Bhaskar Choudhuri, Director Marketing, Lenovo India talks about how the PC giant is strategizing to climb to one of the top three positions in the smartphone market by the end of this year
By NEETA NAIR
Q] In 2013, the campaign for the Lenovo P780 smartphone targeted office-goers in various cities. Cut to 2015 when Lenovo is taking technology to rural India through YUWA. Why this drastic change?
YUWA is not a campaign through which we are going rural but rather it is a story which is very universal in its appeal. We started the association last year around the time of USA Cup and one of the teams in this tournament was the girls’ team from Hutup village in Jharkhand. The same team had earlier won the third place in Gasteiz Cup in Spain but was still lacking sponsors. We found the story very inspiring and thus decided to be a part of it.
Q] How did you weave a digital campaign around it?
We invited people across India to field their ideas to YUWA to improve the lives of rural girls. The entries will be judged by the YUWA girls and not some technology experts. After several online interactions with the volunteers, the girls will be able to decide which idea can make a difference to their lives. Also, the person behind the chosen idea will get a chance to come to Hutup and work on it. Meanwhile to give the girls a feel of what they can do with technology, we taught them to make a Wikipedia page on their village. They also successfully placed their village and surroundings on a Google map.
Q] Tell us more about the ‘Start up with Lenovo’ campaign and what is the strategy behind it?
We are driving this campaign for the PC (personal computers) category because this segment presents a unique challenge in India. The category growth has been stagnant in the last five years despite India being one of the most under-penetrated countries in the PC space. It is not only about looking at promotion but also fundamentally re-assessing the price aspect for the first-time buyer. How do we make him buy it? It is a fairly micro targeted approach and thus the marketing engines, activities and the features provided are also very state and region specific. There is no ‘one size fits all’ cookie cutter approach here.
Q] What is the media mix for both the campaigns – Yoga Laptop ‘Carry your Cool’ and YUWA?
The smartphones and ecommerce campaigns are predominantly Digital. Yoga campaign would be TV and to an extent Print-led. YUWA is predominantly Digital, as the engagement with consumers is happening on the Digital media. It is a bit more difficult to use offline media here. Largely for us, the context decides the media – we don’t make the media choice as the first choice.
Q] The Yoga Laptop ‘Carry your Cool’ TVC is very unlike ads for a PC type device as it only focuses on one idea – flexibility. What was the thought behind it?
Today, geeks are the new cool and so are those who carry tech devices. This was the thought behind the Yoga campaign. We wanted to convey that technology can actually be your style statement. In both ads, the lead character is going about his/her work unmindful of the environment which may otherwise have been a hindrance. In fact, technology is helping them do it better. The brand positioning for Yoga is ‘it adapts to you’. Most technological products force you to adapt to them. Here we are telling you to decide how you want the product to work around you.
Q] Has Ranbir Kapoor helped elevate the Lenovo further as the brand ambassador?
Ranbir’s association with Lenovo goes back to 2012. We took him onboard because we really wanted to expand the reach of our PCs into the small town classes. Then strategically we also started using Ranbir’s appeal to advertise our smartphones and tablets range because those were two categories we were significantly late in entering. Therefore, a quick jump in awareness and considerations was far more critical for those categories. In the last two years, his brand appeal and fitment in our longterm association is evident as Lenovo has gained significant ground in these two categories.
Q] What is the overall market-share for Lenovo in smartphones category?
The numbers for Lenovo and Motorola combined stand at 6.6% and Lenovo as a standalone brand is 4.4%. As a combined entity it makes us one of the top five players in the market. Also, considering the cluttered nature of the market and our late entry it has been a significant achievement on our part. In tablets again we are in the top five players’ bracket.
Q] So how is the brand vying for the Number One position in the smartphone space?
We are looking at being amongst the top three players by the end of this year. The strategy for that is to look at emerging consumer niches. It is a very fast changing category where we can really think of differential products. For example, when we saw the 4G infrastructure being set up, we thought it provides us with a great opportunity to catapult or leap from our position in the market. So we launched a vast range of products which are 4G enabled and are very different when compared to anything in the market today. The second quarter share numbers reveal that we are the Number One brand when it comes to the volume of 4G smartphones sold. Going forward that is going to be a quest – looking at emerging niches and taking an early position.
Q] What are the challenges you face in the Indian market and the possible advantages that Lenovo as a brand has in the market?
As a brand we don’t face a challenge; category challenges, however exist. For us, by virtue of our legacy with PCs there is a certain brand value of resilience and dependability which has become ingrained with the Lenovo name. So that’s a lot of equity which gets transferred when we enter new categories. However category challenges are significant. For instance, PCs is a very underpenetrated category. The functional benefits of the computer are well-known but it suffers from a lack of familiarity especially when we go down to the town classes. When we interact with the villagers they say that they are scared that if they press a wrong button the device may get damaged.
However, the one category I consider most difficult is tablets. There is no independent need for tablets. Increasingly one sees smartphones on one end and PCs on the other encroaching on its space. What functionality can they stand for in-between? This is the category challenge that the tablet manufacturers will have to overcome.
Q] How is Lenovo overcoming it?
There are emerging niches which give us a promise to solve this problem. Tablets have become a significant device of choice for a lot of educational institutions – both in terms of affordability and portability for imparting education. I believe looking at opportunities like that can help it grow.
Q] What are some of the plans that Lenovo has to expand its offerings?
Lenovo is not just restricted to laptops or computers. We have a lot more – servers, cloud applications etc. Our app share it – which transmits huge files even without network in less than a minute – is one of the top five trending apps on the Google Playstore. We are putting in a considerable amount of thought process and resources into building an ecosystem of apps, which is one of our big objectives at the moment.
ABOUT THE BRAND
In just 10 years Lenovo which started as an enterprise focused PC player (post acquisition of IBM’s PC division and the Think brand), has grown into a fullrange consumer technology brand. It has pushed its boundaries beyond PC to tablets, smartphones, mobile apps and accessories. From less than 10 in 2008, today Lenovo has over 1200 exclusive stores across 600 cities. The brand is also working with e-commerce partners, achieving disruptive growth in new categories.
FACTS
CREATIVE AGENCY: OGILVY & MATHER
MEDIA AGENCY: MINDSHARE
SOCIAL & DIGITAL MEDIA MARKETING: AGENCY EXPERIENCE COMMERCE
PR AGENCY: TEXT100 GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS
CMO FILE
Bhaskar Choudhuri is responsible for leading the Marketing function of Lenovo India across all its segments, including Commercial and HSB (Home and Small Business), Tablets and Smartphones. Choudhuri has over 14 years of experience in sales and marketing. He joined Lenovo in 2013 from Cadbury where he was Associate Vice-President, Marketing, for the Candy and Gum category. Prior to Lenovo, Choudhuri has handled marquee brands like Cadbury Dairy Milk and Bournville and was instrumental in the successful launch of Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk and Shots in the Indian market.
MARKETING TIP
Try to look at the consumer value that would come out of a certain ad. Instead of harping on how the consumer can adapt to your product, consider how the product will adapt to a consumer’s lifestyle.
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