“It means we can penetrate further into tier five and tier six cities,” said Alice Li, a vice-president in Lenovo’s Greater China brand communications department who is responsible for Olympic marketing.
“Last year we did a ‘One thousand county Olympic road show,’ bringing Olympic history and culture to people living in remote cities. This was an opportunity for them to experience both the Olympic Games and computers.”
Li reports that sales in tier five and tier six cities are up 40% so far this year. In addition to road shows, Lenovo is focusing on TV exposure. It is making a string of commercials and is also the title sponsor of CCTV-1’s Olympic Games countdown series.
“They have to sponsor internally as it is a China event but really their marketing is more about the non-China market,” said Kirk Yang, managing director and head of Asia computer hardware research at Citigroup. “From a stock perspective, Lenovo has to continue growing in the US and Europe.”