Lenovo uses Bollywood icon to burnish its credentials in India

The beaming face that peers out of roadside billboards in Basti, a small town 700 kilometres southeast of New Delhi, is the one connecting Lenovo to a whole new client base in India's hinterlands.

The use of Bollywood icon Ranbir Kapoor's star power in a movie-crazed society is only the latest in a string of marketing initiatives and business strategies that has made Lenovo a household name in one of the most promising markets in the world, with its history of clicking in India offering invaluable lessons for any Chinese company aspiring to multinational status.

"Lenovo has had a long and very strong presence in the laptop space, acquiring a solid understanding of the Indian consumer's psyche," said Jayanth Kolla, the founder and partner at telecommunications research firm Convergence Catalyst. "It has also invested a lot in building the brand, as opposed to other Chinese companies that look for quick returns.

"The average Indian customer doesn't even know that it's a Chinese company."

That is probably because Lenovo does not see itself as one. Its India marketing head, Bhaskar Choudhury, bristles at the suggestion that Lenovo is Chinese. "Look at our brand acquisitions in Brazil, Argentina and Russia," he said. "You would be hard-pressed to find a brand as global as we are."

Lenovo's multinational credentials are hard to beat. It has headquarters in China and the United States, with various key business operations spread elsewhere. Its global headquarters for advertising and marketing, for example, are in Bangalore. Similarly, the company's top 10 executives represent seven nationalities, including two Indians.

Last week, Lenovo reported a 36 per cent year-on-year jump in quarterly net profit to a record US$219.7 million, helped by its status as the world's leading vendor of personal computers, with a 17.7 per cent market share. In India, its market position varies from quarter to quarter, hovering in the top three. According to IDC, Lenovo's market share in India stood at 9.3 per cent in the second quarter.