No other smartphone company rocks the Internet as OnePlus does. It's distinct marketing is revamping the industry. Here's how.
Since its inception in 2013, the BBK Electronics owned brand (BBK also owns Oppo, Vivio, iQoo & Realme) has looked at things differently. From product design to target segment & selling channels to advertisements, everything has been executed with innovation. Let's take a look at every aspect in detail.
LISTENING TO THE USER
The company has been obsessed with building an engaging community from the onset. The founders, Carl Pei & Pete Lau wanted to involve the users in product design & ideation. They believed in listening to well-informed users who had an understanding of a modern-day smartphone. And they had plenty of those! This is because the company planned to go niche by targeting tech geeks & tech enthusiasts first. People who work in the tech world & even people who created content on tech on a regular basis. Hence, from the very beginning, the company was very much aware of the kind of phone their users wanted.
BUILDING A BALANCED PRODUCT
In their quest of tapping into the voice of the users, OnePlus found a common theme. Most of them wanted a well-rounded smartphone that had enough of everything. Let me make you understand what that means. OnePlus was targeting the mid-range segment of the smartphone industry. Phones that were neither high priced & premium like the iPhone nor threadbare cheap like Micromax (in India) or Oppo (in China).
You see, at that time, all mid-range smartphones had a common characteristic: One Premium Feature. It means that companies built & advertised phones based on ONE very unique or segment-leading feature like:
Very high-resolution (MP) camera
High FPS Display (more FPS- more fluid display)
Marathon Battery Performance
Solid Build with high break & water resistance.
This meant that the companies had to make trade-offs i.e. they had to degrade the quality of other features in order to make economic sense in providing one premium feature at the mid range price point. OnePlus changed the game. It figured out that users were not interested in one premium feature but rather in better all-round performance (on retrospection it may seem obvious but it really was a great insight at that time). So OnePlus built phones that had better than average performance in ALL areas but never had a standout feature. Users liked these phones better. This is how the company earned the moniker of "flagship killer". This is because its phones provided real value for money against its peers in the premium segment as well!
THE FEELING OF EXCLUSIVITY
Remember when Clubhouse (the audio-only platform) was all over the news earlier this year? Its invite-only feature had created a storm on social media & the FOMO factor (fear of missing out) created user-generated hype all around. OnePlus had a very similar invite-only strategy when it launched its first phone, the OnePlus One.
Apart from marketing hype, this strategy had another advantage. OnePlus had exact data about the orders to fulfil hence it could pivot its supply chain as per the demand instantaneously. Remember how Tesla still struggles with defective manufacturing!? OnePlus avoided this nightmare by better demand projection and Chinese proficiency in making smartphones. Given below is an old snapshot from OnePlus' official website.
Source: Marketing & Growth Hacking
DIGITAL HYPE
Steve Jobs took Apple to the next level through his marvellous product launches. He mastered the art of teasing & wowing the audience. The signs of a true showman & a marketing genius! Even today, Apple launch events are highly anticipated. OnePlus too took a leaf out of Apple's book & mastered the art of digital launches. The company's teasing of the product on social media has attracted millions of eyeballs across the globe. The company here again involves the community by giving impetus to UGC (User Generated Content). Through its #shotononeplus campaign, the company urged its users to share creative pictures with OnePlus products, share them on their stories & tagging them. The really creative ones were featured on the company's official Instagram page. A cursory look at the page's feed will give you a better idea of what I am referring to. This generated real traction for the company as well as its products as thousands of creators indulged in such a campaign & actively shared it on social media.
An example of UGC (Source: The Official OnePlus Instagram Page)
Thus through an obsession of building a community, creating a truly value-based product, garnering exclusivity and championing social media marketing, the company has gained a fairly stable market share.
However recently, the company has pivoted to a much broader audience by introducing Flaghship phones as well. The exit of Co-Founder Carl Pei has confirmed the notion. The company has launched the "Nord" series to make aggressively priced phones. But it no longer makes flagship killers as it itself makes flagships (ironic isn't it?)
Anyways, hope you liked the article.
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