Source: http://gaming.acervietnam.com.vn/predator-de-che-troi-day/

On the 31st March, there was the biggest exhibition of Acer gaming product line: Predator, The Rise of An Empire in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. The 1 day event gathered more than 3000 gamers from across the country and more than 35 Vietnamese media.

It was very impressive that Acer, for the first time, hold such a huge exhibition on their gaming product line, Predator, which show-cased 12 gaming laptops. Some of the products are well known by gamers such as the Predator 21X, Nitro 5, Orion 9000, Helios, Triton 700. Some other laptops are particularly represent Acer latest technology and innovative ideas such as the Switch 5 and Switch 7 for Business person.

What is a Predator?

Source: Acer Youtube Channel  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfCfcPTy8p8 

And why this event named “The Rise of The Predator Empire”? I will tell you in the following story.

I attended this event with a free ticket from a friend, as a participant but walked out with as a student who just finished Marketing 101 class. I walked in that day at a very beginning point where I am not a target customer of Acer. In addition, I am not aware of the brand products and I do not intend to buy any of Acer laptop or computer in the next 10 years but there are changes in my perception about the brand after that day.

I learnt.

Acer started in Vietnamese market as a brand for everyday computer use, cheap to average price and their biggest disadvantage is cheap computer easily get error and broken parts. According to Dien Vo, General Manager of Acer Vietnam, he took this job as Acer Vietnam General Manager in 2015 and he has spend 2 years struggling in many ugly truths of the brand and how to improve it. Acer was positioned in a low to average market and re-evaluated by many dealers and customers. Lowering the prices of product didn’t help to increase the sales. Many promotion programs released but the dealers are leaving Acer for better products from other brands.

Recognized the challenges and wrong direction Acer going, Dien Vo started to do plenty researches on the Vietnamese market and he is determined of recognizing what is the real potential market for Acer, what are Acer strengths and how to focus on those.

Source: Acer Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDnCTUABK5A

From 2015, moving toward to the future plan as a result of Acer Marketing Researches, Dien Vo put the team effort in developing and repositioning the gaming product line, which is the strongest selling point of Acer Vietnam. However, it was never a piece of cake! The Marketing team of Acer always search to find where and who is the target market for gaming laptop products. And it seems like the light at the end of their caving journey, they hosted gaming exhibition, for the first time in Vietnam. Acer had perfectly found its target market and effectively market their gaming product line such as Predator, Nitron, Helios to the target customers without going door-by-door. Customers come to them!

The all day event was successfully hosted, started by introduction speech of Andrew Hou and Dien Vo, welcome all participants. There were product exhibition displays, product trial, lucky draw and special promotion on the day.

Based on my observation, most of the gamers registered prior event but some of them also joined accidentally but love it so much. Besides, the special promotion on the day, down the price of gaming laptops to 50% dramatically increase the sale of Acer gaming product in few hours time.

During the event, I also learnt that Acer has plan to host a Game Competition at for all gamers in Asian region. The first Gaming Competition named Predator League was successfully done earlier this year 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia, which offer the prize of 150,000USD. There were 8 countries with nearly 1200 gamers participated. The competition has made such big noise by live streaming the final rounds on many gaming forums and almost every Asian countries. The event was exceed any expectation that Acer announced next year Predator League will be in Thailand and a bigger prize will be offered.

Source: Predator Gaming Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dpcbkytkIU 

And through this event, I also learn that it is not the end if you loosing the market for 5 years or more, it’s more about how you recognize your problem, ask the right questions and do your own research. To me, Tony may not the best GM for Acer but he is the one who asked the right questions, which help Acer to come back to the industry the way it should be.

My day at Acer – The Rise of The Predator Empire wasn’t fulfill because I didn’t get a chance to play any game and honestly there wasn’t enough time for me to learn about their product. However, there are key messages of Acer that as a Marketer, I understand and appreciate Dien Vo’s vision for the company and the target customers. I believe this is the rise of the Predator Gaming product line and also a new empire of Acer Vietnam leading by Mr. Dien Vo. I hope in the future, my next visit to any Acer Vietnam event, there will be another rise of another product line for different group of customers that I can tell you all about. And I hope Acer will gain what worth their effort in the last two years.

If you are out there, reading this, remember don’t give up your business. There is always a strength of your product/service that people will remember it and buy it. All you need is asking the right questions.

Finally, don’t forget to leave your comment below for any thoughts and question. See you in the next post!

 

 

 

Note: The post content based on my observation and experience at Acer – The Rise of The Predator Empire event in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam. The content also included Dien Vo’s speech on the day and other information were discussed with Acer Vietnam staffs. There is no written academic and non-academic source used readings to the above content.