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When Lenovo bought IBM’s personal computer division, few consumers in the US were aware of the Chinese electronics maker. Now Lenovo, amongst the top three PC, laptop and smartphone makers, is heading for a facelift in India.
The electronics manufacturing company is banking on a re-branding exercise with focus on improved customer experience to ensure better PC sales through brick-and-mortar stores.
It has also reorganised its devices under the ‘Vibe’ and ‘Moto’ sub-brands to reduce cannibalisation and consolidated its portfolio to ensure better product management.
According to Bhaskar Choudhuri, Director - Marketing, Lenovo India, it has already begun work on giving a facelift to its 1,000odd brick-and-mortar stores, mostly selling PCs and laptops. The company categorises this under its consumer business wing.
It is through these new-look stores that the company hopes to make a mark. For a first-time buyer, it will be more of a hand-holding experience; while for the discerning one, it will cater to his specific requirements. Accordingly, stock in these stores will vary between basic range offerings and premium ones to high specification offerings (targeting gamers) and so on.
“It is all about how to work out the store real estate,” Choudhuri told BusinessLine , adding that growth will come for Lenovo “more in terms of share gain from competition”.
Another fact working in its favour will be the number of players who have exited the laptop or PC segments.
The company has re-organised its mobile devices business. This, according to sources and analysts, is a part of Lenovo’s growth strategy.
Choudhuri pointed out that Moto (earlier Motorola), which it acquired in a $2.9-billion deal from Google in 2014, will be positioned as a mass-premium offering the latest technology.
On the other hand, Vibe, the global sub-brand, will continue to focus on the mass and mass premium segments. Existing offerings (such as A-7000 or A-6000 among other non-Vibe branded devices) will be “subsumed with the Vibe brand”.
The company will continue to launch three-four phones across brands every quarter.
When asked about the possibility of cannibalisation, he said: “Such is the size of the smartphone market that the two brands can exist together.”
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