ZTE aims at bracing its PAN-India reach

In an exclusive interaction with VARINDIA, Sachin Batra, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) ZTE , discusses on the company’s transformation from online to offline channels -    

India remains one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in Asia Pacific and is now the second largest smartphone market after China, thanks to a spirited recovery in shipments in the third quarter of 2017.  As a matter of fact, Indian smartphone market outshone other emerging markets like United States and moved to second position behind China.

According to the KPMG Survey & Canalys report, major urbanization is converting the new consumption hubs, especially in the tier II cities. New investments are leading to better connectivity and generating new employment opportunities in these cities, further increasing consumption in these markets. There is still a huge room for growth with over 300 million people sitting on a 2G Device wanting to move to smartphone which presents huge growth opportunities. 

ZTE is a technology brand and the company believes in giving a product at the right price to a customer. In 2018 the company plans to go all out to expand its portfolio. With the current line-up of 7 devices and increase in marketing spends for 2018, the company is poised to strengthen its presence pan-India in terms of launch of products, and widening into offline space.

Strategy around brand positioning and service support….
ZTE plans to launch 3-4 devices every quarter in 2018. It is going to categorize the products into three parts now. First part would be where the brand will have price-sensitive smartphones which would give them a good ground in the budget and mid-budget segment. The second category of smartphones will focus on battery while the third will be around dual cameras. “The first device will be launched in January 2018,” tells Sachin.   

In 2017, ZTE launched its first product in the month of February which was online. Post that it did a couple of soft launches with offline channels. Speaking about the company and its product portfolio, Sachin Batra, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) ZTE says, “Offline channels went out to be pretty region specific geographies where we started doing our business, so that at least we can test what is in India, understand how ZTE brand is been taken by the consumers without doing much of a marketing. We currently have a line-up of seven phones and will pump up more money into marketing in the coming year and open exclusive stores as well. Going forward, ZTE will widen its presence PAN-India.”

Sachin reveals that the company has put in place a strategy that includes both online & offline to seek 2-3% market share in 2018. They are aggressively setting up the distribution model in India and have already started working with 100+ partners. Discussing on this, Sachin further adds, “We foresee to expand our channel to 350+ partners by mid of 2018. Simultaneously we are in discussion with online partners like Flipkart, Amazon for few exclusive launches. This year we will also focus to have ZTE’s exclusive stores in the key cities, which will be of its kind and customer walk in to experience all the category of products available in our portfolio.”

ZTE currently has more than 300 service centers across India. It intends to massively expedite the entire procedure and offer an unmatched experience to its customers by expanding its customer service support team. “We plan to set up 500 + number of service center across India in order to bring down the waiting period during after sales from week to days as positive customer experience is our primary objective,” he says.

Focus on being cutting-edge amidst the competition….
The company is currently focused to being the best amidst its competition. Commenting on this Sachin sums up, “ZTE is a technology brand and the company believes in selling a product at the right price to a customer. I would like to mention that India is a price sensitive market, so getting into the right price points where we can target tier 3 and tier 4 cities will hold the key for success in the current market scenario. As once you have a right product with right pricing you start to gain the market share automatically. We treat smartphones as an extension of a user’s taste, personality, and daily requirements. Therefore, with changing times, we will keep changing the features and looks constantly to stay relevant as a brand to our customers.” 

Abha Singh
abha@varindia.com