The Marketing Director, Gionee Communication Equipment Company Limited, Habeeb Somoye, speaks to Raheem Akingbolu on the sophistication of Nigerian consumers and the unique selling point of the Gionee brand. Excerpts:
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 Can you access the contribution of Information Communication Technology(ICT) to the Nigerian economy?
Seriously speaking, I will say this should be a case study of a project topic because it is huge and cannot be quantified. As I speak, the ICT sector is playing a major role in driving the economy just as it is doing same globally. It is important that any country or business that takes its growth seriously in this modern age must key to ICT. There is no short-coming.
The impact of  ICT in the economy of Nigeria has been on the positive side. The progression analysis has always been on upward trend. Now, where I am, I am sitting and working with the help of my phone. I can carry out bank transactions via my phone. I can communicate and also use my phone as document archive. Let’s come back to the market itself. Talk of Computer Village, do you know the millions of people that are earning their living there? Back then when computer village was still for laptop, compared to the number of people we have then. That has created employment opportunity and also improved the standard of living of people.
 How has Gionee led by example in this regard
At Gionee, we know that if you want to survive in this industry, you don’t just provide experience; you provide solution experience. We have different models of phones and they deliver different solution to individuals and the entire economy. When it comes to security, we have a gadget that will protect anything about your phone.
 Early in the year, you signed up Seyi Shay as your brand ambassador. Is this the first time of having an ambassador in this market?
This is the first time we would be having a brand ambassador. Before now, we have had a product face. What Seyi Shay is doing is representing the brand. The idea behind it is that we want to localise the brand. We want to let Nigerians know that this brand has come to stay. A brand that give value for money and serve as engine room of creating values to you, your household and the economy.
Has there been any impact since the ambassador came on board?
Yes! We have done basically what we have not seen before. If you look at our A1 series that we launched, we have the image of Seyi Shay on the pack. That’s telling people that this is our own brand; a local brand. It has helped in terms of acceptability and endorsement of the brand. We didn’t just do this. We picked Seyi Shay because she has the social value that we need and want to portray which has no negativity.
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How has it been for the Gionee brand in the Nigerian market?
The brand has experienced a lot of acceptability, loyalty and affinity. I am going to use these three things to define the best way the brand has been doing. It’s not easy to see a brand getting the loyalty of Nigerians. And it is of no reason than that we promise and deliver more than we promise. Gionee in Nigeria is known for something, and it’s something good. We are known for power. And today, we are telling people that we are now known for power and selfie. We have much to that. We have done our research and consumer insight. We found out that in the market, people take selfie as another way of life. People take it as an integral part of their life. At any point they do things, they take selfie. And that tells us that selfie is taking an integral part of a phone in the future. And I think it’s smart of the brand to have taken this opportunity by producing the best of selfie phone with a very strong battery.
What do you think would make an average consumer prefer Gionee to other brands?
At Gionee, we have our own production plant that help us a lot in our design and which helps us in getting what the customers want. We also have our own research and development which also help us as well to focus on the quality of production and quality assurance of everything we do. It also helps us identify the need of customers and also identify what they want to get from their needs in terms of satisfaction and experience and in turn give them value for money. We have been able to do that and it helps us in acceptability of the brand. We have different product segment that targets different sets of people subject to what you want to buy. People buy phone for gadget or fashion. Basically, customers buy phone taking a look at the battery, the RAM, size of the phone, android version of the phone, and other factors. Now, the idea is if I’m buying for gadget, I consider what type of job I’m doing. My job does not give me time to charge phone, the unique selling point for me would be the battery. But if I’m into fashion business, camera would be top of mind for me. Irrespective of what you want to use it for; we have it all in Gionee. And with the help of products series and segmentation, it has helped us to target and meet the needs of different customers in the industry.
Beyond Nigeria, what other parts of the world does Gionee has presence?
Presently, we are in 54 countries in the world, Nigerian inclusive. In particular, Gionee is strong in Asia, and Africa.
Can you briefly describe the attitude of a Nigerian consumer?
The attitude of an average Nigerian consumer has to do with their needs and wants. Technology wise, Nigeria is growing faster. Few years back, we were in the age of GSM and we moved to the age of 3G network. Today, what people want to get is 4G. Today, people now go for phones of bigger Mega pixel. Nigerians are highly techy and that’s why we have different reviews online that tell you the value of the phone. We introduced android version few years back in Nigeria. As of last year, we were on 6.0, but as of today, we are now on 7.0 Nougat android version. Now, Gionee doesn’t produce any phone less than Nougats. Less than two years ago, we were on 5.0 Lollipop, but because of the taste of Nigerians in terms of technology, we moved from that pretty fast. And we don’t just provide android version, we have our own inbuilt version that we call Amingo. It’s our own operating system that helps make the android version faster. It helps it take more burdens and makes it bigger to provide more experience to customers.
Lack of after sales by some companies, have become a headache to many consumers. What is your brand’s offering on this?
When you talk about after sales, for any brand that wants to survive in this industry in Nigeria, you need to think of the sales and after sale. The idea is people experience it and how do they continue the experience? Presently, Gionee has experience centres across Nigeria. Here in Lagos, we have two in Computer Village Ikeja. And in every state where we have Gionee, we have one. What happens to be the challenge that most brands have when it comes to after sales in importation of parts. Like I said, we don’t contract this out. We have our own plant in India which is one of the biggest in India. And when you take care of your production yourself, you would be able to control the parts and materials. So that has not been a challenge to us. And because we so much believe in our quality, we do what we call added benefit. What is obtainable in the industry is 12 months warranty. But in Gionee, what we are doing is 15 months because we are sure of what we are doing.
