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Friday, March 29, 2024

How a shopless company sells a lot of smartphones

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One of the best-selling smartphones in the Philippines is not even available at brick-and-mortar stores, but the marketing guys at Alcatel Flash make sure that these mobile devices reach the consumers just the same.

“Sales have been extraordinary for Flash 2.  We have met every sales target,” says Albert Wong, general manager for mobile Internet group of TCL Communications, the Chinese company that acquired Alcatel Mobile Phones from Alcatel-Lucent of France in 2005.

Alcatel Flash is a unit of TCL that manufacturers the Flash model of camera smartphones for the Southeast Asian market, including the Philippines.  Its latest product is Flash 2, known for its 5.5-inch screen, volcanic ash color and Android Octa-core 1.4 GHz processor.

Wong says sales of Flash 2, which is perfect for mobile photography, have exceeded expectations in the Philippines, even without making them available at traditional shops.  

TCL Communications general manager for mobile Internet group Albert Wong (left) and Alcatel Flash country manager for the Philippines Lei Zhang

The marketing strategy, he says, is that Alcatel teamed up with e-commerce website Lazada to bring the product to the Filipino consumers.

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“With these products, we can sell thousands of units in an hour online,” says Wong, who focuses on promoting Flash 2 across Southeast Asia. On how this became possible, he says the whole thing is about e-commerce marketing.

“I am based in Hong Kong but I travel around Southeast Asia,” Wong says in an interview.  “We are doing a decent job in a couple of countries. Flash 2 is selling great in the Philippines and Indonesia.”

Aside from the regional headquarters in Hong Kong, Alcatel Flash has an office in Makati City, where it employs 10 people, mostly in marketing. Wong acknowledges the Philippine team for surpassing the sales target.  “Offline, we are still planning what our sales target is gonna be,” he says.

With the initial success of its products, Alcatel Flash held a fans day at the Ayala Triangle Garden in Makati City.  Alcatel Flash Philippines is one of the best performing countries in Asia Pacific both in sales and social media engagement, says Sheree Gayas, country marketing manager of Alcatel Flash.

“For online, our exclusive partner is Lazada.  We are good partners and we will continue to partner with them to see how we could increase sales and have an even bigger market share,”says Wong.

Wong says Flash 2 is the top selling smartphone at Lazada. “Lazada is the biggest online store.  It covers 90 percent of the online business. In the smartphone alone, we are the biggest selling.  So I think, if you have such a scale in e-commerce and we are the biggest, I think Flash 2 is the bestselling smartphone online,” he says.

The new Flash 2 phone has a 147-gram weight and designed to be sturdy, with an arc on the phone’s back, giving a comfortable sense to the fingers, according to an Alcatel Flash press statement.

The phone is manufactured in China where Alcatel Flash has a large manufacturing facility. Wong says the company will continue to address the preference of the young generation for smartphones, with higher specs, improved software and enhanced mobile camera experience.  

“We have not even gone offline yet. By mid-January, we will go offline,” says Wong.

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