Internal Assessment
How to adapt Xiaomi's marketing to the Ecuadorian market?
Business Management
Number of Words: 1499
Banner Code: jzt108
Index
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….3
Marketing Model……………………………………………………………………….4
Analysis………………………………………………………………………………….9
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..10
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………...11
Introduction
Xiaomi Corporation is a company focused on the development of smart devices,
to be as user-friendly as possible, as well as committing to constant innovation focused
on quality and efficiency. Its great presence in the market is due to the wide range of high-
quality products at affordable prices, which, as the Xiaomi team ensures, so that "its users
have to access to a better life through its innovative technology” (Jun 2018). But Xiaomi
was not always the multi-billion-dollar company we know today, rather this achievement
has been earned through the work of a team of experienced partners from Motorola,
Kingsoft, and Google China led by Lei Jun, who today is considered the "Chinese Steve
Jobs" due to his great leadership ability and intelligence in the area. From this effort, the
team grew until it was not only limited to the smartphone market, so they also patented
air purifiers, Smart TVs, routers, cameras, water purifiers, electric bicycles, and drones.
However, despite all this progress and effort, Xiaomi was still a brand that was only sold
in China, so after a crisis in the market, it decided that the safest thing was to expand to
other countries, managing to be present today. in more than 90 countries as reported by
the website "El Universal". Through the path that it has taken, it is evident that Xiaomi is
a company full of successes with a great projection for the coming years. But the rapid
global expansion of its products and being a strength are becoming a weakness. And it is
that the company already has a marketing plan to follow anywhere, always focusing on
developing hunger marketing, but it is leaving aside the fact that not every country is the
same, which is why it is having problems in Ecuador reaching people. Based on the
marketing strategies used by other large companies in Ecuador, such as launch planning,
better market research within Ecuador, and giving even more relevance to the SMART
idea of the brand. That is why this internal assessment addressed the question “How to
adapt Xiaomi's marketing to the Ecuadorian market?”
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Marketing Model
Xiaomi is a Chinese technology company dedicated to developing various
electronic devices to improve the lives of users. This same variety that the company
offers, gives you the possibility of using a type of marketing that other phone companies
worldwide cannot match, this marketing alternative is called "Hunger Marketing".
According to the Benchmark page, this strategy is better known as "The Marketing
Strategy that Makes People Hungry for More", in which the seller put benefits before
features. This marketing strategy is focused on manipulating consumer emotions,
bringing products to market with an attractive price point and restricted supply, and
consumers have a stronger desire to make a purchase. (Cuofano, 2020)
Figure 1: Hunger Marketing: SWOT Analysis
Source: https://www.benchmarkemail.com/es/blog/la-estrategia-de-
marketing-que-hace-a-las-personas-tener-hambre-de-mas/
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However, this type of marketing works only when there are already customers
interested in the brand, so Xiaomi uses the second form of marketing to win customers,
Word of Mouth Marketing. Instead, this type of marketing is based on a company’s
actions to motivate users and customers to spontaneously talk about the products and
services it offers. As Medina (2020) mentions, this type of marketing aims to get
prospects and customers to position a brand through positive reviews and
recommendations that generate confidence in its products and services.
Figure 2: Word of Mouth Marketing: SWOT Analysis
Source: https://branch.com.co/marketing-digital/que-es-el-
marketing-boca-a-boca/
Using the first concept, the technology company managed to create a perfect
prototype for a physical store in which this form of sales can be achieved. This model
was based on the fact that on the commercial premises there is a great variety of products,
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such as cell phones, LED lights, headphones, electric skates, bascules, switches, and
accessories, among others. These are exposed independently detailing the advantages
they have and highlighting in each one the compatibility that all the products had with
each other, based on the same operating system. From this idea Xiaomi has managed to
open thousands of stores throughout the world, thus generating constant users of the
brand.
Figure 3: First Xiaomi´s store in Ecuador
Source:
https://www.metroecuador.com.ec/comercial/2021/12/13/xiaomi-abre-
local-en-mall-del-sol/
On the other hand, in Ecuador, we find a market that is quite controlled by brands
that have been in the market for years, so it is difficult for Xiaomi to become one of the
leading brands. For this reason, the company should adopt new marketing strategies,
which are more effective for the Ecuadorian people. The most used today by companies
such as Claro, Supermaxi, and Favorita’s Corporation; are "Positioning Marketing" and
"Rewards Marketing", which have allowed them to dominate the market over other
franchises.
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Positioning marketing is a market strategy. As Philip Kotler (2021) states, it
consists of designing the commercial offer in such a way that it occupies a precious place
in the minds of consumers. So, there must be a strong relationship between visibility and
understanding of the market to locate potential customers. However, there is often
confusion between positioning and brand recognition, this is because positioning is a
concept that encompasses: the level of sales, market share, the frequency of use of
products or services, and positive feedback from users. In this way, the company is
positioned as one of the best, instead of simply being known by users.
Figure 4: Positioning Marketing: SWOT Analysis
Source: https://rockcontent.com/es/blog/posicionamiento-de-marca/
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Finally, Rewards Marketing is a market strategy that, as Ana Delgado (2022)
mentions, “consists of designing a strategy that attracts customers in exchange for a
reward”. In this type of marketing, a sales gain is sought in all the brand's products, since
it offers the possibility of measuring the impact of the marketing strategies used and the
acquisition of relevant data on the consumer and their purchasing habits. But there are
some problems with this type of marketing, the first is the investment of the business or
franchise to create an attractive rewards system for the customer, and the second is the
difficulty in introducing this model in the market without generating losses since it is
marketing strategy does not work for all businesses.
Figure 5: Rewards Marketing: SWOT Analysis
Source: https://www.questionpro.com/blog/es/programa-de-recompensas/
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Analysis
From the comparison between the different SWOT analyses, we can see that the
Xiaomi brand has great global potential based on the marketing strategies it uses in
Europe, however, this can be further enhanced with local strategies in each country, in
this case in Ecuador. In the international model that the brand shares, we can find some
strengths concerning its marketing strategies, such as great loyalty from its consumers, a
great diversity of attractive products for the customer, and stable growth in sales. On the
other hand, the marketing proposals used in companies such as Claro, Supermaxi, and the
Favorita Corporation, can give a greater increase in consumers, a better market position,
and a reactivation of old clients. When analyzing the weaknesses, it can be noted that the
proposed strategies may not have these problems in Xiaomi, since this company, being a
global franchise, can easily alleviate the weaknesses generated by each type of marketing,
to begin with, we have a slow growth, which does not it means a great impact for the
brand, secondly, Xiaomi has a large budget to invest in the growth of its market and
thirdly, the work needed to propose these strategies can be optimized by the great team it
has worldwide. Analyzing the opportunities offered by these two proposals, we can find
that both seek to have more information about the client, either by doing a market
segmentation or an analysis by rewards program, in addition to helping in a study also
benefits the brand image. Finally, when talking about possible threats in the strategies
mostly used in the Ecuadorian market, they are limited to external factors, since both
brand positioning and a rewards program depend on the type of client who is interested
in the brand and the possible competitors that choose to use the same marketing strategies
in the technology sector.
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Conclusion
In concluding the investigation, answering the question “How to adapt Xiaomi's
marketing to the Ecuadorian market?”, Xiaomi has a very high growth potential
throughout America but by adapting to certain environments of each country it can have
a greater impact. Even while the investigative work of this evaluation was being
concluded, the company took into account one of the models that this work proposes,
Rewards Marketing, from the opening of a second physical store in Quito, Ecuador. This
news generated great profits for the technology company since it was shown how
applying a different marketing strategy can generate great results. At the same time, it is
only a matter of time for Xiaomi to carry out a new investigation in the Ecuadorian market
in search of applying a new strategy in search of more consumers faithful to its inventions.
It is important to emphasize that before proposing any change in a marketing strategy, a
market study of its competitors must be carried out since it is not the same in all cases. In
addition to the fact that a change or implementation of a new way of attracting customers
is a risk for the company, especially for franchises like Xiaomi.
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La historia de Xiaomi, el gigante chino de la tecnología en la lista negra de Estados
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Medina, R. K. (2020, November 6). ¿Qué es el marketing boca a boca? Branch.
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Programador Click. (n.d.). El camino de marketing de Xiaomi y OPPO: una
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