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‘Every Nigerian should own a smart device’

By ADEYEMI ADEPETUN
02 December 2015   |   2:10 am
Regional Director, Nigeria and Central Africa, Alcatel Onetouch, Nick Imudia, in this interview with ADEYEMI ADEPETUN, speaks on the allure of the Nigerian economy, its plan to gain market share and other matters. What informed Alcatel Onetouch decision to enter the Nigerian market? As the smartphone and tablet markets have grown, especially here in Nigeria…
Imudia

Imudia

Regional Director, Nigeria and Central Africa, Alcatel Onetouch, Nick Imudia, in this interview with ADEYEMI ADEPETUN, speaks on the allure of the Nigerian economy, its plan to gain market share and other matters.

What informed Alcatel Onetouch decision to enter the Nigerian market?

As the smartphone and tablet markets have grown, especially here in Nigeria we wanted to bring the Nigerian market affordable, yet attractive and feature-rich devices in order to meet the needs of our customers. We recognise that every mobile user needs and deserves a device that offers good performance, beautiful aesthetics and rich functionality. As such, we’ll strive to offer choice, variety and flexibility to consumers irrespective of their budget.
We also wanted to ensure that we had the correct infrastructure in place in order to get these devices into the hands of our customers. We believe that we now have the correct mix to grow the brand and make an impact in the Nigerian market.

There are several phone brands in the country, how do you intend to break even considering your long absence from the Nigerian market?

The short-term immediate priority is to give Nigerian consumers, partners, operators and their consumers’ easy access to our vast range of affordable products
In the mid to long term, we believe we can grow Alcatel Onetouch into a major player in the Nigerian market. We have the brand, the products and the distribution capabilities to grow aggressively in the years to come.
Our key focus is to build the Alcatel Onetouch brand by providing tools that will grow and enrich our Nigerian market. We recognise that every smartphone user needs and deserves a device that offers good performance, beautiful aesthetics and rich functionality. As such, we’ll strive to offer choice, variety and flexibility to consumers irrespective of their budget.

Generally, how can you describe the Nigerian market?

The Nigerian market is one of the fastest. Nigeria is a middle income, mixed economy and emerging market, with expanding financial, service, communications, technology and entertainment sectors.

What will be the focus of your CSR activities in Nigeria?

At Alcatel Onetouch, we have a strong will to satisfy customers, to protect our environment and planet.
To achieve this goal, we launched an initiative to sell some of our mobile phones without wall chargers. We decided to launch this initiative in Western Europe as a first step, and we now encourage our partners to join the movement.
According to latest information, this type of initiative could reduce the amount of electronic waste caused by unnecessary and unused charges. The charger clutter represents a large part of 51,000 tons of electronic waste annually.
We have learnt that, most consumers now do already have suitable chargers at home and that standardized chargers are readily and widely available on the market.

What innovation are you bringing because many of the mobile phone operators in the market appear to be building their features on the same android platform?

Alcatel Onetouch is a global brand, which has redefined the mobile mass market by making the latest mobile technologies accessible to everyone.

It is the first to recognize the mass market’s needs and has since brought choice, variety and flexibility to customers – from operators to consumers. By combining its understanding of local insights and control of the end-to-end manufacturing process, Alcatel Onetouch delivers the best user experience with innovative, feature-rich and high performance mobile devices designed with simplicity in mind.

Alcatel Onetouch views the device as a hub, meaning that we consider complete home connectivity when we are designing and producing every product
Alcatel Onetouch is focused on Nigeria and offering choice, variety and flexibility to consumers irrespective of their budget.

We have the brand, the products, the price points and the distribution capabilities to grow aggressively in the years to come.

What are the marketing plans and communications being put in place to push Alcatel Onetouch in the market?

Kath Smith Senior Area Marketing Manager for Africa at Alcatel Onetouch has ensured that all key fundamental elements are in place when launching new products into the market place. This includes a focus on training of staff, a solid in-store presence with live/dummy devices, point of sale, promoters and the appointment of a field marketing team as well as a competent Advertising, PR and Social Media agency. This will ensure a good customer experience at store level.

Furthermore we have introduced an online purchasing arm, which ties into the strategy that sees a large focus on online purchasing and a strong digital approach.

Once this solid foundation has been built, Alcatel Onetouch will embark on an ATL campaign to build awareness with the consumer.

Beyond Nigeria, where else is the product making waves?

Alcatel Onetouch is one of the fastest-growing smartphone brands, which designs, manufactures and markets mobile and Internet products worldwide
The Group’s product portfolio is currently sold in more than 160 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific with Headquarters in Shenzhen, China, TCL Communication employs over 12,000 people

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