OPPO and vivo's progress and shortcomings from the perspective of Double Eleven

"Double Eleven", previously known as "Singles' Day", has become China's largest shopping festival thanks to the unremitting efforts of major e-commerce platforms. On that day, mobile phone manufacturers will prepare sufficient supply to cope with the almost crazy consumers. Because of the large and concentrated quantity, the sales data on that day can reflect many problems.

According to the data released by JD.com on November 12, Huawei and Honor ranked first, Xiaomi ranked second, Apple ranked third, and Samsung and LeTV ranked fourth and fifth respectively. In addition, Gionee, OPPO, OnePlus and other brands led the growth list.

In addition, according to the sales data of Tmall platform as of 0:00 on November 12, the top five mobile phone brands in terms of sales volume are Xiaomi, Honor, Apple, OPPO and Huawei, and the top five mobile phone brands in terms of sales volume are Apple, Xiaomi, Honor, OPPO and Huawei, while vivo ranks seventh in both lists.

As mobile phone sales channels become flatter and mobile phone brands are pursuing omni-channel layouts, the current situation of OPPO and vivo is in line with the saying: "The revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades still need to work hard."

There used to be two completely different worlds online and offline!

Counterpoint Research analysts believe that "the success of OPPO and vivo mainly relies on their traditional offline channels, which are as dense as a spider web. Mobile phones sold in stores account for three-quarters of the total sales of the two brands." Liu Lei, OPPO's public relations director, once said in an interview with Southern Weekend that 95% of OPPO's mobile phone sales come from offline channels. Among them, the main sales come from offline channels in third- and fourth-tier cities.

OPPO has 36 first-level offline agents in China. Offline sales are handled by first-level agents in various regions. Some larger regions have second-level agents. According to foreign media reports, OPPO has as many as 320,000 offline stores in China and other Asian countries. Vivo has adopted a similar management and sales model. There is such a statement in related reports: "OPPO, vivo offline stores have become 'flooded'".

This will bring some problems: apart from the current number of offline agents, the model of OPPO and vivo does not have a sufficient threshold. Once other brands enter the offline market on a large scale, the original market of OPPO and vivo will inevitably be eroded. In addition, the long-term lack of attention to online channels will cause OPPO and vivo to be squeezed in both channels and face the situation of being attacked from both sides.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun once said that by 2020, Xiaomi will open 1,000 physical stores, expressing its determination to vigorously build offline channels. These stores will undoubtedly make it easier for consumers to contact and experience Xiaomi's products, and will also bring more consumers to Xiaomi. He Gang, president of Huawei's mobile phone product line, also revealed that Huawei's mobile phones are shifting from B2B business to B2C transformation, and offline flagship stores will continue to increase in the future.

When Xiaomi, Huawei and other manufacturers are working hard to develop offline channels, OPPO and vivo will inevitably face more pressure. OPPO and vivo's obvious efforts during this year's Double Eleven can be said to be a "revolution" based on this situation. Earlier, vivo changed its top-level domain name and cooperated with JD.com, indicating that OPPO and vivo were not "dazzled" by their offline achievements, although they did not start online early.

Can advertising and marketing drive last?

Despite their efforts in online channels, OPPO and vivo still face some problems in brand operations.

When it comes to OPPO and vivo, their almost "overwhelming" advertising is impressive.

Yang Yang, TFboys, Yang Mi, Li Yifeng, OPPO can be said to sign whoever is popular. Not only that, the two companies are also generous in their money when it comes to naming and sponsoring popular programs. From Hunan Satellite TV's "Day Day Up" to Dragon TV's "Go Fighting" to Zhejiang Satellite TV's "Running Man", OPPO is present in all of them. This year, vivo not only continued to name "Happy Camp" and sponsored the popular program "Comedy Big Mobilization", but also signed Korean star Song Zhongji who became famous because of "Descendants of the Sun". OPPO and vivo have put a lot of effort into advertising and marketing.

Advertisements communicate the links between production and production, production and circulation, production and consumption, circulation and consumption through information dissemination, becoming an indispensable information channel for enterprises. In fact, OPPO and vivo are often criticized for their products because they overemphasize marketing, so that many netizens think that the mobile phones of these two companies are "high-priced and low-spec."

The most typical example is the 360N4s Snapdragon version and OPPO R9s, which were released not long after each other. Both are equipped with Snapdragon 625 processor and 4GB RAM + 64GB ROM, but the price of R9s is 2799 yuan, while the price of 360 N4s Snapdragon version is less than half, only 1299 yuan, which is actually a very surprising difference.

In the era of mass communication, the theory of advertising communication chain is AIDA, which is the acronym of attention → interest → desire → action. How to make consumers remember the brand in the advertisement when they go to the store is an important part of advertising. After the emergence of the Internet, AIDA turned to AISAS, which is the acronym of attention → interest → search → action → share.

As information flows faster, the advertising effects of OPPO and vivo will be less effective than before. In this process, the brainwashing effect of product advertising will be greatly reduced, and more information will be exchanged between consumers of the same type. At this time, OPPO and vivo are likely to be less attractive than other brands due to their "high price and low configuration" characteristics.

This also explains why OPPO and vivo did not perform well in first- and second-tier cities: due to the transparency of information and the high penetration rate of e-commerce, their offline channels and advertising advantages could not play a role. Under the guidance of the high penetration of e-commerce and more transparent information, consumers in first- and second-tier cities have considerable information screening capabilities and trust in brands more than in advertising, which makes it difficult for OPPO and vivo to compete with Apple, Samsung and others in these regions.

What efforts do OPPO and vivo still need to make?

In addition to channels and marketing, a large part of the reason for the previous success of the two was that they happened to be in the midst of a wave of mobile phone replacement in China, which not only provided external conditions for the huge growth in sales of OPPO and vivo, but also concealed many problems.

Whether they admit it or not, their current core competitiveness (offline channels, marketing methods) actually has no unique advantages. The cost of physical channels and marketing has increased, and these costs must be reserved in the price of mobile phones. OPPO and vivo must be able to guarantee a super high gross profit for each mobile phone in order to effectively maintain operations.

Huawei and other companies have their own advantages in technology. Xiaomi also achieved a breakthrough in design with its Mi MIX, which improved its brand image. These are what OPPO and vivo need to catch up with. The brand effect accumulated by relying solely on advertising and marketing is often quite fragile. As long as other manufacturers increase their investment in this area, the original advantages are likely to disappear.

In summary, although OPPO and vivo have won the public's attention and the envy of many people in the current mobile phone market, this does not mean that they can maintain their current slight advantage in the face of follow-up by other mobile phone manufacturers after the replacement wave has passed and the information flow has accelerated. Or to put it more precisely, if they only rely on offline channels, the advantages of OPPO and vivo are only temporary, and their present is far from representing their future. But after entering the online channel, the future of OPPO and vivo has one more possibility, but OPPO and vivo need to change more than just the channel layout.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.