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China’s world-leading smartphone industry needs world-leading packaging

The days when China’s comparative advantage in the global electronics market was based on waves of cheap labour flooding into cities from the countryside are well and truly over. As seen at this year’s first-ever Chinese Consumer Electronics Show demand within China, for Chinese designed and built electronics, is now a primary driver of China’s GDP and global technological innovation.

Nowhere is this more apparent than the mobile phone market; China manufactures about 70% of the global total. Many of those brands trade primarily within China but with their eyes firmly on international markets.

ZTE, a telecoms and mobile phone manufacturer had a brand awareness of less than 1% in the US in 2013. By sponsoring five professional basketball teams they quickly increased that figure to 34% by the end of 2015.

ZTE is far from alone. With over 400 brands in mobile phone brands in China it is an incredibly competitive market. Packaging is well positioned to provide a competitive advantage for brands as they jostle for market supremacy. Not only can great, innovative packaging reduce costs by reducing any damage or waste from shipping fragile electronics but it can also improve packing times on high speed assembly lines increasing industrial output.

For a company like Xiaomi, who was the top smart phone maker in China by the end of 2014 ahead of Samsung and Apple, packaging is vital to build the brand experience. That is because Xiaomi began life selling their phones exclusively online and the ‘unboxing’ experience becomes the only tactile meeting between manufacturer and customer. In terms of customer experience and customer retention packaging becomes as vital to the marketing equation as price, product, promotion and place.

Meizu is another mobile phone manufacturer you may not yet have heard of but they hit headlines last year when Ali Baba opted to invest $ 590m. Chairman Jack Wong has said that he intends to position Meizu as a clear alternative to the much larger Xiaomi. 

Ultimately it will be the global mobile phone customer who will win as fierce competition pushes innovation up and prices down. DS Smith China, strategically located in the technology hub of Shenzhen, can help ensure that the packaging for mobile phones is as innovative and clever as the phones themselves.