In: Operations Management
Huawei Technologies Brief History Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. is a Chinese multinational technology company that provides telecommunications equipment and sells consumer electronics, including smartphones and is headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. The company was founded in 1987 You have been appointed as a Marketing Specialist to assist Mancosa to develop a Marketing Plan for year 2020. Please note: Your Marketing Plan must be based on market research, situation analysis and must clearly present marketing mix strategies and tactics that are likely to achieve Huawei Technologies business goals. It is important that you explain the rationale for your recommendations - why you are recommending these strategies and tactics - and why the 'client' should believe your recommended marketing strategies and implementation will be successful. Project Requirements: Develop a Marketing Plan that will help Huawei Technologies to attain a competitive advantage in a customer driven market: Report Structure: The Marketing Plan should have the following headings Each section should start on a new page.
1. Title Page: Includes the title, submission date and your name/student number.
2. Table of Contents: Page with major section names and their associated page numbers.
3. Executive Summary: (3) Summary of the highlights of the entire plan. Tip: It is easiest to write this last.
4. Situation Analysis: (10) Summary of the key market and environmental factors, Tip: PESTEL, SWOT analysis.
5. Competitive Review: (10) Including a focused marketing review of the company and their top three competitors.
6. Segmentation of customers (15) Discuss the segmentation variables and select one that should be used by Huawei Technologies.
7. Marketing Mix strategies (20) Discuss, Product, Price, Place, Promotion and the extended 3Ps.
8. Bibliography: (2) Include all of your sources including information from articles, books, websites and other sources in Harvard style.
Let's begin with PESTEL Analysis.
Huawei is one of China’s leading smartphone manufacturers. Like
everyone, Huawei is subject to forces from all six of the PESTLE
categories: Political, Economic, Sociocultural, Technological,
Legal, and Environmental. Identifying the individual factors that
affect Huawei’s success can help us understand why Huawei is
performing at its current level, and what could be done to change
that. That’s why today we’re diving into a PESTLE analysis
of Huawei — to see exactly what opportunities and threats
it’s facing!
Political
Huawei itself is operated out of China, where most of its manufacturing also takes places. However, Huawei smartphones are sold across the world. In particular, their smartphones are extremely popular in the European Union (relatively speaking). As a result, Huawei is subject to political forces from across the globe, especially those relating to China and the European Union.
es from across the globe, especially those relating to China and the European Union.
The most notable area of politics is likely trade politics. Currently, trade policies are widespread and facilitate the export of good from China to the European Union. If the European Union were, for example, to place trade sanctions on China (for example, due to lack of regard for environmental concerns), this would have a huge effect on Huawei.
Economic
As above, Huawei smartphones are mostly built in China and sold abroad, which means they are subject to at least two geographies’ macro environments. In particular, Huawei’s economic success is a function of both the Chinese economy and the economy of its target market — mostly the European Union.
The relationship between these economic factors and Huawei’s success is very simple. If Huawei’s target markets perform well economically, Huawei is likely to sell more phones in that target market. Right now, the European economy is relatively stable, which gives Huawei a consistent amount of business regardless of economic conditions in other areas of the world.
China itself is also worth mentioning as a target market. Huawei doesn’t just export their smartphones — they also sell them to local consumers. As such, China’s rapidly growing economy has paved the way for growing numbers of smartphone sales — including sales of Huawei smartphones.
The Chinese economic landscape affects Huawei in a multitude of ways, beyond the growing number of smartphone purchases. Notably, labor costs in the country are quickly increasing, which is causing Huawei’s overhead (in terms of production costs) to rise proportionally. This will eventually force the company to increase the end cost of its goods, or to absorb the additional costs itself and suffer from reduced net profit. Thankfully, China’s economy is also a relatively liquid area of investment. This means that Huawei shouldn’t struggle should it need more funds to support it.
Sociocultural
As touched on above, there is a growing demand for smartphones across the world, including China. This is mostly a sociocultural phenomenon, although its effects are economic. However, this growing need for smartphones is affecting the entire market, not just Huawei.
One unfortunate sociocultural factor affecting Huawei is the
widespread association Chinese products have with poor quality.
This belief is especially prominent in Western countries like the
United States, where some consumers stay away from technology
brands like Huawei just because of their origin.
Technological
The most interesting technological factor for smartphone manufacturers is the rise of 5G. The successor to 3G and 4G, 5G is the fifth generation mobile communications technology, which boasts improved speed, lower cost, and energy saving. However, 5G technology requires new hardware — a need which will have to be filled by component manufacturers somewhere in the world!
Huawei has been quick to develop its own 5G modems, which will allow it to adopt the technology as early as entire years before other major competitors. What’s more, Huawei has extended an offer to sell its modems to smartphone pioneer Apple. All in all, Huawei appears to be riding the 5G wave, and it might seriously pay off!
Legal
Huawei is subject to all sorts of laws, across multiple
jurisdictions. As a technology company, Huawei has to be especially
careful with the area of patent law — ensuring it doesn’t infringe
on others’ rights while protecting its own designs. Aside from
that, Huawei has to manage the many consumer laws in its target
markets, like the European Union. Typically, this has not been a
problematic area for most smartphone manufacturers.
In China, Huawei is also subject to a range of labor and environmental laws. These laws often increase overheads by forcing manufacturers to treat laborers better and take environmental concerns more seriously, but there is simply no way around them.
Environmental
As mentioned above, Huawei is subject to a range of environmental laws. These mostly affect manufacturing processes within China, but — presumably — Huawei has to adhere to certain environmental standards to sell in markets such as the European Union.
Thankfully, Huawei has policies in place to reduce its waste products and carbon emissions. Although manufacturing companies typically have a hard time when balancing the massive need for new goods with environmental concerns, Huawei seems to be doing a reasonable job of managing this.
PESTLE Analysis of Huawei: Final Thoughts
Huawei itself is an excellent smartphone manufacturer. Throughout this PESTLE analysis, we’ve seen that Huawei is mostly affected by the country in which it operates: China. Ultimately, Huawei being Chinese has determined and will continue to determine crucial Political, Economic, Sociocultural (to an extent), Legal, and Environmental factors affecting the organization. Aside from this, Huawei sells its products on a global market — most notably including the European Union — where it has little power in influencing the decisions of regulators or circumventing them.
As a result, it seems that Huawei’s best bet is to make do with
the macro environment it has — closely adhering to Chinese
regulations and adapting to local needs — and focus on building and
optimizing new technologies. It’s clear that Huawei wants to be at
the forefront of mobile technological advances, especially with its
early foray into the world of 5G, and it looks like that might
greatly pay itself off.
Now let's start with SWOT Analysis
With an annual revenue for 2018 of more than $100 billion,
Huawei is one of the fastest growing consumer electronics
manufacturers. Huawei primarily competes in one of the toughest
markets out there: the smartphone market. With business analysis
tools like SWOT analysis, we can gain powerful insight into the
tech giant’s current standings and future potential. That’s exactly
what we’ll do today, by identifying the individual Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats affecting this dynamic
organization, as a follow-up to our recent PESTLE analysis of
Huawei.
Strengths
Competitive pricing
One of Huawei’s biggest strengths is its extremely competitive
pricing. For several years, the smartphone market was dominated by
luxury brands such as Samsung and Apple, with little space for
cheaper alternatives to compete. However, the prominence of
smartphones has skyrocketed over the last 10 years, and that’s lead
to a huge demand for budget-friendly devices. Huawei isn’t the
cheapest smartphone manufacturer on the market, but it’s
significantly cheaper than those luxury competitors we mentioned
above.
High quality products
Despite its extremely reasonable prices, Huawei products are generally considered to be of relatively high quality. While their devices might not compete with names such as Samsung and Apple in terms of quality, they appear extremely well-made when compared to other budget-friendly smartphone brands. Many of Huawei’s smartphones are rated four stars and above on major retailing sites such as Amazon, which is a true testament to their quality.
Weaknesses
Lack of capital
As a company, Huawei is mostly stripped for cash. Comparing to Apple — which is the world’s largest company by market capitalization (almost a trillion dollars) — Huawei is worth peanuts. Relating to this, the Huawei organization itself has very little capital behind it. This means they need to be extremely careful in planning all of their business moves. More importantly, it leaves little money to invest in marketing or branding, which would be an essential next step for Huawei to become a top-tier brand in the eyes of consumers.
Weak brand
Perhaps as a result of the lack of capital mentioned above, Huawei does not have a particularly strong brand. While appreciation for budget smartphone manufacturers such as Huawei is indeed growing, they have long been viewed as plainly inferior choices. In the case of Huawei, this isn’t helped by their lack of marketing efforts. Admittedly, Huawei’s brand is stronger in some regions than in others: the brand is much stronger in the European Union than in the United States, for example. It’s also worth mentioning that Huawei’s weak brand is partially caused by the prominent Western belief that Chinese products are somehow inferior to their alternatives; this belief is especially prominent in the United States.
Opportunities
5G technology
5G is the next generation of mobile communications technology.
As it turns out, Huawei has been quick to innovate, having designed
and built 5G-friendly mobile modems even before major chipset
manufacturers such as Intel. If Huawei is quick to ride the 5G
train, they may be able to cement themselves as a luxury brand by
offering technology unavailable even to top-tier brands such as
Apple and Samsung. Huawei have even offered to sell their 5G modems
to Apple, which could net them a large windfall. Naturally, this
would come with all the tradeoffs of selling technology a major
competitor.
SWOT Analysis of Huawei: Tackling Competition in Smartphone Market
Thomas Bush Apr 12, 2019
With an annual revenue for 2018 of more than $100 billion, Huawei is one of the fastest growing consumer electronics manufacturers. Huawei primarily competes in one of the toughest markets out there: the smartphone market. With business analysis tools like SWOT analysis, we can gain powerful insight into the tech giant’s current standings and future potential. That’s exactly what we’ll do today, by identifying the individual Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats affecting this dynamic organization, as a follow-up to our recent PESTLE analysis of Huawei.
Strengths
Competitive pricing
One of Huawei’s biggest strengths is its extremely competitive pricing. For several years, the smartphone market was dominated by luxury brands such as Samsung and Apple, with little space for cheaper alternatives to compete. However, the prominence of smartphones has skyrocketed over the last 10 years, and that’s lead to a huge demand for budget-friendly devices. Huawei isn’t the cheapest smartphone manufacturer on the market, but it’s significantly cheaper than those luxury competitors we mentioned above.
High quality products
Despite its extremely reasonable prices, Huawei products are generally considered to be of relatively high quality. While their devices might not compete with names such as Samsung and Apple in terms of quality, they appear extremely well-made when compared to other budget-friendly smartphone brands. Many of Huawei’s smartphones are rated four stars and above on major retailing sites such as Amazon, which is a true testament to their quality.
Weaknesses
Lack of capital
As a company, Huawei is mostly stripped for cash. Comparing to Apple — which is the world’s largest company by market capitalization (almost a trillion dollars) — Huawei is worth peanuts. Relating to this, the Huawei organization itself has very little capital behind it. This means they need to be extremely careful in planning all of their business moves. More importantly, it leaves little money to invest in marketing or branding, which would be an essential next step for Huawei to become a top-tier brand in the eyes of consumers.
Weak brand
Perhaps as a result of the lack of capital mentioned above, Huawei does not have a particularly strong brand. While appreciation for budget smartphone manufacturers such as Huawei is indeed growing, they have long been viewed as plainly inferior choices. In the case of Huawei, this isn’t helped by their lack of marketing efforts. Admittedly, Huawei’s brand is stronger in some regions than in others: the brand is much stronger in the European Union than in the United States, for example. It’s also worth mentioning that Huawei’s weak brand is partially caused by the prominent Western belief that Chinese products are somehow inferior to their alternatives; this belief is especially prominent in the United States.
Opportunities
5G technology
5G is the next generation of mobile communications technology. As it turns out, Huawei has been quick to innovate, having designed and built 5G-friendly mobile modems even before major chipset manufacturers such as Intel. If Huawei is quick to ride the 5G train, they may be able to cement themselves as a luxury brand by offering technology unavailable even to top-tier brands such as Apple and Samsung. Huawei have even offered to sell their 5G modems to Apple, which could net them a large windfall. Naturally, this would come with all the tradeoffs of selling technology a major competitor.
Indian and US markets
Oftentimes, weaknesses can also be opportunities. Above, we
mentioned that Huawei has a poor brand perception in the United
States. As you’d expect, this means that Huawei has little
penetration in the American market. The same is true for the Indian
market. This means that both India and the US represent untapped
revenue sources. If Huawei were able to develop a powerful strategy
to enter these two markets, they could see a huge increase in their
total revenue figures, given the number of potential
customers.
Brick and mortar stores
Bricks and mortar stores are one of the reasons that brands such as Samsung and Apple stand a tier above all others. The luxury, boutique feel of a dedicated Samsung or Apple store not only provides potential customers with yet another way to purchase their devices, but also improves brand perception on a subconscious level. By opening their own physical locations across the world, Huawei would be able to improve its marketing and sales numbers simultaneously.
Threats
High competition
One of Huawei’s biggest threats is the smartphone market itself. The consumer technology industry is fiercely competitive across the board, and that’s especially true for the smartphone market. Not only does Huawei have to deal with competition on behalf of major brands such as Samsung and Apple (who both possess significant amounts more capital), but it also has to deal with the threat of new entrants. Even if top-tier brands don’t pursue the development of their own budget-friendly devices, a new competitor could join the market at any time and wipe away a portion of Huawei’s market share with just one technological advancement.
Rising labor and material costs
A less severe threat for Huawei is the rising labor and material costs. Manufacturing smartphones is relatively labor intensive (although some parts of the process are automated), so the slow but sure rise in Chinese labor costs is gradually increasing Huawei’s overhead. The same is true for materials, which are progressively more expensive simply due to increasing demand. Together, these factors will force Huawei to increase the prices of their devices, or suffer a reduction in profit margins.
SWOT Analysis of Huawei: Final Thoughts
Huawei has done an excellent job of entering one of the toughest
markets there is: the smartphone market. With low cost,
high-quality products, it shouldn’t be too difficult for Huawei to
thrive, even in tough conditions. What’s more, Huawei has
significant opportunity to grow its business, by entering and
dominating new markets (including technological ones like 5G and
geographic ones like India or the US) and improving its brand
perception, perhaps through the use of brick and mortar stores.
With that said, Huawei needs to keep a close eye on its competition
and ensure it has plans in place to manage growing labor and
material costs.
2.1 Research status in China
The domestic research selects the content related to the smartphone
marketing of this paper, including Apple, Samsung, Huawei, OPPO,
Xiaomi, Lenovo, Meizu and other major mobile phone manufacturers
marketing strategy research. As well as consumer purchase behavior,
big data analysis, network marketing, experience marketing and
other aspects of the literature, Other literature research on the
purchase behavior of luxurious smartphone consumers and improve the
brand image of enterprises and suggest the flattening of channels
is of great help to the topic of this paper.The main content of
this chapter is the research on the marketing strategy of the main
mobile phone manufacturers, through the help of some literature, so
as to make the research of marketing strategy more in-depth and
specific. According to the literature consulted, Jiang Xiaolin, Qiu
Jing, Zhang Yanju, Wu Fangyong, Wang long, Song Tao, Yu Jingrui, Ji
Yongze and others took the marketing model and experience marketing
of Apple phones as the research objects (Qiuliang,2015). This paper
puts forward that enterprises should pay attention to the
individualized needs of consumers, construct an efficient sales
network and attach importance to experiential marketing
(Hedan,2015), and think that experiential marketing can meet the
psychological demands of customers for product
differentiation(Wufangyong,2014), individualization and
diversification. Based on the investigation and research of
customers, this paper constructs the customer loyalty model of
experiential marketing, analyzes the relevant influencing factors
and the model of experiential marketing to shape the value of brand
image, and gives the concrete methods of implementation based on
experiential marketing. It provides help for other domestic
enterprises to carry out similar marketing models. Based on the
background of the decline in demand in the domestic mobile phone
market, the outbreak of e-commerce channels and the decline in
Samsung mobile phone sales, Xu Zhaosheng studied the marketing
strategy of Samsung mobile phones and pointed out Samsung's
marketing problems and improvement measures(XuZhaosheng,2014).Luo
Jiali, Liu Yun and Shi Yalei compare and analyze the marketing
strategies of Samsung and Huawei and Samsung and Apple
respectively, point out their differences and suggestions for
improvement, and provide reference for Huawei's marketing strategy
optimization. Through the study of Samsung's FD channel model, Zhao
Yi put forward the strategy of improving sales in the aspects of
cost control(ZhaoYi,2016), brand monopoly, platform service and so
on. It also points out that strict control of channeling,
encouragement of channel customers, improvement of after-sales
service, strengthening of terminal promotion and other safeguard
measures. Lei Peng specially studied the example of "Happy Base
Camp" sponsored by OPPO mobile phones(LeiPeng,2016), and pointed
out that enterprises should attach importance to advertising
investment in order to enhance users' association with publicizing
brands; Cao Tianyi through the film and television advertising
creation and practical research on OPPO mobile phones. It is
pointed out that advertising should be creative, photography should
have a sense of presence, picture should be aesthetic and other key
requirements, which has a good reference significance for Huawei's
mobile advertising creation. Zhang Chenggang analyzed the
importance of brand to mobile phone products, encouraged domestic
manufacturers to launch luxurious smartphones, and opened
differentiated; with foreign manufacturers in terms of products and
services. Sun Shijie used Delphi method, quantitative analysis and
qualitative analysis to combine the method of Delphi method,
quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. This paper puts
forward a comprehensive evaluation system of domestic mobile phone
brand value, which provides guidance for enterprises to enhance
brand influence. Zhu Jing analyzed the motivation of mobile phone
users and the influencing factors of purchase behavior from the
perspective of consumer behavior; Jian Li Qingkun and Lin Zhijian
specially studied the purchase behavior of luxurious smartphone
users(JianLiQingkun & LinZhijian,2012).The user purchase behavior
model and conspicuous consumer psychological demand given in this
paper are very helpful to enhance Huawei's luxurious smartphone
sales. Meng Huixia's analysis of Vs and 4Rs marketing mix theory
provides a certain help for the writing ideas of this paper.
Research status abroad There are great differences
between foreign and domestic markets. foreign countries focus on
social media, online and offline marketing, big data and user
experience. It is pointed out that enterprises can use digital
methods such as social media marketing to increase their
interaction with users and let users participate in the marketing
strategy of enterprises. And establish a long-term close
relationship with enterprises, to explore the impact of new
marketing models such as social media on customer perception of
brand value. At the same time, this paper studies the use of big
data analysis and marketing to establish the relevant market
strategy. The research hotspots in foreign countries focus on the
digital direction of marketing model, but the research on
traditional marketing model is less. Anna S. Cui-Fang Wu points out
three innovative models for customers to participate in customized
products(Anna S. Cui-Fang Wu,2016), and TamillaMavlanova et al.
point out that the credibility of internal and external evaluations
of product experiences in the online consumer market can have an
impact on seller sales. Increasing the credibility of the product
experience helps online sellers refine their digital business
strategies. Peter S. H. Leeflang, C. M. Sashi, Pierre R. Berthon,
Bruno Godey et al.'s research points out that the digital direction
of marketing can bring great opportunities to B2B/B2C marketing
model. The adoption of digital innovation model can fill the
cognitive gap between enterprises and customers, enhance the
communication between the two and improve the relationship between
the two, which is helpful to create value together. Their research
shows that the use of social media marketing can enhance customers'
interest in participating in enterprise marketing strategies(Peter
S. H. Leeflang,1992),help to enhance customers' cognitive value of
corporate brands, and bring about the relationship between personal
activities and corporate strategies. It provides effective guidance
for enterprise managers to formulate marketing strategies, and
links customers, enterprises, brands, prices, loyalty and other
marketing elements through social media to form a new social media
marketing strategy.
Marketing theory
2.3.1 Core theory of marketing-4PS Marketing (Kotler, 2009), MBA,
EMBA and other classical business management courses, marketing as
an important module of management and education for managers
included. Marketing is an activity, process and system that brings
economic value to customers, partners and the whole society in the
process of creating, communicating, disseminating and exchanging
products. Mainly refers to the marketing personnel in the market to
carry out business activities, sales behavior of the process.
The core of marketing theory is 4p theory, product, price, place
and promotion. 4p concept is the basic theory frame of marketing.
The theory holds that there are two factors leading to the final
effect of marketing activities: one is the factors beyond the
control of the enterprise, including political, legal, economic,
social and cultural, technology and other environmental factors,
called "uncontrollable factors", but also become an external
factor; Another is the enterprise controllable factors, including
production, pricing, channels, sales promotion and other factors of
business activities, become enterprise controllable factors, that
is, the internal environment. Controllable factor Uncontrollable
factors Product price promotion place Natural environment politics
law society culture population economy and technology Internal
environment External environment
4P Theory-Product Strategy A product is anything
that is supplied to meet the needs and the needs of the market,
including tangible and intangible products. According to the value
of products to customers can be divided into five levels: core
products, basic products, expected products, improved products,
potential products. Each of these five levels adds customer
value.
According to the 4p theory, every product includes five
levels:
(1) Core products: the most basic interests pursued by consumers
when they buy a certain product, which is also the core demand of
customers when they buy this product; The core interest layer is
also the most critical part in the customer value level. The basic
need to go to the store to buy clothes is to keep warm.
(2) Basic products: refers to the material forms that satisfy the
core interests of consumers, for example: clothing is divided into
top and bottom.
(3) Expected product: it means that the consumer hopes to satisfy
some conditions when buying the product. For example, when you buy
clothes, you want them to look good on you.
(4) Improved products: new benefits and services for consumers in
addition to their core interests. The purpose of improving product
is to realize product differentiation.
(5) Potential product: a product that is likely to be improved or
upgraded in the future to meet new requirements that may arise from
future consumers. Each enterprise's product will compete in five
levels. When products, enter the market, the main goal is to meet
the core interests of consumers; with the intensification of
competition, enterprises begin to upgrade on the basis of the
original products, so as to achieve product differentiation; with
the excess capacity of products, the Enterprises have begun to tap
the potential needs of consumers.
4P Theory--Price Strategy Price
is the only factor that generates revenue in marketing, and it is
also the best factor to adjust. However, companies must consider
some specific factors when pricing, including the company,
consumers, competitors and the market environment.
The pricing strategy consists of six steps:
(1) pricing objectives
(2) determining demand
(3) estimating costs
(4) analyzing competitors' products and costs
(5) choosing pricing methods
(6) choosing final prices.
When choosing the pricing, target, the company must ensure the
maximum profit and the maximum share of the product. Therefore,
only the choice of pricing objectives can ensure that the product
price strategy is in line with the corporate strategy; there is a
certain correlation between the price and demand of the product,
usually the price and demand show a reverse relationship.
Therefore, when determining the demand, we should comprehensively
consider the customer demand and product characteristics, and
estimate the elasticity of demand and price of the product; cost is
one of the aspects that the enterprise must pay attention to, and
the cost determines the lowest price. When the enterprise estimates
the cost, it must pay attention to the possible cost of all the
links, but also analyze the cost of competitors, in order to ensure
that their products get a reasonable profit and market share. Once
the pricing method is clear, the scope for determining the final
price can be narrowed, at which point the company also needs to
consider other factors, such as policy, risk, etc.
4P Theory-Place
The channel is the way that connects the product and the consumer,
the marketing channel can influence the product decision-making.
Some companies often use a lot of money to use middlemen's channels
to promote products, or use advertising, etc., to increase the
visibility of the enterprise. In addition, the establishment of the
enterprise value network is also very important, the company's
supply chain forward or backward integration, can strengthen the
company's control of the channel.
The establishment of channel strategy needs to solve four
problems:
(1) choosing middlemen;
(2) the service level of the channel;
(3) the management and control of the channel;
(4) the support of manufacturer to dealer. Marketing channels on
behalf of certain interest groups, often conflict and competition,
the establishment of a long-term, mutually beneficial channel model
for the development of enterprises is essential. Table 2-2 Consumer
product marketing channel Channel level Level 0 Level 1 Level 2
Level 3 Producer Manufacturer Manufacturer Manufacturer
Manufacturer Intermediary Wholesaler General wholesaler Wholesaler
Retailers Retailers Retailers End user Consumers Consumers
Consumers Consumers
4P Theory-Promotion
Promotion strategy refers to the enterprise through advertising,
personnel, sales, direct marketing and other means, so that
consumers know about the company and products, so as to better
guide consumers to buy products. There are eight common ways to
promote sales: advertising, direct marketing, promotion,
interactive marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, public relations,
time and experience. Through the above method, can establish the
good brand image of the product, improve the popularity of the
enterprise. 2.4 Marketing analysis tools
PEST analysis model
PEST model is not only the analysis of market macro-economy(,2016),
but also the basic tool for enterprises to analyze the external
environment. The model evaluates the impact of political, economic,
social and technological factors on corporate strategy and
marketing strategies. The political environment includes a
country's social system, the nature of the ruling party, and the
principles, policies, and decrees of the government. Different
countries have different social nature and different social systems
have different restrictions and requirements of the organization of
activities. Even in the same country where the social system
remains the same, at different times and because of the differences
of the ruling party, the attitude and influence of the principles,
characteristics, and policy tendencies of the government on the
organization and activities of the government are constantly
changing. The economic environment, mainly includes the macroscopic
and the microscopic two aspects content. The social and cultural
environment includes the residents' education level and cultural
level, religious belief, customs and habits, aesthetic views,
values and so on. Technological factors include revolutionary
inventions, new technological processes and technological trends,
and businesses need to identify information that is useful to
them.
Internal Environment Analysis-4p
Theory According to the current situation of the domestic
smartphone market in 2016, the market share rankings TOP5 are:
OPPO, Huawei, VIVO, Apple, Xiaomi, But Apple, Huawei and Samsung
have most of the market share in the luxurious smartphone market;
OPPO phones have worked hard in the mid-market in the past two
years, won the love of young consumers, and will enter the
luxurious mobile phone market in the future. Huawei is a strong
potential competitor to luxurious phones.
Based on the 4Ps marketing theory of marketing, this paper analyzes
Huawei's direct competitors Apple, Samsung and potential competitor
OPPO on luxurious smartphones. Huawei Terminal Co., Ltd.,
established in December 2003, belongs to Huawei Technology Co.,
Ltd., and is one of the three core businesses of Huawei operators,
enterprise networks and consumers. Huawei Terminal's products cover
smartphones, personal computers and tablets, wearable devices,
mobile broadband terminals, home terminals and terminal clouds. The
enterprise defines the target audience of communication as the
ideal action school, that is, a challenger with a vision, a group
of people who are enterprising, have dreams and pursue, and firmly
believe that dreams can be realized through hard work, hoping that
everyone can enjoy the new technology
In terms of products, Huawei Terminal adheres to the high-quality
strategy, differentiates and innovates, bravely breaks the
technological limits, allows people all over the world to enjoy the
joy of technological progress, and works with consumers all over
the world to live up to their words and realize their dreams. The
specific embodiment on the mobile phone product line is: the
extreme technology of the Mate series, the extreme fashion of the P
series, the extreme performance-price ratio of the G series and the
extreme price ratio of the Y series. In short, Huawei Terminal
strives to provide the best products for consumers around the
world. Huawei Terminal products and services in more than 170
countries, serving 1 to 3 of the world's population, its 2016
global smartphone shipments ranked third, after Samsung and Apple,
second only to OPPO in domestic market share. In second place. The
company has set up 16 R & D centers around the world, such as
the United States, Germany, Sweden, Russia, India and China, with
more than 10,000 employees by the end of 2016. According to
Huawei's 2017 annual report, Huawei's terminal business shipped
1.1% of smartphones for the whole of 2016. 3.9 billion units, with
sales revenue of 179.8 billion, an increase of 43.6% over the same
period last year. After Huawei was licensed to produce and sell
mobile phones in China in 2005, the mobile phone business entered a
stage of rapid development. In 2010, the retail number of Huawei's
C8500 handsets exceeded 1 million in 100 days. By the end of 2010,
Huawei had shipped more than 20 million Tianyi handsets for China
Telecom. At the WMC exhibition in Barcelona in 2012, Huawei
released the first mobile phone with a self-developed quad-core
processor and a K3V2 chip, becoming the first mobile phone
manufacturer in China to launch a self-developed CPU. In the same
year, Huawei released the Emotion UI operating system. This is
Huawei combined with its own product characteristics, based on the
Android system deep customization of the operating system.The
Ascend P1, Ascend D1 quad-core and Glory products launched that
year are selling well in developed countries. In 2013, it pushed
out the world's thinnest smartphone, the P6, with a thickness of
just 6. 5%. 18mm, in the same year, the smartphone business made a
historic breakthrough, and the Mate product for business people,
which was launched in 2014 by TOP3 all over the world, has become a
popular style in China. Established the image of Mate high-end
flagship aircraft, Huawei terminal officially entered the high-end
mobile phone club, with the Mate8, Mate9 and P9, P10 two
generations of products on the market, With the help of the Leica
brand, Huawei has successfully established its brand image of
high-end smartphones in the world, ranking third in sales in the
high-end market in 2016 after Apple and Samsung.Huawei has always
adhered to the principle of customer-centered, product design based
on customer needs as the starting point, with its technical
advantages and low-cost strategy, has achieved business success.As
a private enterprise, Huawei has established a standardized and
transparent corporate governance structure, which provides an
institutional framework for Huawei's sustainable growth. The
analysis of Huawei phones in this paper focuses on the Mate series
and P-series products, which belong to Huawei's flagship product
line.Global smartphone sales in 2017, released by IDC, an
international data company, showed that global smartphone sales
reached 1.47 billion in 2017, up 2.3% from the previous year.Its
Chinese market has performed well, with sales of 467 million mobile
phones.The top five brands in the world by sales are Samsung,
Apple, Huawei, OPPO and VlVO, which together account for nearly 20%
of the world's market share.Huawei ranks third in the world with a
market share of nearly 10%, maintaining steady growth against the
backdrop of slowing growth in the mobile phone industry, up 30.2%
year-on-year and 139.3 million shipments for the whole year.Huawei
shipped 76.6 million handsets in China in 2017, up 21.13% from 62.9
million units a year earlier, according to IDC, ranking second with
a market share of 16.4%. Huawei's two heavyweight flagship
products, P9 and Mate9, released in 2016, continue Huawei's
high-end mobile phone strategy-high-performance boutique, winning
the recognition of global consumers for product configuration,
functional design and product experience.P9 series products sold
more than 10 million units in the world for the first time, the
first time in Huawei's history of high-end
products.However,according to Huawei's internal disclosure,
Huawei's high-end smartphones have a domestic market share of only
about 10%, while Apple has 83% of the market share; Huawei's
high-end market share is only 3% in the international
market.Therefore, the analysis of Huawei's high-end smartphone
marketing strategy has a very practical reference significance for
other domestic manufacturers to move towards the high-end
market.
4.3.1 Product Strategy With the reduction of subsidies for mobile
phone ODM brands by mobile operators, Huawei terminals have been
transformed into their own brands since 2012. the initial product
lines are Ascend D (Diamond), P (Platinum), G (Gold) and Y (Youth).
Corresponding to high-end people, fashion people, concerned about
performance-to-price ratio groups and young low-income groups,
after years of market competition, Huawei mobile phones have broken
through the high-end market monopolized by Apple and Samsung, and
the high-end smartphone series has become the Mate and P
series.Huawei attaches great importance to product development, and
annual R & D investment accounts for more than 10% of sales. In
the early days of entering the mobile phone field, market demand
exploded at that time, and users did not attach importance to
product quality.Huawei's product strategy is to sell whatever it
does based on technology and products. In the past two years, as
the capacity of the domestic mobile phone market has gradually
become saturated, the speed of upgrading people using mobile phones
has slowed down, and the level of market consumption has begun to
transform and upgrade.Consumers pay more attention to product
quality, Huawei's product strategy has also changed to market and
customer-oriented, customers can do what they need.Huawei's product
strategy has a principle, that is, customer-centric, create value
for customers, and establish a customer-centric product system. (1)
Product brand strategy-Huawei mobile phones adopt a dual-brand
strategy: HUAWEI and Honor, in which the HUAWEI brand is oriented
to both online and offline channels.And the product line covers the
end market of high (Mate and P series), medium (Nova and G series,
and low (Y series), while the Honor brand mainly runs through the
online e-commerce channel, mainly focusing on the mid-end market of
1000 to 3000 RMB, and the consumer groups of the two brands overlap
to a certain extent.The difference lies in the different focus of
the channel. Huawei high-end mobile phone through the annual
foreign and domestic press conferences and television, Weibo and
online video placement advertising and other forms, gradually
establish an international brand image, brand influence is growing
year by year. (2) the product portfolio strategy one mate series is
designed for domestic businessmen and politicians, with the
strongest CPU,6 inch large screen, long 4000mAh battery life, GSM
and business style U design, etc., and so on. (2) the product
portfolio strategy one mate series is specially designed for
domestic politicians and businessmen, with the strongest Zisheng
inch large screen, long battery life, GSM and business style U
design, etc. Deep love for male users between the ages of 25 and
39.P series is designed for stylish white-collar and female users,
product appearance is compact and stylish, P series and Mate series
are very different in product form and specification.Through market
segmentation of different groups, Huawei's high-end mobile phones
capture the needs of both business and fashion consumers. (3)
differentiation strategy-Huawei high-end models use self-developed
Kirin chip, on the one hand, it can define and optimize hardware
parameters according to product demand, on the other hand, it
highlights the brand image of Huawei as a national high-tech
enterprise.Through the cooperation with Leica in the field of
photography, the unique photo-taking features of Leica dual cameras
have been introduced, which have attracted the attention of
photography-loving users and become a bright spot different from
Apple and Samsung phones.Through the cooperation with Porsche
Design Company, the launch of luxury brand customized version of
mobile phones, in the ultra-high-end market to establish a
benchmark, enhance the brand image, achieve differentiated brand
strategy.In addition, Huawei's high-end models are equipped with
large batteries above 3000mAh, which is significantly different
from Apple and Samsung in product life experience. (4) Product life
cycle strategy-Huawei high-end mobile phones maintain the rapid
iterative rhythm of the annual generation, releasing P series in
spring and Mate series in autumn; Huawei high-end models are
packaged in a calm atmosphere, in line with product positioning,
and rich in accessories. For this reason, the accessories
department has been specially set up to design related accessories
for consumers, and has provided users with online software upgrade,
V-worker-P hotline consultation, broken screen insurance and other
sales and after-sales service, and the company has set up a Voc
consumer sound department within the company. Huawei continues to
improve the user experience throughout the product life cycle by
advising products on behalf of consumers.
4.3.2 Price Strategy Product price is the only factor that can
generate income in marketing mix, other marketing factors are
regarded as cost, price is also one of the most important factors
to determine the market share and profit of enterprise products.
Huawei terminal is in the manufacturing industry, strict control of
product cost, because its equipment and plant is less, fixed cost
is relatively low, variable cost of human resources, R & D and
operation, raw material cost accounts for a very high proportion,
therefore, effective control of variable costs can reduce the cost
of Huawei terminals. There are usually three types of product
pricing methods: cost-oriented pricing, competition-oriented
pricing and customer-oriented pricing. New product pricing includes
skimming pricing and penetration pricing. Huawei's pricing strategy
for high-end models is a combination of multiple pricing types,
with different pricing methods at different times of the life cycle
of the new product. Huawei’s high-end models are mainly divided
into three categories: Mate series, P-series and Porsche
plate-making. In order to increase product sales, they are priced
according to cost-oriented pricing. In order to improve product
sales, Huawei's high-end models are mainly divided into three
categories: Huawei series, P-series, Porsche plate-making, mass
market-oriented products, such as standard and high-end versions of
Huawei and P-series. The target income pricing method is adopted to
set the price according to the investment cost, expected sales
volume and investment income of the enterprise. At the same time,
prices refer to the competitive environment, with Apple, Samsung
price gap, in the domestic and foreign markets have also formulated
a differential pricing, domestic cheaper than abroad strategy, in
order to affect domestic important consumer groups, improve product
sales. In 2016, Huawei launched a customized version of Mate9 Pro
Porsche, which sold for an astonishing 8999 yuan, which has become
a hot topic of social discussion. The price obviously far exceeds
the cost of the product itself. Huawei’s pricing strategy with
high-end luxury brands uses a customer-oriented pricing strategy,
pricing according to consumers' understanding of the value of the
product, and working with luxury brands makes it easy to connect
customers to Porsche cars. Thus affecting the judgment of consumers
on the value of goods, Porsche customized version of the listing
catered to the pursuit of a different part of the consumer
mentality, to meet the special needs of customers. The combination
of pricing strategies makes Huawei's high-end smartphone prices
meet the needs of different consumers and become a powerful weapon
for Huawei to gain a foothold in the high-end market.
Give a thumps up ! Thank you!