VIDEO INTERVIEW: Social media is rapidly growing in importance as a marketing channel, says Ni Fei, CEO of Nubia, ZTE’s fledgling sub-brand targeting mid- to high-end devices.
“[Establishing] a new brand is a hard thing to do… but maybe it’s a little bit easier than before,” he told Mobile World Live.
Nubia is part of ZTE’s push beyond low-end devices, but the CEO reckons a large marketing budget is not necessarily needed to compete against the big boys.
A mixture of social media and word of mouth, claimed Fei, can enhance Nubia’s profile, particularly among younger people. “[They see] traditional advertising as cheating, because you have to pay for it,” he said.
And as operators move away from handset subsidies, Fei sees their sales-channel strength weakening when it comes to devices. “New channels, such as the internet, may be booming in the next two or three years,” he said.
Device differentiation can nonetheless be difficult, Fei conceded. “Chipsets and screen displays might be the same,” he said, “but there’s still a big space to compete in user experience.”
Fei said enhanced camera functions on Nubia’s line of devices, targeted at photography enthusiasts, is one way of standing out from the crowd.
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