Lenovo Makes India Marketing Services Hub

Lenovo Group Ltd. has moved worldwide marketing services such as creative development to a new hub it has established in Bangalore, India with marketing communications firm Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Inc.

The new center offers these services to all of Lenovo's operations outside China, said Rahul Agarwal, vice president for marketing at Lenovo India, in a telephone interview on Tuesday. Agarwal heads the new operation.

The center in Bangalore is involved in developing marketing materials, print, Web, and TV advertising, direct mailers, catalogs, point-of-sale displays, and outdoor advertising, Agarwal said.

Down the line, Lenovo may move some of its global product marketing functions to India as well, Agarwal added.

The staff at the center, currently numbering about 70, has teams from both Lenovo and Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) working together. While the O&M staff focuses on the creative development, Lenovo staff at the center coordinate the work with Lenovo's country managers in various countries. The center has dedicated teams for each geography, Agarwal said.

Lenovo decided to establish this operation in India because of the availability of high quality marketing talent in India, Agarwal said. Expertise in consumer marketing is going to be particularly important as Lenovo gets into the consumer market, he added.

Lenovo announced in April that it is setting up a consumer division to replicate worldwide its success in the Chinese consumer market.

Cost savings is a "healthy by-product" of having the operations in India, but was not the key driver, Agarwal said.

O&M has been associated with Lenovo worldwide, and understands the company's brand, Agarwal added.