“I'm tasked with getting local insights”: Sumit Walia, OPPO India

When I met Charles (Wong), our CEO in India, we spoke about how OPPO envisaged the Indian market and about bringing local insights to the table. My forte and contribution is in terms of understanding the consumer and the market. What I have been tasked with is primarily getting local insights in terms of consumer behaviour, products, marketing, content, vernacular, etc.

One of the bigger shifts that OPPO is looking at is connecting deeply with Indian consumers. I remember his (Wong’s) words telling me to find that deeper connect.

We operate as an independent and individual entity in India; there is no coordination among any of these brands. We are looking only at the consumer, various segments, opportunities and geographies that are available to us, backed by our own independent manufacturing units, R&D centres, and our own marketing, sales and distribution channels.

There is a pre-4G and post-4G era. 4G brought along high penetration and affordable data, triggering unique smartphone user behaviour - binge consumption of entertainment, online gaming, photography, people building careers as influencers, etc. The app ecosystem, hardware and data are crossbreeding.

What consumers demand from their devices is at an all-time high, whether it is battery life, faster charging or a better camera. We have a portfolio to cater to all; we introduced the first water drop display to get the best screen to body ratio, for instance. Fast charging came about due to consumers’ requirement of ‘snacking charge’ as against long-term charging like charging the phone overnight. We are keeping an eye out for all this.

India is extremely fragmented and has many Indias within it. Finding the next need gap is the biggest challenge. While it is a daunting task, it’s also an opportunity. We have strategically invested in many things to gather insights about consumers and the next wave of technology that we can leverage.

We are lucky to be in a category which doesn’t see seasonality. Demand for smartphones is at its highest, driven by consumers wanting more. Replacement cycles are shortening and that’s fuelling growth. This presents an opportunity for us marketers to keep engaging consumers who are always out in the market looking for the next best device. That’s what keeps all smartphone brands wanting to keep engaging with consumers, tell their story, put forth their propositions... even our launch cycles have changed; we are constantly launching devices.

It is different for different segments. We cannot standardise it to 24-30 months, across models. Various price points exhibit various behaviours. There is a constant expectation and demand for newer technologies. We adapt to this change.

The core of our marketing strategy is fuelling passion points and creating a deeper connect. Whether we use TV, digital or association with entities like PubG or Sunburn, the core aspect is to find the right passion point. In the case of TV campaigns, with a celebrity influencer, it’s about leveraging the celeb’s qualities and registering our propositions in consumers’ minds. In case of sports associations, like Wimbledon or the ICC, it would be about fuelling the passion for sports. With our association with Straight Up Punjab (Punjabi digital concert) on YouTube, it’s about looking at music/entertainment as a passion point for connecting deeper in terms of geography or vernacular.

It’s crucial. E-comm platforms are key to the whole consumer decision journey. While making a purchase decision, consumers don’t just check the options available to them, but also check what other consumers are speaking about. So, we’re strategically investing and aiding them in this process. Our marketing mix is backed by data. Smartphone category marketers are very close to consumption patterns.

We don’t go into specifics or personal information hunts and derive insights from larger big data analysis. It is about large cohorts of consumers and trying to better that experience by putting the right information in front of them.

We look at holistic experiences: presales, point of sale - we have 60,000 sales touchpoints - and after sale - our service centres are adept at repairing phones within an hour. Everything is detailed today... the way we package products, the way we brand products, the way the contents of the box are laid out.

One of the most important pillars we are building for ourselves is premiumising experiences. We started the journey this year (2019) with our flagship store in Hyderabad. We’ll take it to multiple cities next year (2020) to create a premium environment. We already have 250 retail stores and are trying to premiumise them. Once the stores are in place, consumers will expect more from our devices. We will also be introducing a lot of premium, high end devices in 2020. The Reno series was a step in that direction.

We will still be a full range player and will provide the premium experience across price segments. We will also work on better designs across segments.

Luckily for us, the smartphone industry is expecting high growth. Upgrade (of handsets) itself is driving growth. 4G penetration and affordable data are driving growth in tier 2/3 markets. Above that, there are around 450 million people using feature phones. There is a large base ready for an upgrade. All brands are growing. In our case, we witnessed 92 per cent growth in Q3 of 2019. I feel the slowdown hasn’t impacted the industry at all.