Motorola has a lot of potential for growth in India, says Lenovo

Chinese handset maker Lenovo has said that it will push its Motorola brand more prominently in India, keeping in mind its dual-brand strategy and investing in marketing and offline retail expansion.

"We really want to push the Motorola brand as we see a lot of potential for growth. Motorola brand is going to be more visible in the market as it benefits from an overall global campaign perspective...We want to ensure that the product is available at physical places where consumers go," Jan Huckfeldt, chief marketing officer at Motorola, told ET.

"If you want to create brand presence, especially in a competitive market, you also need to have competitive level of investments, otherwise it will not work. We are fully committed," he added.

"If you are on a global scale and want to win market, you need to have one brand and one portfolio, and drive availability across markets. Lenovo is very much focused on one brand globally," he added, stating that India however, is an exception.

In India, the company would continue with its dual-brand strategy since it sells beyond a threshold of critical volume. He also stated that India is a "super critical and competitive market for Lenovo."

Keeping focus on the Motorola brand, Lenovo wants its presence to grow stronger in the premium segment, comprising of smartphones priced at $400 or above.

"That's where major investment from marketing perspective will go in creating the category with the help of Mods," said Sudhin Mathur, MD at Motorola India and executive director for Lenovo MBG India. The company is also focusing on establishing the Motorola brand in the offline retail channel.

As of now, Lenovo has 8-9 regional distributors catering to 350-400 city distributors and covering around 12,000 retail footprints, which were till now only selling Lenovo branded products. However, they will now focus more on the Motorola franchise.