The mention of Transsion mobile phone may be a rather unfamiliar term in the eyes of many people. The Chinese brand, which was born in Shenzhen, does not sell in China or enter the US market, and its main market location is in the poor and backward African continent.
However, in Africa, Transsion mobile phone with its unique "smart tanning", "four cards and four standby", "mobile phone subwoofer" and other peculiar functions and innovative marketing strategies, coupled with the price is cheaper than cottage machines, it has successfully defeated international giants such as Samsung in just a few years, occupying half of the African mobile phone market, known as the king of African mobile phones.
In many parts of Africa, the status of Transsion mobile phones is comparable to the "old three" and "new three" necessary for Chinese marriage, and if African guys do not buy a TRANSSION mobile phone for their favorite object, it is almost impossible to talk about marriage.
So, why are these "strange functions" of Transsion mobile phones so popular with Africans? What kind of unique marketing strategy does it adopt? How did it defeat Samsung and become the hegemon of the African mobile phone market?
Next, we will explore the rise of Transsion mobile phones in the African market.
First of all, to understand the rise of Transsion mobile phones, it is necessary to mention Waveguide mobile phones. Bird phones were all the rage in China, especially around 2000, and you may remember the slogan: "Waveguide phones, fighter in mobile phones."
Founded in 1992, Bird initially started with pagers as its main business, but around 2000, it began to enter the mobile phone market. At that time, Bird and domestic brands such as Konka and TCL emerged, with a market share of more than 54%, which can be described as a prosperous moment.
However, since 2004, with consumers' pursuit of MP3, camera and other personalized functions, coupled with the entry of international brands such as Nokia into the Chinese market, coupled with the competition of low-priced cottage machines, domestic mobile phones such as Bird have declined rapidly. In 2005, Waveguide lost 470 million yuan and was in trouble.
At the time, Zhu Zhaojiang, Bird Bot's head of overseas markets, realized the company's decline and suggested that Bird should shift its market focus to Africa. However, company executives dismissed the proposal as unrealistic, arguing that Africa was too poor for almost anyone to afford a mobile phone. They even believe that the birds cannot be sold in the country, and to go to the African market is to "light candles in the pit", purely looking for.
Because the company's top management did not listen to his advice, Zhu Zhaojiang was disappointed. Although he joined Waveguide in 1996 and has been with the company for a full decade, he had a deep affection for Waveguide, but in 2006, he resolutely resigned and left Waveguide with a group of people.
After leaving Bird , he soon set up his own mobile phone company, which is today's TRANSSION. At the beginning of its establishment, TRANSSION focused its market on the African continent.
Africa is seen by many as poor and backward, with little purchasing power and no market for tech products.
Although big brands such as Samsung and Nokia sell mobile phones in Africa, they are more image projects, maintaining global brand reputation, and do not pay attention to the African market.
TRANSSION, on the other hand, focuses on the African market, so it has adopted a "right medicine" strategy according to the needs of African consumers, and has developed many seemingly strange but African features that are enjoyable by Africans.
TRANSSION's first unique feature is the "Smart Tanning" photo function. Africans love to take selfies, but the usual whitening and dermabrasion functions often don't work well due to darker skin tones. In addition, when taking photos at night, the average phone cannot focus correctly on the faces of Africans because they use facial recognition, and the faces of Africans are almost invisible in the dark. Transsion solved this problem by taking photos based on the positioning of eyes and teeth, coupled with the front flash and the "smart tanning" function, which allowed Africans to take satisfying selfies even at night, so it became popular.
The second unique feature of TRANSSION is "Four Cards and Four Standby", which allows the phone to insert four SIM cards at the same time. In China, dual SIM is not even mainstream, and most people only choose one carrier and one card, so four cards and four standby may seem a bit incredible to Chinese. However, in
In Africa, this function perfectly meets people's needs.
There are many mobile operators in Africa, competition is fierce, and calls between different operators are relatively expensive. However, replacing the SIM card is very cheap and costs almost nothing. As a result, almost every African carries multiple calling cards, averaging nearly three per person, and some even carry six or seven. However, the general mobile phone can only insert one card, so Africans have to turn on and off frequently to replace the phone card, which is very inconvenient. Transsion mobile phone first introduced China's dual-SIM dual-standby technology, and then launched four-card four-standby mobile phone, which meets the needs of most Africans, who no longer have to carry multiple cards and do not have to change cards frequently, so this feature is extremely popular.
In addition, Transsion Mobile has also launched the "mobile phone subwoofer" function. Africans love music and have great musical talent, dancing and improvising street music wherever they go. In order to meet this demand, TRANSSION mobile phones have increased speaker power and turned the mobile phone audio into a subwoofer, which can make music sound throughout the market even in the noisiest environments. This feature has made Transsion mobile phones a representative of music mobile phones and are very popular in Africa.
In addition to functions such as "Smart Tanning", "Four Cards and Four Standbys" and "Mobile Subwoofer", TRANSSION Mobile has launched many other unique features for the special needs of the African market. Considering the hot climate in Africa and the fact that people sweat easily, TRANSSION Mobile has specially developed acid-proof materials as the phone shell to ensure that the phone looks like new even after long-term use. In addition, Transsion mobile phones are very resistant to falling, because Africans like to hold mobile phones while dancing, and mobile phones are often hit.
Due to the lack of electricity supply in some parts of Africa, even if there is electricity, there are frequent power outages, so Transsion mobile phones have excellent standby time and can be used for a week or even more than a month.
However, in addition to these features, there is another very important reason for the popularity of Transsion mobile phones, that is, its price is affordable. TRANSSION initially launched feature phones in the African market, and the price was very low, even as low as sixty or seventy yuan. Later, the smart phones launched by Transsion are also affordable to the people, generally only four or five hundred yuan, equivalent to a fraction of domestic smart phones. The price is acceptable for Africans.
In addition, TRANSSION implements a strategy of small profits and quick turnover, although the price of mobile phones is low, but because the African continent has more than a billion people, which is similar to Chinese mouth, this is a huge market. In recent years, Transsion mobile phones have sold hundreds of millions of mobile phones in Africa every year, and the sales have reached tens of billions.
In addition to the product itself, Transsion Mobile has also adopted a unique marketing strategy in the African market. Unlike brands such as Samsung and Nokia, it not only advertises in media such as television and newspapers, but also adopts the propaganda strategy of "rural encirclement of cities", pushing advertising to every corner of the continent, including rural areas and slums. The promotion of Transsion mobile phones in rural Africa is somewhat similar to the way it was promoted in rural China two decades ago, that is, a large number of advertisements on the exterior walls of buildings. Transsion's wall brushing campaign has even pushed the paint industry in some countries to become a hot local industry.
In addition, TRANSSION mobile phones have established a strong distribution system in Africa. Due to Africa's low internet penetration rate and small market share of online e-commerce, Transsion promoted it by opening offline retail stores on a large scale. TRANSSION has more than 360 distributors in Africa, of which more than 20 have annual sales of more than 100 million.