Lenovo has 2X the manufacturing capacity over last year in India: Chandrika Jain

Lenovo is one of the world’s leading personal technology companies, producing innovative PCs and mobile Internet devices. According to the Global PC market share by units, per cent (2016–2020) Lenovo is the largest PC vendor across. In today’s world, Lenovo is a US$70 billion revenue global technology powerhouse, ranked #159 in the Fortune Global 500, employing 75,000 people around the world, and serving millions of customers every day in 180 markets. It has major research and manufacturing centres in countries around the world. The brand has recently unveiled its next-generation jewel-crafted Yoga series; the battle-ready Legion and IdeaPad gaming laptops, in India, empowering consumers to Do More, Their Way. Launched at the #ExperienceSmarter event: Legion 5i, Legion 5i Pro, Legion Slim 7i and the IdeaPad Gaming 3i along with Yoga 9i, Yoga Slim 7i Pro, and Yoga 7i. These laptops are equipped with a 12th generation Intel Core processor, faster graphics, improved battery performance, and sustainable design to further Lenovo's Smarter Innovation for consumers. The AI-powered Yoga laptops are designed to anticipate user interaction and push the limits of smarter, high-performance gaming and content creation.

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In conversation with Adgully, Chandrika Jain, Marketing Director, Lenovo, speaks at length about the brand’s marketing strategy, how they fulfilled the demand for products during the pandemic and much more.

What strategies would you suggest for maximum reach for a newly launched product?

In India, reach is still largely driven by traditional channels like television, however, digital also plays a very large role in media for reach. So, for me a combination of things like television, print, and digital would be a good strategy to achieve reach.

Why do you think that your products stand out from those of your competitors?

I am very sure my product stands out from those of my competitors. A lot of what happens in the area of technology is largely based in the technology itself that we are serving. Whether it is Legion or Yoga, the kinds of features that we are building into these products will make any consumer who pays attention realise that they are differentiated and that’s why they stand out.

For example, for Yoga, we started with a simple thing like it’s design – the way it is built, the curved edges or what we call the jewel design, makes it not only gorgeous to look at, but if you were to handle the product, you will realise how easy it is on your hands and, therefore, you like the experience that it is delivering on the outside. But we take it many more levels inside. When you open the product and you look at the overall screen of the product, you’ll realise that we have the thinnest bezels that are available in the market today. But what does that mean to the consumer? When you switch that on, you see the widest screen possible. And that is delivering an experience. When you compare that with other products in the market, it will automatically stand out.

We are packed with AI features. Today, privacy is everything. The screen remains on as long as you are in front of it, but the minute you move away, your screen shuts down and will switch on again when you are in front of it. All this is happening because of AI. Thus, simple things like this add to the differentiation of this product – not just on the outside, but also on the inside. We have Lenovo Smart Lock embedded in Yoga, which means that if you lose your product, we will be able to find it and you will be able to remotely delete all the data that is on the product if anything happens to your product, and so on and so forth.

Any consumer who is investing in the product will also want good after-sales service. Hence, we have ramped up our after-sales service to ensure that not only are you going to get premium care, where our best service people will respond to any queries that you might have, but should there be any accidental damage, we will take care of that too. If you need your data migrated from one place to another, we will take care of that. We take it one step further to service as well. Yoga will also help you contribute to the sustainability goals of the world by ensuring that for the emissions that Yoga is creating, we are offsetting it at some other part of India. If you look at what Yoga is offering, it is absolutely differentiated and a consumer today is an extremely intelligent person who doesn’t need much more to explain that it is a differentiated product.

How are you keeping Lenovo competitive in a price-sensitive market like India?

India is a value-conscious country. But the definition of value, depending on the strata of society that you belong to, still remains the same. What India means by value is not necessarily always cheap. Yes, sometimes the size of the wallet is lower. But it also means, what are you able to give me within that price point that is of value to me. As a brand, Lenovo has multiple segments and multiple price points that we offer to the consumer. So, based on the size of the wallet that the consumer has, we have something of great value for that consumer, because within that price point we are offering them the best that we can.

We have IdeaPad gaming, starting at the entry-level of gaming that goes all the way up to Rs 150,000, where we are offering a best-in-class Legion reach. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that if you want a more mainstream product and you are an entry-level gamer, we still have a product in that segment. So, Lenovo offers products in every segment, irrespective of the value that the consumer is deriving, we will have something to offer for you within your definition of value. From a brand standpoint, I do believe that brands do play a role in people’s minds. In a world that is so full of competition, products and offerings, the brand is the only biggest differentiator that exists.

Since various states were divided into zones with different rules in place during the lockdown period, how did you manage the distribution network amid all the restrictions?

Lenovo’s distribution and supply chain network is extremely efficient. So, while there were restrictions in place, we managed to crack it well in time, which is why our products continued to be available across markets, both Tier 1 and Tier 2 markets, with smaller and bigger partners. So, it wasn’t as much a challenge as it might have been for some, because we had figured a way out.

The strict restrictions imposed due to the global pandemic had severely impacted all manufacturing facilities. How did Lenovo meet the challenges during that period?

There were times in the last two years where the pandemic had impacted our manufacturing operations. We decided to keep the safety of our employees at the forefront. We have 30 manufacturing plants across the globe. There were instances during the pandemic period when we had shut down our manufacturing and supply operations. It did create supply chain management issues, but things started to ease out once we restarted manufacturing keeping all safety protocols in mind to ensure that the demand was met. So, it has been a fair balance of some shutdown and some movement to be able to keep the cycle going and to meet the demands that have been quite high in the last two years.