Huawei, the Chinese smartphone challenger brand, hires IBM to advise on marketing structure

Huawei, the Chinese smartphone challenger brand, hires IBM to advise on marketing structure

Huawei, the Chinese telecoms company aiming to become a major global player in the cloud computing, smartphone and tablet markets, has hired tech giant IBM to help structure its internal marketing department.

IBM has 25 consultants working on the project, due to be completed by the end of November, Businessweek reported yesterday (Wednesday)

The brand, which claims to be China’s largest telecoms provider, has ambitions to more than triple sales to $100 billion in the next 10 years by expanding into consumer digital devices.

The news comas as Huawei is understood to be talking to UK agencies about a marketing push for its consumer mobile and tablet products in the next few months. It is seeking to challenge Taiwanese smartphone provider HTC and more established brands in the international smartphone arena.

Huawei has been working with IBM since 1998 when the brand first started exploring overseas expansion.

A Huawei spokesperson told Businessweek: "It’s not a traditional branding project where they tell us how the brand should be positioned. It’s more from the management-of-the-process point of view: How do I manage the brand function within the organisation? Who is responsible for what?"

Earlier this year Huawei hired Mark Mitchinson, the former head of Samsung Electronics in the UK and Ireland, as its UK executive vice-president.

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