A look inside Oppo’s Silicon Valley

Back in the cold Shenzhen city, at Oppo’s main office, I take a seat at a long, daunting white boardroom table. Smiling back at me, on the other side of the table, sits Katrina Lee, who is responsible for Overseas Marketing and Branding at the company.

Photo of Katrina Lee © 2014 Wazzup Pilipinas.

I’ve always found Oppo’s expansion to Australia to be peculiar. The company has little to no presence in the much larger European or North American smartphone markets, so I’d always assumed that the company’s 2014 expansion into Australia was more of a test for the company. With similar cultural and market characteristics this could eventually prepare the company for more lucrative Western expansion. At first Lee disagreed with my observation.

“I won’t really say we use Australia as a testing market. It doesn’t really sound like we have a very sincere strategy,” Lee said, though she also noted that “Australia is now the market we just want to have a try to see how we can survive. [To see] if we want to really have an appropriate understanding about the market and [to see if we can] also introduce our product to the audience in Australia. There is lots in common compared to China and also there are some differences compared to our home markets, that’s for sure.”

One key difference is the culture of the Australian smartphone sector. Australia, according to Lee, is a carrier-dominated market like the US. For many customers the entire process of buying a phone in Australia occurs through a carrier like Telstra, Optus or Vodafone. If a carrier supports your handset you could strike gold in the Australian market. But in China people are just as likely to buy a phone directly from Oppo rather than buying through a service provider.

“In China or in non-carrier dominated markets most of our efforts would be put down to have a direct communication with consumers. [So] when we are entering into the carrier-dominated market we certainly need to also put those kinds of efforts to make the carrier understand us. I believe by working with a new brand they also feel there is a certain risk. So we need to make sure they understand us well, [that they] like our product quality and [believe] in our marketing capability, as well as our commitment to the post-purchase service. So we need to make sure by working with us they don’t need to worry about the product, our marketing insight or our understanding [of the] consumer. [They also need to know that] we also have a very long-term strategy, so it will not be like a one year or two year thing. Like we will have this commitment to do this for good.”

It’s interesting to note that despite the fact that you can’t buy an Oppo phone in most of Europe or North America, customers in these regions are still bombarded with Oppo marketing. The company pays for product placement in America’s Next Top Model, for example, and is a main sponsor of the European football team FC Barcelona.

“The tactics [in each market] are different. So for example [with the America’s Next Top Model agreement] we didn’t really do such a thing in China, but we have a lot of local product placement [in that show focusing on] logo visibility.”

According to Oppo America’s Next Top Model has some cultural cache Australia, as well as other Oppo markets. FC Barcelona also still has some serious influence in China, so sponsoring the foreign team can equate to local brand awareness, even if it will go over the head of a local fan.

“So I will talk with [our Australian team] and ask, first of all do you think America’s Next Top Model sponsorship is a good move to the Australia in the first place. And then, what do you need. How can we make the benefit even more obvious to the Australia. When we say the global and the local, that is really what we are thinking. We want to have the global tonality or the influence or the prestige image but also make sure it’s not something very far away from our audience or our market. We need to work closely when we form our strategy and make sure each key tactic.”

In just a few years Oppo has also learnt a lot when it comes to the different approaches to marketing in China and other markets.

“When we are in China we do a lot of research. Even in China it is very big and very different [depending on where you live]. So we do a lot of research. We make sure we understand our target audience profile. With a company such as Oppo we really need to focus because we are not like a giant. We can’t do whatever we want. So that is the same idea when we do the overseas market. If we can not be sure, the decision will not be made by the big boss. We need to make sure we have the appropriate consumer survey to gather their feedback.”

This understanding also doesn’t just influence marketing, but also Oppo’s products and software. One key example is a tweak to Oppo’s camera software that only works in some regions.

“The definition of beauty can be different. Like probably you know that most Asian girls like white colour [skin], big eyes, because that’s pretty. And maybe that’s not really the definition of beauty in Western markets. [In Western markets] they want to be more healthy, more energetic, not quite about [being more white]. So when we are talking the idea of making [a photo] beautiful, we need to make sure beautiful is by your definition. So maybe the way we adjust or we need to be a little bit different. Like in Middle East they don’t appreciate that much either. So I would say like from this perspective or from our cultural ways some function will be disabled, some function will be available.”