Marketing Strategies That Chinese Business Leaders Use to Increase Sales of Smartphones

Chinese smartphone manufacturing business leaders are experiencing difficulties associated with entering into the U.S. market, partly because of U.S. government concerns that the technology could be used by the Chinese government to gather intelligence. Grounded in Rogers’ diffusion of innovation theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore marketing strategies Chinese smartphone marketing business leaders used to increase their smartphone sales in the United States. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and company documents from 3 Chinese smartphone marketing business leaders with successful experience in using marketing strategies to increase their smartphone sales in the United States. Yin’s 5-step thematic analysis process was used to analyze the data. Four themes emerged: removing barriers to entry, reducing out-of-home advertising, increasing digital advertising, and optimizing phone specifications to meet customer needs. A key recommendation includes increasing digital advertising to reach target audiences to increase sales in the United States. The implications for social change include the potential to increase smartphone sales in the United States, translating into a more extensive tax base that community leaders could use to implement projects that benefit the entire community, such as parks and recreation facilities. Further implications include the potential to create new jobs