Exclusive | The brand is all about product proposition: Lenovo's Rahul Agarwal

For over 20 years now, organizations and millions of business users have been relying upon Lenovo’s ThinkPad laptops to power their accomplishments. Over 60 million ThinkPad units have been sold over the world the brand has been awarded among the top PC makers.

 

On the occasion of 20 years of ‘ThinkPad’s’ existence and the launch of the new ThinkPad XI Carbon, the latest masterpiece from the legendary ThinkPad stable, Adgully caught up with Rahul Agarwal, Executive Director, Commercial Business segment, Lenovo India to know more insights about the brand and their strategies ahead.

 

So, Lenovo’s 20 years of existence seems amazing and they have been doing superbly well in the space they are. Agarwal says, “Yes, undoubtedly the journey seems quite interesting. Think pad has evolved itself as a brand in this industry and space. It’s been twelve years that I have been working with this brand and the main stay of our journey is innovation. We have done a lot of innovative stuff like to name a few; putting CD ROM and DVD ROM in a notebook, putting finger prints, giving best wireless technology etc etc. everything we have done has innovated our brand ‘ThinkPad’.”

 

Forged from carbon fiber, XI Carbon is designed for those who demand highest level of mobility, performance, entertainment and design. It is powered by the latest 3rd generation Intel Core processor, it comes with Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 and Lenovo Rapid-Resume and Rapid-Connect technology to enhance the desired performance. On expressing the need of launching the ThinkPad XI Carbon, World’s lightest Business Ultrabook, he said, “The need and greed for the mobility by the enterprise sector is always increasing. The demand and wants of people always change as per the growth of work field and domain they are in.”

 

He adds, “I believe the Carbon XI is the best product for the marketers in terms of battery life, quality and mobility.” Speaking about the three key marketing and business strategies which makes the brand stand out different, he said, “What make Lenovo stand out different is not the marketing and the promotional activities but our value proposition and the products and services we provide.”

 

“If you look at our enterprise products they are quality and durable products, very sturdy, low down-town products which can go on and on whereas if you look at our consumer products they are very stylish, edgy which can go with the trend and flow that the youth of our country carries,” Agarwal added. So according to him, their proposition is their products which are making them grow.

 

Well, Rahul Agarwal has been with the brand since its inception and has seen the brand evolving. He believes that the brand has evolved a lot over the years. “The brand was unknown when we started with Kaun Banega Crorepati and they didn’t know what to expect from the brand. But now if we see the brand is fully established and we are on the consideration platform among top two brands.”

 

As far as market is concerned, he says, “Again yes it has been growing at good 15% to 20 % on an average from the last few years with India being among the top 10 markets globally.”  Lenovo is one brand that adopted world sourcing strategy quite literally and is moving really well with it. They have their productions and designing happening all around the world from being in Beijing, notebook design happens in Japan and so on and so forth, also in India they have global marketing hub in Bangalore. Having said that he means that Lenovo’s model is quite well spread all over with best talent in all sorts.  

 

When asked about the spends-plan for metros and tier II and tier III cities, he explained saying that they are looking at India s India 1 and India 2 and trying to separate the focus clearly and smartly balancing their focus between India 1 and India 2.

 

He says, “There is slightly different marketing strategy for India 2 where we make sure that we communicate in the language people of those areas are comfortable in which would make us understand their needs more closely.”

 

He believes that India is still developing as an e-commerce market and but still the brand has been doing quite well in that space as well. Marking Lenovo’s best works in terms of campaigns, he said, “the first campaign that we started with Saif Ali Khan and the current campaign that is going on with Ranbir Kapoor.”

 

Lenovo which has been known for providing wide range of desktops, notebooks, ultrabooks and tablets has made its presence felt once again.  | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal(at)adgully.com]