For Huawei, ‘Ballet’ Is the New Cliché
BALLET promotes hard work, passion, commitment, and perfection. So does Huawei.
At least that is what Huawei’s advertising campaign wants you to believe. Although some critics, including company insiders, don’t quite see it that way. They found the advertisement far from uplifting.
But other marketing and product insiders explain the communication and marketing tactics behind their successful advertisement.
Huawei, established in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, is the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world. According to The Economist, it overtook Ericsson in 2012. Moreover, it has entered 57 international markets in just six months (PTI, 2015). With impressive results, the company became the first Chinese company to emerge on Interbrand's list of the top100 brands (Elliot, 2014), at No. 94, ahead of Heineken, Pizza Hut and the Gap.
However, the company has lately come under scrutiny for its close association with the People’s Liberation Army. Most notably, a United States Congressional committee recommended that U.S. telecommunications carriers stop using Huawei as a provider for networking gear. Following this lock out, the company faced public relations issues. The Australian Financial Review wrote that the company had refused to answer questions about national security threats (Grigg, 2015), and that reporters were subsequently banned from writing about Huawei. Later the company’s employees complained on public forums about poor working conditions. Although the company operates in several countries and its sales are in billions of dollars worldwide (Salvacion, 2015), it was clear that it needed an image makeover.
Thus followed Huawei’s 2015 campaign of high definition contemporary rhetoric print advertisement in strategically positioned billboards and full-pages of prime print magazines such as the January 17th 2015 UK edition of The Economist. Featuring a female ballet dancer’s feet, the right foot bruised and bandaged and the left foot encased in the shoe, perfect and ready for performance. The tag says, “The journey is hard. And joyful”.
The ad was criticized (Low, 2015), by some of Huawei’s employees and in other media as well, for being too introspective and looking back rather than forward. However, the Wall Street Journal noted that Ren Zhengfei himself argued that it perfectly reflected the company’s journey (Osawa, 2015) and its current operating philosophy – that of hard work without short cuts (Donald, 2015).
Exactly how does the advertisement portray the company’s ideology and key messages?
Ballet is perceived the world over as a craft that involves lots of hard work, perfection and professionalism. The company wanted to highlight Huawei’s quest for perfection when re-branding. “Sending a bold statement about our brand identity is a true shift,” said George Reed, senior vice president of solutions and marketing for Huawei Technologies USA. The ad showcases that Huawei’s superior achievements have been possible due to hard work and a continuous quest for perfection. It ultimately reflects the company’s commitment to its customers.
The challenge, of course, is to create something that is impactful and remains in consumer memory for a while. We are bombarded by images in print, on TV, on social networking; it is hard to remember any except the outstanding ones. Hartmut Klenner, Huawei’s director of product marketing says that consumers “encounter different visual advertisements that opt to sway and direct their thoughts and actions towards a certain direction”. While shock advertising, bold imagery (Elliot, 2014), and jargon may catch the eye immediately, oftentimes it is a simple, aesthetically pleasing design that is most effective.
Ray Ally, Huawei’s global branding and design expert, and George Zhao, Huawei's marketing director discussed at length how the final design came about. Ally says that their goal was to capture the mind of the customers. Different graphology elements, such as layout and spacing were used to attract the eye of the reader. The large light background which matches the color of the ballet shoes and stockings highlights the precisely aligned text. The Huawei logo appears away from the center. The text is centered and comprises only 50% of the image, thereby drawing the eye of the reader. Zhao said that the mood of the advertisement was kept formal. The main copy is displayed in a dense, justified paragraph with well-spaced words which improves readability. The choice of different typefaces also contributes to the appeal of the advertisement. “The journey is hard. And joyful," is written in large, golden and thin font. It provides a credible yet modern feel.
Klenner also pointed out that “Huawei balanced visuals in a simple way, by using juxtaposition.” By placing the hurt foot in the left corner parallel to the ready-to-perform foot, it causes the viewer to hypothetically experience contradictory feelings – of pain and joy. It reminds them of their own hard work, at work or at home, and its results. “The analogy encourages the consumer to trust our brand and buy our products,” he added.
The advertisement also uses various linguistic features. The use of monosyllabic words such as “clear”, “precise”, and “focus” convey a feeling of solidity and dependability. The use of weasel words (lexical feature), such as “unyielding”, tells the reader of Huawei’s capacity to deliver. The bandwagon “in more than 170 countries” furthers the notion of international repute and therefore credibility. Freelance marketing analyst Thomas Husson says that the advertisement employs almost all features of successful advertisements and therefore is effective.
I find it quite refreshing that unlike many product companies, Huawei did not use imagery of women with perfect bodies and hair to market themselves. While they chose to use the metaphor of sport and hard work, the ad did use the female rhetoric. It did not use a male ballet dancer or a predominantly masculine sport to convey the message. It is possible that due to the context of the re-branding Huawei wanted to take a “softer” approach. Thus it perpetuates the stereotype of softness and docility expected in women. It also continues to associate perfection with women, even if indirectly.
Future success will depend on the creative direction that Huawei will take in order to appeal to an audience that is constantly looking for high quality products, unique styles, innovative solutions, and personalized experience.
References
Donald, A (2015, Feb 4). What a Ballerina's Beat-Up Feet Have to Do With A Chinese Tech Brand. Adage.com. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/global-news/a-ballerina-s-feet-a-chinese-tech-brand/296977/
Elliot, S. (2014, Oct 8). Technology Titans Lead Ranking of Most Valuable Brands. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/stuart_elliott/index.html
Elliot, S. (2014, Dec 4). For Madison Avenue, ‘Bold’ Is the New Tack. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/business/media/for-madison-avenue-bold-is-the-new-tack.html
The Economist (2012, Aug 4). Who’s afraid of Huawei? The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/21559922
Grigg, A. (2015, Jun 9). Huawei's epic PR fail. Australian Financial Review. Retrieved from http://www.afr.com/technology/huaweis-epic-pr-fail-20150609-ghjlqh
Low, E. (2015, Jul 21). Internal criticism on Huawei’s ad campaign highlights its comms struggle. Marketing Interactive. Retrieved from http://www.marketing-interactive.com/huaweis-ad-campaign-blowback-highlights-communications-struggle/
Osawa, J (2015, Jul 19). Huawei Ad Debate Offers Look Inside Company. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/huawei-ad-debate-offers-look-inside-company-1437334665
PTI (2015, Mar 12). Huawei to Spend $10 Million in 2015 to Push Sales of Honor Series. NDTV. Retrieved from http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/huawei-to-spend-10-million-in-2015-to-push-sales-of-honor-series-669794
Salvacion, M (2015, Jul 22). Huawei Ad Looks Back at Company’s Hardship and Rise. Yibada. Retrieved from http://en.yibada.com/articles/47396/20150722/huaweis-ad-companys-hardship-rise.htm
Image: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sg7iQLcamF8/VRGy3AKBCsI/AAAAAAAADCM/iSK2v2DP5Bo/s1600/huawei%2Bballet%2B2.jpg
