IBM Corp was hired to advise Huawei Technologies Co on branding strategy as the Chinese telecommunications gear supplier expands into tablet computers, smartphones and cloud computing.

The project involves 25 consultants from the world's biggest computer-services provider and is expected to be completed by the end of November, Ross Gan, a Huawei spokesman, said in an interview yesterday. Harriet Ip, a spokeswoman in Singapore for New York-based IBM, confirmed the arrangement by phone yesterday. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

"It's not a traditional branding project where they tell us how the brand should be positioned," Gan said in a phone interview from Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen, southern China. "It's more from the management-of-the-process point of view: How do I manage the brand function within the organization? Who is responsible for what?"

Huawei is expanding its 13-year relationship with IBM as it seeks to more than triple sales to US$100 billion in the next 10 years by expanding into consumer digital devices and enterprise computing.

The thrust requires closely held Huawei to promote to consumers, businesses and government agencies, including those in the United States, where efforts to buy rivals have been rebuffed amid allegations the company threatens national security.
 

Source:shanghaidaily