Mobility magazine in a conversation with Mr. Chen Ji, Michael, Senior Director of Product & Marketing (APAC)
Mr. Chen Ji, Michael, aged 39, is the Senior Director of Product & Marketing (APAC) of the Company. Mr. Chen joined the company in 2005. He has 16 years of experience in consumer electronics which includes 11 years in Mobile Phone Industry. He had been the senior director of global product portfolio of the company, leading the product portfolio management and product definition and development job in the company. Mr. Chen graduated from the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in 1998, and got his Bachelor’s degree in Business English. In 2010, he was selected by the company to join the Eagle Elite Project of TCL Group (A Leadership Training Program). In 2011, he was again selected by TCL Group to join the HP Elite (High Potential Leader) Project. In an interaction with Mobility magazine, Chen shares the philosophy, outlook and mission of their Alcatel brand.
At Alcatel 2013-14
In 2013, globally we shipped 55 Million unit mobile phone, and we shipped around 2 Million Unit in India. In 2014, we also brought many models to India market. In 2015 we are planning for 5 Million units in India.Which is your favorite device.I like every one of them, they are addressing different segments of the market, especially for the mess market. People can always find the model that suitable for them. And all our products are with very good quality and they have been proven in the global markets. Recently, we launched a new Model, FLASH, which is a selfie phone with very good front and rear camera, and with powerful Octa core, it’s a very good and affordable smartphone, and we believe that it will be successful in the market.
Challenges
India is a big market, and now, most of the mobile phone brands are taking India as their strategic market; currently, our brand presence is not big. The biggest challenge to us I think is the more and more severe price competition in the market, and I believe this is also the biggest challenge to all the brands. But we have confidence to overcome this challenge: first, we have very big global business to support us in the cost optimization, and we have world leading class supply chain, and we have our own manufacturing site, which can produce over 120 million mobile phone per year to enable us to produce high quality and low cost products, and we have a very promising international brand with a lot of excellent designs in France and Italy. With all these, we believe we can have a good opportunity to win more market share in India.
Market Share
Right now, we are listed as top 7 mobile phone brands in the worldwide market, and in India, we are new to the market, and yet have a big presence. We are targeting to become the top 5th brand soon in Indian market.
Strong points of Alcatel Samrtphones
Good Quality, Nice Design and Reasonable price. Our first merit is quality. Good quality is expected by all the end users no matter whether it is an entry level phone or a premium smartphone. Our products are validated by the most critical testing system of international operators in Europe, USA, and other Asia Pacific operators. Good design: a lot of our designs are created by international design teams in France, Italy and China. On top of these, we focus on bringing simple-to-use mobile experience to all the consumers.
Ecommerce
Online business model is a new opportunity and a unique business environment. Online retailers might impact the traditional channel, but I don’t think they will become a threat. I see online as a new business channel with its own merits and opportunities.
Services
The key job we have done in after-sales-services is we already set up more than 550 after sales service points across India including the collection points, that bring a very convenient service to consumer, and we are continuously improving our after-sales-services and making sure they will bring good satisfaction to end users who buy our products.
Strategy for India
I think business opportunities are available in all different channels. At present, traditional channel still occupies more than 90% of the mobile phone market, which of course we will not give up. On the other hand, online business is growing very fast, so we are also developing our business online. We have a very good experience in managing our business over different channels and won’t hurt either of them.
Final Word
ALCATEL ONETOUCH would like to say Hi to all the Indian people, and we are appreciated that you choose ACLATEL ONETOUCH products, and we are doing our best to bring you more good quality, valuable and exciting products in India and welcome you to become our long-time friends.
