A Study of Brand Communication Strategies of Xiaomi

Abstract

The study applied both quantitative and qualitative method, which is a questionnaire and focus group, in this study as they have advantages over panel data or time-series data. The questionnaires were collected from eight major provinces of China with 1038 participants. The research focused on the company Xiaomi, a global joint technology company whose sales volumes ranked third in the smartphone market in 2020. The first questionnaire focuses on consumers' perception of five major Chinese smartphone brands' different communication strategies and compares Xiaomi's five aspects of its brand communication strategies horizontally to determine the weak aspect of Xiaomi's brand communication strategy and then compares it with other four brands to further complete the comparison. After obtaining the result from questionnaire, a focus group was formed to investigate the possible reasons behind the result, which is the public communication strategy of Xiaomi's. Moreover, the discussion result of focus group indicated that customer insulting and exaggerated statements are two main reasons behind the failure of Xiaomi's communications strategy in terms of public communication. The finding may be able to point out the direction of correction for Xiaomi and can benefit other smartphone companies as a warning sign.