THE BUCHAREST UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC STUDIES [626999]

THE BUCHAREST UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
The Faculty of Marketing in English

THE ROLE OF MARKETING
COMMUNICATION IN THE
WORLDWIDE IMAGE OF HUAWEI
COMPANY

Scientific coordinator :
Professor Univ. Dr. Stefan Caescu

Author:
Rat Ana Vanessa

Bucharest, 2019

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: Communication strategy
1.1.Theoretical concepts (LITERATURE REVIEW ): general definition of marketing,
definitio n of marketing communication, types of marketing and marketing communication,
marketing strategy, marketing share, def demand and supply, marketing mix (4Ps, customer
analysis and segmentation, brand equity, brand analysis, brand awareness and image, brand
identity(differentiator)
1.2.Personal Interest towards the subject
CHAPTER 2 : Marketing audit at Huawei Company
2.1. External environ ment analysis
2.1.1. Micro environment
2.1.2. Macro environment
2.2.International environ ment analyses
2.2.1. Hua wei Hi story
2.2.2. Huawei Timeline
2.3.SWOT analysis
CHAPTER 3: Future of the brand
– 5-year growth strategy
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER 1.0: Communication strategy

1.1. Theoretical concepts (LITERATURE REVIEW):

1.1.1.Definition of Marketing
Marketing can be defined as an organizational and social procedure where persons and groups
acquire what they require and want by the generation, contribution and trading of valuable
things .1
1.1.2.Marketing communication
The marketing communication can be defined as the specific mix of advertising, promotion and
sales, direct marketing and personal selling instruments the business uses for convincing communicate the value to the customer and grow customer relationships .
2
1.1.3.Marketing segmentation
Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong define segmentation as the company`s acknowledgment that
they cannot serve all the customers with equal level of contentment. Therefore for the business to
provide the maximum contentment possible, it is mandatory to establ ish a “Target Market”. The
“Target Marketing” is made up of a group of buyers that have similar requirements or/and characteristics to clients that the business chooses to serve.
3
1.1.4.Marketing share
Market share can be defined as the portion of a marke t (both in terms of units or profit/income)
detailed for a specific company. Companies marketing departments must be able to calculate
include sales targets as market shares due to the fact that this will show if the forecasts will be attained by evolving with the market or by conquering shares form competition. The business

1 Eugenia, S. (2019). 27 Lessons from Philip Kotler, the father of Marketing. [online] Postcron – Social
Media Marketing Blog and Digital Marketing Blog. Available at: https://postcron.com/en/blog/philip –
kotler -advice- for-online -marketing/ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2019].
2 UKEssays. November 2018. Kotler And Armstrong’s Marketing Communication. [online]. A vailable
from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/kotler -and-armstrongs -marketing -communication –
marketing -essay.php?vref=1 [Accessed 10 March 2019].
3 Eugenia, S. (2019). 27 Lessons from Philip Kotler, the father of Marketing. [online] Postcron – Social
Media Marketing Blog and Digital Marketing Blog. Available at: https://postcron.com/en/blog/philip –
kotler -advice- for-online -marketing/ [Accessed 10 Mar. 2019].

market share is very closely monitored for changes , and it drives to real time tactical or strategic
decisions.
Growing the market share is an objective with high importance for a com pany. By using the
market share as a meter for business it will make it less dependent of the economy’s state or
variations in the tax policy.4
1.1.5.Marketing strategy
The marketing strategy consists all company’s marketing targets into one complete plan. For
the business to sustain and grow to its maximum income potential it is imperative to have a good
marketing strategy that is based on focusing on the appropriate product mix and accurate market research. Therefore, the marketing strategy is the base of a good marketing plan.
5
1.1.6. Demand
Demand is described in economics as the consumer’s willing and capacity to buy a good or a
service. This is the fundamental force that runs economic growth and development. If the
demand would not exist, no compan y would ever produce goods or services, because no one
would need them.6
1.1.7. Supply
Supply represents the total quantity of products (services or goods) accessible for buying at any given price.
What determines supply:
a)Price. Companies want to obtain the maximum price, but the customers want to buy at lowest
possible price. In this case will occur the equilibrium price that will be settled where supply
meets demand.
b)Cost of inputs. If the input cost will be minimum, the profit will be maximum at any price level and more goods will be offered for that price.
c)Price of the other products or services. If the competition lower the prices for their goods, this
will reduce also the companies prices, and they may change to other profitable goods therefore
reducing the supply.

4 David J, R. (2019). Market share. [online] En.wikipedia.org. Available at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_share#cite_note -Marketing_Metrics2 -2 [Accessed 10 Mar. 2019].
5 BusinessDictionary.com. (2019). When was the last time you said this?. [online] Available at:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/marketing- strategy.html [Accessed 10 Mar. 2019].
6 KIMBERLY, A. (2019). What Really Makes the World Go Round. [online] The Balance. Available at:
https://www.thebalance.com/what -is-demand -definition- explanation- effect -3305708 [Accessed 10 Mar.
2019].

1.2. Personal Interest towards the subject
In 1978, China had switching capacity of only 4.05 million lines and only 2 million subscribers;
the telephone penetration rate was 0.38 percent, lower than the average rate in Africa, ranking
below 120th in the world.
A telephone was a luxury, exclusive to a minority in China’s privileged classes. This was more than a century after Alexander Bell had invented the telephone. The extreme i nadequacy of
communications facilities was a major bottleneck in the development of China’s national economy. It became strategically imperative to build out large -scale telecom facilities and
rapidly. However, the country didn’t have a single telecom equi pment manufacturer that was
worth its salt.
For this reason, China adopted a policy “exchanging the market for technology “, which meant
opening up its telecom market to foreign companies. Fortunately, the opening- up policy
coincided with a global IT revolution, expediting the development of China’s telecom
infrastructure and allowing it to acquire the most advanced telecom technology at the time .
As the years pass by , Huawei Company became one of the world largest smart phone company ,
winning the battle against Apple (second place globally ).The company’s fast evolution and
growth on the market made me want to learn more about it , and research what kind of strategies
are they using in order to achieve this result.
In 1987, Ren Zhengfei founded Huawei w ith the aim of becoming the backbone of the people’s
communication industry. So whenever they were given the slightest bit of hope, they would
choose to go out and challenge the world, even if the odds of winning were slim.
Huawei is not just a smart phone company, is much more than that , they’ve got three main
classific ations of services and products that the company offers: enterprise solutions, carrier
networks administrator and consumer services and products. . The variety of services that they
provide, kept them on the market .
Although they had some big accomplishments in the present, Huawei is a company that struggle to keep the good name on the market through their products and services. During their evolution, they had to deal with plenty of issues. Firstly, the products that they are making are still often
considered as a low quality, because of their price strategies and the origin of the country.
One of the most important assets of the company is the integrity, which turn the company to behave hone stly, through that they keep the promises and win the respect and trust of the
customers.

Over this year’s Huawei’s goal was and it is to provide an industry leading device product
,starting from a telecom equipment trader and becoming a world -class telecom equipment
manufactured within two decades.
But time brings seas of change. In only a few decades, the Chinese telecom industry has progressed by leaps and bounds, having ascended the ranks to join the United States and Europe
as one of the top three in the world. Only a few members of the old regime like Ericsson can still
compete with unpredictable newcomers like Huawei and ZTE. In 2010, Huawei was listed
among the Fortune 500.
The main focusing of the company is how to create a balanced international b usiness ecosystem
and how to ensure a smooth rise as Huawei furthers its global expansion.

CHAPTER 2: Marketing audit at Huawei Company

2.1. External environ ment analysis
2.1.1. Micro environment

Micro environment – The elements or the factors from an organization area of operations that
involve the achievements and decision- making freedom. These elements include customers,
suppliers, distribution channels and the general public.
Turn your eyes to your customers and your back to you r boss !
Huawei then become immersed in a great debate. A consensus was reached that the company
must continue to embrace “customer centricity”.
The underlying principle that had taken the company so far would remain fundamental to its future – that custome rs were the only reason for the existence of Huawei, and, as the matter of
fact, of any company.
Of the four strategic statements that Huawei later developed, the first one reads: “Serving
customers is the only reason Huawei exists. Customer needs are the fundamental driving force
behind Huawei’s growth.”
Ren Zhengfei mentioned that: “There seems to be this air in the company that people’s bosses
are more important than our customers. Perhaps because management has too much power, some
people care more about their bosses, and they make extremely thoughtful arrangements for
executives tr aveling on business. The question is: If they spend so much thought on this, how
much is left over for our customers?
Everyone in the company must turn your eyes to your customers and your back to your bosses. Do not go crazy doing slides to impress your bosses. Do not assume that you will get promoted just because your boss likes you. ”
Although its products were not as good as those of its competitors at first, Huawei was still able
to win its customers’ understanding and support through its excellent ser vice. Later , when its
products became as good or even better, customer loyalty came naturally.
A firmly held belief that customers always come first has essentially served as Huawei’s guiding
light over the past 27 years.

Huawei’s management believes that the company lives and dies by its customers’ value chains,
and that its own value depends on the value of the whole chain. The company can only stay alive
and prosper with customer centricity as its guiding force.
Customers are the heart and soul of Huawei . As long as the company had customers, Huawei’s
soul will always persist, no matter who leads it. The company is very fragile and will run into
trouble sooner or later if it depends too much on one leader.
Since 2005, Huawei’s relationships with it’s hundreds of customers have grown beyond the
purely transactional. They have become symbiotic and mutually enhancing strategic partnership.
This was a fundamental change for Huawei. But companies at this point are even more likely to
lose their grasp on common sense.
Their concepts of customer centricity, as well as their system of values may become distorted. It
was precisely at this stage that some Western companies began their downward spiral in spite of
rosy prospects. The decision makers at Huawei Technologies Co.,Ltd. Stood in awe as they bore witness to the collapse and fall of these companies like so many mountains caving in on themselves. And through this process they came to realize the incontestable strength of common
sense and essential truth.
As a r esult, between 2006 and 2010, Huawei Technologies Co.,Ltd. Exhorted customer centricity
widely throughout the company and organized a series of training sessions to reinforce the idea at all levels.
This was a new interpretation of customer centricity afte r Huawei began building strategic
partnerships with its customers. Huawei also changed its approach towards its competitors, and its market space has thus been extended.
In 2010, “customer centricity, dedication, and perseverance” were officially incorporated into
Huawei’s core values.

1.1 Huawei History

In 1987 the Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. began its activity in a small workshop in
Shenzhen, China developed by Ren Zhengfei , slowly transforming into largest multinational in
the world. Today the company is known for its constant development in the ICT (information
and communication technology) solution and its strong reputation as a carrier network and
service provider in the consumer and enterprise fields.

Their technological development was based on reverse- engineering of foreign products,
which created their foundation for future evolution. In- house R&D helped them to keep up with
the market, creating solutions and product s according to the customers demand.
Huawei has spread quickly across more than 140 countries, impacting over one third of the
global population due to the dynamic undercutting of prices as well as strong in- house Research
& Development (R&D).
Huawei is the only Chinese company that provides networking operation equipment to the
biggest communication operators such as: Orange, BT Group, T -Mobile and Vodafone. Their
main target in terms of service solutions and service products include: Customers Experienc es
Analytics, 4K Network Integration Service Solution, Antenna Convergence, E2E Planning &
Engineering Solutions, Data Center Integration Services, Business & Digital Service Integration,
Consulting Services, Managing customer experience services, network rollout service and system integration service.