Apple to make Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan an Indian brand ambassador - report
Apple will be making Bollywood film star Shah Rukh Khan a brand ambassador for India, intensifying the company's profile in the country, according to a Thursday report.
![](http://photos.appleinsidercdn.com/gallery/17077-14260-shahrukh-khan-l.jpg)
An announcement will be made when Apple launches new iPhones in India later this year, said local website PC Tablet, citing anonymous sources. That could be a month or more after Apple's normal U.S. launch window in September, if patterns from last year repeat. The iPhone 6s only arrived in India in October.
The company has a number of such "ambassadors" elsewhere, such as Brazilian-born soccer player Neymar, or NBA player Steph Curry in the U.S. These people are used to market Apple products, attracting attention through their celebrity.
During his trip to India last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook attended a dinner party hosted by Khan, where other Bollywood celebrities were also in attendance. It's unknown whether Cook made the trip with appointing Khan in mind, or if the idea of using him may have sprung out of the party.
Apple has declared India a focal point of future expansion as the pace of growth has slowed in China. Cook has argued that the arrival of new LTE networks in the country could propel iPhone sales beyond a small 2 percent marketshare, but the main obstacle is believed to be price, since even the iPhone SE costs several times as much as most phones sold in the country.
![](http://photos.appleinsidercdn.com/gallery/17077-14260-shahrukh-khan-l.jpg)
An announcement will be made when Apple launches new iPhones in India later this year, said local website PC Tablet, citing anonymous sources. That could be a month or more after Apple's normal U.S. launch window in September, if patterns from last year repeat. The iPhone 6s only arrived in India in October.
The company has a number of such "ambassadors" elsewhere, such as Brazilian-born soccer player Neymar, or NBA player Steph Curry in the U.S. These people are used to market Apple products, attracting attention through their celebrity.
During his trip to India last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook attended a dinner party hosted by Khan, where other Bollywood celebrities were also in attendance. It's unknown whether Cook made the trip with appointing Khan in mind, or if the idea of using him may have sprung out of the party.
Apple has declared India a focal point of future expansion as the pace of growth has slowed in China. Cook has argued that the arrival of new LTE networks in the country could propel iPhone sales beyond a small 2 percent marketshare, but the main obstacle is believed to be price, since even the iPhone SE costs several times as much as most phones sold in the country.
Comments
"And I'm an Untouchable."
Shah Rukh Khan will probably help Apple make inroads with Indian populace that can afford their products today, which would help Apple become an aspirational brand for people who will join India's middle and upper classes tomorrow. That is probably Apple's real problem in India: it is not an aspirational brand there the way that it is in China and Japan (and South Korea). That is why none of the Android device makers have made creating lookalike iPhones a strategy point the way that manufacturers have for the Chinese and Japanese markets. That is consistent with how you build an image and a brand.
Although it may have been totally by accident, Samsung's going with LeBron - and remember they were also a partner with Beats - worked like spades for them too. I guess you can say that where Apple had the "suburban" constituency for the iPhone, Samsung was able to get the "urban" one. Their campaign painted iPhone owners as brand-conscious and elitist and not concerned with more practical stuff like multi-tasking, battery life, screen size and the latest tech. Then again, it probably wasn't accidental at all. I just remembered: Samsung America came up with that marketing strategy. The headquarters in Korea got all nationalist and forced them out with bogus fraud type investigations because they couldn't handle the Yanks outdoing them in their own company. After that Samsung started managing the North American marketing efforts from Korea, and sales for the Galaxy S5 and S6 cratered. They had to do a total corporate reshuffling with younger, more western-influenced executives taking over the company for the S7 to rebound.
So if this actor is able to do for Apple in India what Michael Jordan did for Nike, then 5 years from now this will be the move that everyone saw as a stroke of pure genius.
Samsung did not sell any extra phones because the have some brand ambassadors, if you remember correctly most the brand ambassadors were found to be using Iphone not Samsung products. Plus this whole Brand Ambassador concept has not work for electronics like it does on fashion items like Nike shoes.
I still stand by my comments most Indians do not buy on brand nor are they your typical aspirational buyers. They buy base on price and if they can get a knock off for less they will buy that over the real things.
Indian are crazy about their stars and they're big luxury buyers (more proportionally to income than us). Smart phones in India and most of Asia are seen as luxury items were brands are important