Any brand re-introducing themselves into a market that they’ve already previously left is fraught with plenty of challenges. Former Huawei sub-brand HONOR knows this too well – after Huawei’s high-profile spat with the US government and their quiet departure from the Philippine market (twice), the brand has managed to gain viral success with their HONOR X9a 5G, which is still highly sought after in the market, almost six months on. In all measurable metrics – from sales to marketing to user satisfaction, HONOR is a rising star in the Philippines, and it’s all mainly thanks to Stephen Cheng, the brand’s current Vice President.

Industry insiders know that this isn’t Stephen’s first time heading the marketing efforts of a major smartphone brand. He was one of the key people who led OPPO’s marketing efforts when they first entered the Philippine market in 2014. While we could keep singing his praises about how he did an excellent job in his position, we’ll let the results do the talking: from virtually 0 market share in 2014, OPPO managed to climb up to the #2 spot in the Philippines when Stephen left the company in 2018, with the brand taking the #1 spot just a few months later.

No job is too small

Stephen attributes his success in his career to his unrelenting work ethic and the lessons he picked up when he started to work for the EON Group in the 2000s as a public relations exec. That’s where I first met Stephen, back when magazines were still a thing and he was doing media rounds in addition to everything else that he was doing.

“There’s no clock in doing agency work, but it’s a good experience. My advice to young people actually, is that your first job should be in an agency, because you’ll learn a lot. It’s not like you can come into a company doing one specific task: you have task A, other people have tasks B, C, and D – in an agency, you get to do it all. You get to experience every department, you get to experience every task on hand,” he said.

“That made my transition from agency work to brand-specific work go very smoothly actually,” he added.

Just do it

While having a good work ethic is a start, it’s nothing without a mentor to guide it. Stephen found his mentor in Martha Sasing, who was then an Associate Account Director for the EON Group.

Martha taught Stephen to just do things – and learn from them even if you make mistakes. It’s a simple, but effective mantra that has served him well through the years.

“Do it. Make a mistake, it’s ok. ‘Oh but I don’t know how to do it’ – that’s ok, just do and try it anyway. I really do believe that mistakes are a big part of growth. As you know, successful people, not just in our industry, within the Philippines and even worldwide, experience the biggest failures as well. The earlier in your career that you embrace that you are not perfect and you’re bound to make a lot of mistakes, the easier it will be for you to learn,” he says.

“Just do it. If it’s bad, then we’ll do it better and differently next time. By giving the people I work with the freedom to do things, I give them opportunities to learn and grow. I’m not saying it’s 100% freedom for them to do it on their own – I’m still there, I’m still looking at it. But creative freedom, I’m giving them all the freedom of whatever it is,” he adds.

Lighting strikes twice

After leaving OPPO in 2018, Stephen worked at another startup, this time local appliance outfit XTREME Appliances. But his love for tech never left him, which led him to accept his current role with HONOR in the dwindling days of the pandemic.

While Stephen is no stranger to starting from scratch, his work was cut out for him: this was HONOR’s third time re-entering the smartphone market in the country. Despite HONOR’s recent declaration of independence from its parent brand, the public still largely perceived the brand as synonymous with Huawei, along with all the negative connotations associated with that connection.

His first order of business: letting everyone know that HONOR had what its former mother company didn’t.

“When we started building our social media pages on Facebook, Instagram, and stuff like that, you won’t believe how many messages are along the lines of ‘Do you have Google?’ There’s a lot. That’s why when we started the campaigns, the comps, we were banging on, ‘we have Google,’” he said.

“It [Google] is a different company, but the technology is really good for HONOR,” he adds.

The re-launched brand tasted success early with its viral hit, the Honor X9a 5G, by distilling confusing tech specs and features into easy-to-digest information for the masses. It’s one of the things that contributed to the phone’s success, so much so that 6 months on, it’s still enjoying brisk sales nationwide.

“I remember when we were brainstorming as a team, I think we only had three weeks or one month left before launching it. ‘It’s a premium, OLED curved screen’ – I asked every single person in our team what that meant. Unless you’re a tech journalist who’s been doing this for the longest time, you’ll know what it means. But an ordinary person will have no idea what you’re talking about,” Stephen said emphatically.

“Then we settled on highlighting the durability of the screen: ‘It’s not going to break.’ Really? Then how do we prove that? During the brainstorming, we were dropping the phone, threw it, and stuff like that. Whatever you guys saw during our launch – the dropping, running over a car, hitting the wall, whatever it is, it came from that. Our HQ already gave us talking points on how to market this campaign, but three weeks before the launch, we scrapped everything,” he added.

“We have to talk in a certain way with the Filipino market for them to understand us, which is why we simplified the messaging. Again, we’re not saying it’s totally unbreakable. Of course, it will break – it’s glass, after all. But the accidental drops and falls and stuff like that happen on usual days, it won’t break,” he said, smiling.

The Honor X9a 5G’s success proved to be the catalyst for a nationwide expansion that wasn’t in the cards yet when the brand started. Because of the phenomenal reception of the phone, dealers and retailers flocked to the brand, buoyed by positive reviews and experiences spread online by early adopters.

“When that HONOR X9a 5G hit the market and when we did our launch, the initial plan of the company to take it slow was cracked. Before the launch, dealers were saying ‘we don’t want to carry your brand yet because you are new.’ But then they suddenly turned around and said ‘when can you deliver the product to us because we want to carry you,’” he said.

“It was an overnight success, honestly speaking. We never planned for the company to go in that direction. Of course, we’re happy. When we sold out six weeks to two months’ worth of product in a couple of days – three days, if I’m not mistaken, we were happy. It’s a good problem. Until today, I can clearly say that it’s still our top-selling product as of now,” he added.

Expanding on success

It’s still early days for HONOR, and Stephen is optimistic about what the future will bring. The brand has been expanding its network of offline stores like crazy in the past few months and has already launched a multitude of smartphones to complement the Honor X9a 5G, including its first-ever flagship in the Philippines, the HONOR Magic5 Pro.

“We’re focusing now as well on our concept stores. Our products would sell well in our concept stores, and a lot is coming. As of now, we have five. There’s a pipeline that this year we’ll have around 30 if I’m not mistaken.”

As for new phones and devices, I’m slated to accompany Stephen with a group of other media to visit HONOR’s HQ in China to see what the brand has been cooking up, which should make its way to the Philippine market later this year.

“There’s a lot of things planned. I think you will see a lot of it before this year ends. We will be doing a Fold, as well as a Flip, and a lot more. There’s a lot. I really cannot mention it yet, but as of now, we’re focusing on mobile phones, watches, and laptops. But there’s a lot, really. There’s high demand, and high pressure as well on our R&D department,” he says.

“As you know, we’re not bringing everything to the Philippines. We’re not. There’s a lot. If you see on our website, there’s a lot of products in our HQ that’s not here in the Philippines yet, but they will be,” he adds.

“We’re young. We’re a seven-month-old company. We’ve done a lot, but of course, it’s not enough, especially within the mobile phone industry. We have lots of plans, a lot of targets, events, and activities. There are so many things to do in such a crunch time. Kulang sa time, honestly, to do everything, but we’re happy to face these challenges.” he says.

“There’s a lot. I really hope that I can share them now, but I cannot preempt these things. Excited to see it soon when we visit the company HQ (China),” he adds.