Marketing Report: Buyer Behavior and the Huawei iMate 20 Launch

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the buyer behavior related to the Huawei iMate 20 smartphone launch. It examines market segmentation, targeting, and product positioning, highlighting how Huawei aimed for the low-income customer segment with competitive pricing and unique features like a large screen and sleek design. The report delves into the decision-making process of consumers, identifying internal and external influences, such as personal needs, cultural factors, and trade restrictions. It also offers recommendations for competitors to challenge Huawei's market success, emphasizing the need for durable designs and competitive pricing. The report concludes by summarizing the key value propositions of the iMate 20, including its high battery life, innovative design, and camera quality, which have contributed to its strong unit sales.

Buyer Behavior
The case of iMate 20 launch
by Huawei

Introduction
• The market mobility of the Huawei iMate20 has been
evaluated here from the perceptions of a customer or a
marketer pertaining to other mobile phone brands.
• The market gain of iMate20 has been quite high since it has
been launched in the market.
• The behavioral aspects of the buyers of iMate20 have been
analyzed here from the perception of the third party vendors
who are the rival agencies to this series of mobile phone.
• In order to assess the current market presence of the
organisation and the series of the iMate20, detailed analysis
and reflection of the current market segmentation, target as
well as positioning of the mobile phone series of iMate20 has
been considered.

Product Differentiation
• Huawei launched the iMatw20 series by the end of the year 2018.
• The Mate 20 series of Huawei is a representation of the latest hardware as
well as the sturdy as well as beautiful designs of the smart phones.
• The organisation planned and launched the Smartphone at the advent of the
Chinese New Year.
• The product was available in the two colors of Fragrant Red as well as Comet
Blue.
• The launch of the phone with these two new colors was supposed to entice
the Chinese as well as the major target segments of the Huawei group
around the globe.
• However, the parent company of iMate 20 had not targeted the phone to be
sold in the US.
• this implies that their target market is secluded from that of the iPhone or
Google Pixel customer base.
• The solid aluminum frames and the curvy glass look of the phone as well as
its notch cut display crated a unique appeal for the phone.

Market Segmentation
• It is evident that not all the market
segments of Huawei will turn out to be
equally favorable for the iMate20 series.
• Considering the average price of general
flagship phones especially after Xiaomi
entered the market, it can be
emphasized that Huawei has marked
the price of this range of smart phones
about 2 to 3% higher than the stipulated
price of the industry (Kong et al. 2019).
• The primary customer segments that
have targeted for this range of smart
phone include the likes of the following,
described in the speaker notes section.

Targeting and Positioning of iMate 20
• Considering the demographic cleavage, Huawei have primarily targeted
the low income section of the customers for promoting the iMate 20
series of smart phones.
• More than 60% of the smart phones of the iMate 20 series were
purchased by people who had a household income lesser than $35 (Fang
et al. 2019).
• That is why; the pricing strategy that was selected for this series of
Smartphone had been that of aggressive lower end pricing.
• In order to achieve that, the organisation has kept in mind that the
production cost also needs to be kept lower than the traditional trade
name of smart phones.
• The organisation have been able to maintain their market strong-hold and
that they are globally only in the third place in terms of unit sales over
market area.
• the launch of the iMate 20 series and the iMate 20 Pro series of smart
phones have accounted for the highest sales taking proportion of the self-
brand based on per unit sales comparison with their biggest grossing
smart phones range so far before the introduction of iMate 20, that is
Honor (Zhu 2019).

How Huawei satisfies the customer demands
• The iMate 20 series has its unique display based on which, the customers are
attracted.
• In order to ensure customer satisfaction, all the smart phones belonging to this
series has been provided the biggest of the regular 6.5 inches screen.
• The sleek design with perfect square edges with high aspect ratio and
resolution is also necessary in order to satisfy the customer demands.
• In order to satisfy the customer demands, the screen is placed on the outside
of the phone, because of which weigh the advantages of this smart phone, it
can be highlighted that the users gets a naturally split-screen experience.
• There is really any other smart phone that offers edge to edge real view
complemented by a FHD resolution.
• This unique point of sales is achieved in this series of smartphone. The
expectation of the customers was particularly high with the Honor series of
smartphone (Win 2015).

Steps of decision making process in the purchase of mobile phone
• The first step in this context is the identification of the decision.
• in this context, it requires mention that the customer segments that have
been specified in the initial for the report will naturally be attracted towards
the iMate 20 range of Smartphones.
• The opportunities that can lead to the Purchase Decision is strong affinity
towards typical smartphone features like high-performance, supporting of big
data mobile applications without lagging, strong camera as well as strong
exterior build of the smart phone.
• In this context researchers like Lin (2017), identifies that under this price
range, it will be difficult to get hold of a better smart phone with better
features.
• Another Chinese brand, Xiaomi offers budget flagship Smartphones with
great product features as well as front and rear camera more than 12
megapixels.

Influences on the consumers to buy iMate 20
Internal influences
•The most important internal influences acting on the customers for making this purchase
decisions are the personal needs and motives.
•In this context, the basic need is the lack of smartphone.
•The Everest that the uses of Smartphones are becoming part of day to day life prompting
the mobile phone users who do not have a smartphone to get hold of one smartphone that
is within their price range and includes almost all features that are available in the higher
priced smartphones.
•Nevertheless, the motivation is to purchase a smartphone that has most unique features
and durability.
External influences
•Understanding the external influences is very important to manipulate the purchasing
decision of the customers.
•In this context, the most important extrinsic factor is the individual culture.
•The cultural demands decide whether they will purchase products pertaining to specific
brand, produced in specific Geographic area and generating specific value towards a
community (Kong et al. 2019).
•Other factors like trade rights also take up a serious role in determining the purchasing
decision. Because of the ongoing trade conflicts between USA and China, this range of
smartphone has not been licensed for sales in the USA market.

Recommendations
• The most unique point of sales of this Smartphone range have to be e
achieved by other smartphone brands in order to give considerable
challenge to the steady market growth of the organisation.
• Firstly, it is to be considered that organisations like Samsung or Xiaomi only
have the market potential to to deliver products having equal potential like
that of this Smartphone range of Huawei.
• Nevertheless, the price competitive strategies of other companies are
different from that of this one.
• Considering the online and offline reviews of the flagship smartphones, it
has been revealed that majority of the Budget smartphones lack durability
and strong battery output.
• The use of plastic in the development of exterior body is a part of cost
cutting strategy of majority of the smartphone brands. In this context, in
order to challenge the success of this Smartphone range, alternatives
companies has to come up with Smartphone range with it’s exterior body
made from aluminum or any other light alloy.
• However, other organisations to keep in mind that they should not
fluctuate the price range offered by Huawei.

Summary
• In the first place, it can be highlighted that the target customer segment
chosen for promotion of this Smartphone range was the low income range
customers who prefer to purchase budget flagship phones.
• The targeting of specific customer sections is also based on some unique
point of sales, which represent those technological advancement
innovative features included in this Smartphone range.
• Nevertheless, with the utility of Smartphone in everyday life, the
positioning of this range of Smartphones is based on the self brand
development strategy which has given the organisation higher unit sales
parity in comparison to other smart phones brands.
• The specific value propositions of this Smartphone series like high battery
life, innovative design as well as sharp camera along with other product
features described in this report are the major factors, which created value
for their customers.
• While describing the stages of decision making process, this report also
justified that it is very difficult for other companies to reach the sales point
of iMate 20.

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