How is VinSmart’s strategy to launch the US market different from other countries?

Tram Ho

Recently, the Nikkei Asian Review reported that Vingroup signed a contract to manufacture a total of 2 million Vsmart phones to the US market. A special feature is that, the first batch of smartphones available in the US will only be performed by VinSmart as an OEM (original parts manufacturer). Specifically, this phone model is developed and manufactured by VinSmart, but when sold in the US market, it will bear a different brand name.

 Chiến lược ra mắt thị trường Mỹ của VinSmart khác gì so với thị trường nước khác? - Ảnh 1.

Vsmart’s “step into the world” journey

Previously, Vsmart phone models were distributed and launched in many foreign markets. The first overseas market the company chose to launch was Spain, in March 2019. Vsmart models are distributed through a chain of nearly 90 stores at a famous consumer electronics retailer in Europe – MediaMarkt.

The Spanish market is certainly not a random choice of VinSmart. One year before deciding to launch this European market, VinSmart signed a comprehensive cooperation contract with BQ (a leading European technology company headquartered in Spain).

BQ is a very familiar name in the Spanish market. Data from research firm Statcounter shows that BQ smartphones ranked 5th in the Spanish smartphone market in the first half of 2018, before the announcement of cooperation with VinSmart.

2 months after the launch of the Spanish market, on May 29, 2019, Vsmart continued to launch in another foreign market – Myanmar. The distribution partner of Vsmart this time is Strong Source Company. At the same time, Vsmart also cooperates with 2 major retailers (direct and online distribution) in Myanmar, Mytel (Viettel) and Shop.com.mm (Alibaba) through Strong Source.

VinSmart’s third export market is Russia. On October 3, 2019, VinSmart announced its entry into this market through the distributor TFN Trading.

How to enter “special” in the US market

However, this time, when entering the US market, why does VinSmart accept consumers receive a phone produced by VinSmart but not under the Vsmart brand? According to VinSmart General Director, Ms. Le Thi Thu Thuy, this is a step to help businesses understand the US market, how to work as well as consumer product needs.

In fact, VinSmart’s step to building relationships with US carriers is part of its long-term plan to enter the market with a series of these technology giants. Building relationships with US carriers is not a strange story for phone manufacturers. Operators in the US are always considered the “dominant” of the telecommunications industry, being the largest distributor and bridge between mobile phone products and mobile subscribers.

Therefore, even Steve Jobs, since the iPhone was not released, he also had to go to the carriers to offer the product and even he was rejected outright. Up to now, the feature and configuration race Apple has always needed the backing from carriers.

The first Android smartphone launched in the US market by HTC and Google was also named T-Mobile G1 (the name of T-Mobile carrier). Samsung is also no exception when the first Galaxy models sold in the US always have the carrier’s logo and brand name.

Consumers are also no stranger to the fact that Samsung has many different versions of the same product every time they launch for the respective carrier number. By 2017, the Samsung Galaxy S8 model is considered “excellent achievement in design” when no carrier brand appears on the logo.

In fact, with the exception of Apple, the story of launching different versions for different carriers has been around for a long time in the US. The reason is that the main carriers are the phone retailers in the US market, they have a huge influence on the phone manufacturers.

Thus, the cooperation with the carrier is a necessary stepping stone for VinSmart to realize its goal of conquering the US market – one of the most “difficult” markets in the world.

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Source : Genk