In a market as competitive as China, where 400 million smartphones are expected to be sold this year, you’ve really got to do something special to stand out in such a crowded arena. Sometimes though it’s not highlighting all the features of your product that gets people to buy it though, sometimes you just need some good old head bashing to get some attention. That seems to be the tactic of Asustek’s newest ad campaign in which the manufacturer is turning to a more negative appeal a la political ad campaigns. While this tactic may present itself well to consumers, it could make Asus a bigger target to rivals, who can easily fire back with more harsh and increasingly negative ads.
Asus has called out Xiaomi specifically for its “hunger marketing” campaign in which the Chinese company only produces somewhere in the vacinity of 50,000 units of its phones in order to increase demand, fooling people into thinking that the phone won’t be available unless they act on it ASAP. This creates a false demand and Asus said that they won’t take part in this sort of tactic, citing that they won’t “treat our customers like idiots.” Making themselves out to look like the good guy is a great tactic, and one that could help the company out with future products. Letting consumers know how bad the competition is and how much they screw up helps highlight positive elements in your company and products, and Asus is hoping this strategy will help them reach their goal of 1 million ZenFones sold in Q2 2014 alone. Asus latest phone, the Zenfone 5, fits in the ultra-budget category that currently sells best in China, and is going for a super cheap $149. Asus expects to sell 10 million Zenfones this year, with preorders of the lineup exceeding expectations and driving the company to expect shipments of 200,000-300,000 in April, 400,000 in MAy and 500,000 in June.