2013-03-14

China Daily: ZTE’s new way to win niche markets

Sophie He

China Daily: ZTE’s new way to win niche markets

March 14, 2013 - 10:15am http://www.chinadailyapac.com
ZTE – the mainland’s leading telecommunications equipment provider -- is to expand investments in brand building in the business-to-customer market, reaping from its years of experience and expertise in the business-to-business market.

The company has been in the business-to-business market for moré than two decades and is now trying to take on the business-to-customer model, Zhang Xiaoke, managing director of ZTE (HK) Ltd, told the China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable.

He explained that when the company focuses on the business-to-business market, it does not have to worry much about brand building, as its good reputation is already known to telecom operators. For the past five years, ZTE has been strengthening its business-to-business relationships while diverting more resources to business-to-customer marketing.

“As for our way of brand building (in the business-to-customer market), we’ll continue to work with operators in joint market activities, using our relationship with operators as one of our branding advantages,” Zhang said.

ZTE will also sponsor large-scale events, such as concerts and sports games, to put extra resources on the social media. .

Zhang stressed that there is no single media that can help them fully identify their target audience, and there will be no single marketing campaign that can change a company’s image completely. That is why ZTE will increase investments in marketing and advertising gradually and rationally.

He said the company hopes that customers, inside and outside of the mainland, will know that ZTE’s products have solid technical strength, offer the right price and are suitable for young people.

“We’re still learning how to build up our brand in the business-to-customer market. We want to find our target customers in different places, but we also think of our budget, we want to be rational,” Zhang said.

He said the last thing the company wants to do is dumping tons of money into a commercial because although the audience might be enticed, customers could still end up going after their competitors’ products.

ZTE’s brand-building efforts are not easy, especially in overseas markets, Zhang said, recalling a crisis it encountered in the United States last year.

The US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee released a report, after an 11-month investigation into ZTE and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, saying US telecommunications operators should not do business with China’s leading network equipment makers because potential Chinese state influence on the companies poses a security threat.

According to Zhang, ZTE responded quickly and proactively to the investigation, expressing its sincerity to the investigators and providing them with accurate information. Instead of debating with the investigators, he said the company tried to help them understand ZTE’s position and culture.

Due to ZTE’s sincerity and openness during the investigation, the demand for ZTE’s terminal equipment rose in the US, and the company’s crisis management ability became a successful brand building itself, Zhang added.

Source: http://www.chinadailyapac.com/article/ztes-new-way-win-niche-markets

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