuinely intrigued.
Can a mad rush and queueing up for a 1 Rupee flash sale (an equivalent in dollar would be, 1 Dollar sale) be construed as ‘love’ and ‘support’ for the brand?
Wouldn’t ‘love’ and ‘support’ be queueing up for a really expensive product, like say, iPhone? For a rupee, people don’t really have anything at stake – and even those who do not need the product(s), may perhaps try their luck and possibly look at selling it online as seconds and make some quick buck. So, are people lining up for a flash sale doing it out of love for the brand?
Also wondering – what if the flash sale was a relatively ‘cheaper’ brand, say, Intex, which sells phones as low as Rs.2,999? If they offered a Re.1 flash sale, would people queue up online to buy? I’d assume they would, though you could argue, hypothetically, that Intex phones don’t have the same quality-perception as Xiaomi and hence, the lining up may not be as much. That’s a possibility, I agree.
The fundamental point, though, is, if a brand gives something free, or for a ridiculously low price as Rupee 1, and there is (obviously) a crowd to pick it up, are they doing it out of brand ‘love’ or are they doing it because they seem to gain massively out of the deal and don’t have anything to lose?
There’s an old joke in India that goes, ‘Indians will line up even for free phenyle’. They are not doing out of love for phenyle, but for the fact that they are getting it (‘something’) free!