Since the pandemic, a growing sentiment of prioritizing quality grew in multiple aspects like the in Mental Health, Sustainability, Time management, etc. This resulted in the shift in how consumers choose commodity, in this case let’s focus in how the Honor X9a and X9b was able to be the first in harnessing this trend.
You all saw early in the year the Sunrise Orange HONOR X9b 5G being smashed, dropped, abused, sometimes dipped in water, and it does utterly make you curious to say “What on earth are they doing”? Simply seeing a smartphone being used in unorthodox method triggers your curiosity.
While this isn’t really new as you might have seen this action in last year’s Honor X9a 5G smartphone campaign, but the actions in this campaign is indeed more intense. This year’s iteration more durable in design with an All-Angle Ultra Though technology, as the X9b 5G HONOR focused in improving the durability of the smartphone also in the frame and internal components.
The main benefit that HONOR is fronting in the X9 smartphone series of smartphone is their own technology of their proprietary glass that can withstand more than what the industry have seen. Even more beating than the usual glass that we see like from Corning Gorilla and Dragontail, which is a technology that can’t be simply be mentioned and must be demonstrated to be believed.
Fact : Not everyone can read specifications
Imagine that you are in SM Cyberzone and all you see are smartphone specifications, seeing all the same thing being fronted by other brands. But belive it or not, a fact is that majority of consumers aren’t familiar with these jargons.
But when you see “All-Angle Ultra Though” will let you read the main benefit of the product up front, added with the viral social media campaign that you have seen then its a formula for you to check out the product indeed. As a result, the HONOR X9b 5G stood out from the crowd of smartphones being launched with the focus in camera, display or charging.
Nevertheless, the smartphone is still formidable in its package when it comes to specifications, you can check out our review of the Honor X9b 5G here.
What’s the proof?
Here is a snapshot of this month’s Google trends which is a reference of marketers (particularly smartphone brands) to see an overview on how their campaign is doing in real-time. As you can see, the spike in searches for the HONOR X9B 5G is strong and doesn’t dip as it was able to stretch out the whole month of January.
This is supported by the brand’s claim of sales records which they said that it surpassed the predecessor’s sales performance. But overall this is just one reference of campaign effectiveness in the initial phase which we call “Awareness Stage” or the duration where the brand introduces their product to the public.
Double Edge Sword Campaign
Being different in campaign executions to stand out can also have a backfire effect. In the brand’s community page it seems that there are sentiments that the smartphone smash test overshadowed the phone’s main purpose.
This may also encourage consumers to literally mimic the same actions they see from the influencers, but of course nothing is completely indestructible so we may evidently see cracked Honor X9b smartphones eventually and it might be from self-consumer actions.
But fortunately this is being addressed by the brand’s very active community leaders, just remember that you still have to be the wise consumer of being responsible of taking care of your device.
A different side of smartphone specs
With Honor focusing on a more relatable user benefit which in this case is durability, the brand was able to capture the attention of a wider target audience of Filipinos. Honestly we are happy of this development as Filipinos now have a difference spectrum to consider when buying a smartphone, not just focusing on specifications like pre-pandemic but now also in how it looks but also how durable the product is.
