Smartphone brand Honor tells Balqis Lim it is committed to meeting the expectations of the younger generation
HONOR, a smartphone e-brand under the Huawei Group, has stood out in the crowded smartphone market.
It offers an alternative in the lower to mid-range smartphone segment, which has helped it succeed in the marketplace.
In Malaysia alone, Honor recorded accelerated growth, achieving a remarkable 238 per cent increase year-on-year in sales volume growth.
Honor Overseas Sales and Services Department president James Zou says Honor’s smartphone shipments reached66 million pieces by the end of last year.
However, for both Huawei and Honor brand in total, the company closed the year with 206 million units, ranking third behind Apple.
FOCUS ON YOUTH
Honor has always aimed to bring the best user experience to its target audience — the young generation and people who are young at heart.
Zou says millennials want a smartphone that can do everything, from music to gaming, so they expect some of the new brands to have good performance for gaming without them having to pay more for a flagship device.
“In meeting demand, in which the market is very segmented, it’s difficult to fulfil all by using the same marketing strategy as Huawei.
“Our strategy at Honor is not to get other brand users to buy our products.
“Our aim is that when a teenager wants to get his first smartphone, I’d like him to think of Honor,” he says.
MALAYSIA A KEY MARKET
Malaysia is one of the major markets for its smartphone network sales in Asia.
“In this region, the younger generation’s population is much larger and we see big opportunities. We recently restructured our organisation and have selected some of the strongest partners in Malaysia since we promote the brand here.
“In Malaysia, we see Honor having an opportunity to be among the top three brands in less than 12 months.”
Ever since Honor started penetrating the Malaysian market, sales performance has been outstanding.
“We understand the needs and wants of Malaysian consumers, especially the young people who want the latest and most advanced technology for smartphones.
“The company will launch more innovative smartphone products coinciding with what millennials want.”
STAYING RELEVANT
The largest industry in the world is the automative, followed by smartphones, says Zou.
“While most people do not change cars every year, they do change their phones frequently.
“The smartphone industry is more demanding and dynamic.
“If you cannot launch a new model every six months or every quarter here, you are out.”
Zou says there are four pillars to focus on for any brand if it wants to be successful in the smartphone industry — strengthening of global supply chain, marketing, branding and business channels.
“Although we share R&D with the Huawei brand, pricing is not just decided by features.
We need to look at its efficiency of marketing, branding and channel.
“As we use different business models to manage efficiency, we are able to screen the cost in the middle. From factory to end user, there are many channels that we can find to reduce cost.”
In terms of maintaining accessible price points for its devices, stock management is very important.
“Honor started as an e-brand, which means we sell the product online. Through e-commerce, efficiency is much higher than traditional channels, which thus helps us to reduce costs.
“For stock management, if you able to forecast your volume and manage your stock very carefully and smartly, you can reduce cost.
“All these have allowed us to adopt different strategies when it comes to branding, marketing and management, which in turn helps us to maintain a fair price point without having to sacrifice product quality.”
CHALLENGES AND TRENDS
Market insights and quality control are extremely important. “It’s only through customer feedback after they try the product can we gauge if a product will sell.
“Last year, growth was up 30-40 per cent while after-sales service declined by 30 per cent. This means that we sold more but had less repairs. This shows that our quality is good, and this is important.”
Zou says the smartphone ownership trend is also changing and the company must understand current changes and needs. These include larger screens and durable battery performance as well as superfast charging technology.
“As a smartphone manufacturer, we want to sell affordable products equipped with high-tech functions such as artificial intelligence, quality camera lenses and 5G technology capability.
“One way to attract young people is the collaboration between Honor and Fortnite, today’s popular free-to-play online game,” adds Zou.
Honor has been developing some exciting phones recently, most notably Honor View20. The first flagship smartphone of 2019 was launched in January. It features a 6.4-inch punch-hole display, the latest Kirin 980 processor and a monster 48MP rear camera with a TOF sensor.