Vivo Mobile, China’s fourth largest handset manufacturer, entered India in December last year but hasn’t been able to gain much consumer mindshare so far. The company recently won the title sponsorship for IPL by paying ₹160 crore for two years.

In a conversation with BusinessLine , Vivo’s India CEO Alex Feng said the company is hoping that these marketing activities coupled with investments in building a strong service network would help the company replicate its China success in India.

The company will begin local production in less than a month and that is expected to help them become more competitive in the market. Edited excerpts:

How do you expect the IPL sponsorship to help Vivo? Would you be looking at associating with any other sporting events in India?

It is this League which has been replicated in other sports and in a way I can say confidently that it is because of IPL that other sports have started getting recognition by coming out with similar Leagues. So, I think associating with a League of this stature is a good choice to make.

Right now our focus is on how to maximise Vivo IPL’s brand and commercial value. We are also open for other options in entertainment, media and sports.

We are already working on launching a digital campaign for Diwali, which involves budding singers and lyricists to come forward and share their work wherein the winners will have a chance to create their album through Vivo.

Pepsi pulled out of IPL calling it an unethical platform. What prompted you to back IPL despite corruption allegations?

I think every sport has its share of ups and downs. But we always look at the future.

For Vivo, IPL is a huge platform to reach out to our target audience and that’s what we are focusing on.

During our interaction so far, we are confident that BCCI will work with us for a better Vivo IPL. We see no reason why would there be lesser interest amongst the sports fans.

Let’s not forget that for a sports lover, the game is important and IPL, for sure, will continue to draw crowds to the stadium as well as in front of the television.

What are you doing to build your retail and service network in the country? How big is the Vivo India team?

Vivo has around 100 employees taking care of nation-wise operations including logistics, warehousing, finance, legal, marketing, branding, PR, sales, after-sale service, product, terminal management.

Also we have 20 State distributor offices across India, with 7,000 employees responsible for State-wise operation.

There are 7,000 employees, 10,000 retailers in 22 States, 300 cities for Vivo’s ground sales and service network.

Now we have around 30 service centres and by the end of 2016, we will have 200 service centres across India.

When are you starting production in your Noida factory?

It will be operational from late November, which will create over 2,000 jobs in assembly line operation and 200 managerial positions.

This assembly unit will help reduce the cost in export and logistics.

We are expecting to sell 2 million units by the end of December.

How are you trying to compete with your Chinese peers like Xiaomi who are selling premium spec phones at extremely low prices?

We are aware of the trend of higher specs with lower price. But specification and price wars have their limits eventually.

And they cannot provide good user experience, which will harm the customers in the end.

So we are trying to give our users a better experience by giving a balance between speed, battery time, heat, and software.

Also, marketing and infrastructure investment are essential for a long-term, sustainable development in any market.

As India is one of the most important markets, Vivo is dedicated to establish a better, responsible brand here.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW