The relationship between OPPO and BBK (reprinted)
"BBK" MP3, what kind of association will consumers have with such a product? A stereotypical and boring music player like a repeater? Or is it a home appliance with a dull image like a VCD? Or audio equipment that can be shared with "Xiaoli"? No matter what it is, the image of the "BBK" brand is too solid.
It has almost become synonymous with some small household appliances. Its inherent consumer group is obviously not equivalent to MP3 consumers.
What about OPPO? If there is an "OPPO MP3" in front of you, what can you think of? What comes to mind is the encounter between the young male and female protagonists on the subway. It is a wonderful love fantasy, and the clear female voice can still be vaguely heard in the ears... and the "music dream" accompanying "Super Girl" into thousands of households. Entering the store, OPPO is an upstart in high-end MP3 products.
OPPO is the MP3 player owned by BBK. Since its birth, BBK has deliberately concealed the origin of OPPO, allowing this lady to appear in front of consumers with an absolutely Western image. After more than half a year of OPPO sales, looking at OPPO, its significance to BBK is by no means as simple as a single-line product.
She looks like a lady
In order to wash away the "earthy smell", BBK spent hundreds of millions of dollars on dressing up this girl from OPPO. On May 12, 2006, the commercial with the theme "My Music Dream" was officially broadcast on television stations including CCTV and Hunan Satellite TV.
In just 15 seconds, what is shown to the audience is the story of the male and female protagonists dressed as students meeting in the subway, imagining music, spending time together in musical love, and returning to reality to reaffirm their love. Whether it is the crisp and sweet female accompaniment, the full use of romantic elements in the picture, the clever arrangement of the story, or the careful selection of the male and female protagonists, it can be seen that the advertiser is deeply invested in this 15 seconds.
Who is the advertiser behind this? While being familiar with the OPPO Music Dream commercial, almost all people in the industry have raised such questions. For ordinary consumers, the owner behind it is not the most important. Whether they can own such a stylish MP3 player has become their question.
Before the doubts were solved, OPPO launched another powerful communication offensive: active follow-up of online and peaceful media advertisements, and the "OPPO·Sina 2005 Internet Song Ranking" website in cooperation with SINA Adding another wave to the rise of original songs on the Internet, OPPO also co-organized the College Singer Grand Prix with the most influential newspapers in various regions, attracting the attention of college students, a huge consumer group.
At the same time, BBK also started to build a sales network. Contrary to the normal situation of domestic MP3 sales, BBK has established OPPO’s main sales channel in home appliance stores instead of traditional IT sales channels. In this regard, industry analysts believe that OPPO's establishment of counters in stores can avoid direct conflicts with other domestic brands; on the other hand, through the strengthening of the terminal image, OPPO's high-end brand image is established, further emphasizing OPPO's "foreignization" "Image. But this has also led to two possible disadvantages: First, do traditional home appliance stores with slow in and slow out meet the survival needs of "low-profit" consumer products like MP3? Second, the high promotion point of traditional stores will inevitably further squeeze the profit margin of MP3 players. Will OPPO's survival space be reduced because of this?
"Why can't OPPO be sold in traditional stores? That's where BBK is most familiar with." Lou Xiangpeng, general manager of 21st Century Fulai Communication Agency, believes, "After all, OPPO's positioning is very different from ordinary domestic MP3 players. It also bears the significance of brand image, and it is natural to sell it in traditional home appliance stores."
有女 Just Grow Up
In China, most MP3 companies still live in the "grassroots". class", when even industry leaders like Patriot were still looking for opportunities outside the high-end market, Bubugao entered the MP3 industry with "OPPO" in a high-profile manner, and followed regular operating habits - looking for subtle gaps in the industry, going straight in, and tearing open the gaps. Control the market.
First of all, Bubugao "found a good marriage."
Although BBK still maintains its leading position in China in products such as repeaters, cordless phones, and VCDs, these "advantages" are gradually shrinking. This is due to the reduction in the added value of product functions and the increase in similarity; On the one hand, the shrinkage of the industry is also serious. BBK needs to find new entry points. Communications and electronics are BBK's comparative advantages. The MP3 market, which has grown rapidly in recent years, has aroused BBK's interest. The main user group of the MP3 market is young people who do not have high brand loyalty, but are easily impressed by brand details and directly lead to consumption, and like new things. For the latecomer BBK, the MP3 market is a world worth betting on.
Secondly, Bubugao tailor-made a good dowry for his daughter. From TV advertising to print media promotion; from the selection of TV sponsored programs to the careful production of advertising content; from the placement of terrestrial media to the promotion of public relations activities, OPPO is trying its best to create a three-dimensional "dream", hoping that More young people enter this dream world, recognize OPPO, and then become the protagonists of OPPO's "music dream". This is a series of relatively regular and precise steps for launching new products. The arrangement of the high dowry created a beautiful lady.
Furthermore, Bubugao is ready to catch a rich husband. Although it is a latecomer, OPPO is not inferior to foreign high-end MP3 brands in terms of terminal momentum. For consumers, the most direct manifestation is OPPO’s impressive configuration and pricing. The price of the 256M version even exceeds that of many domestic 512M products. For example, the low-end X3 (256M) is priced at nearly a thousand yuan, while the higher-end X9 (256M) is priced at nearly 1,500 yuan. While similar-grade products from imported brands have plunged sharply, OPPO insists on pricing it this way. No wonder the media uses words like “stunned” to describe consumers’ psychological feelings.
But as far as BBK is concerned, such market positioning is necessary. OPPO was born in an environment with more than 300 competitors despite rapid growth. Looking at the current domestic MP3 market, although domestic brands have occupied nearly 3/4 of the market share, they have insufficient share in the high-end market with the largest profit margins. 1/4. Should OPPO choose to compete with a group of sheep for grass, or a few wolves for meat?
If you choose wolf, then OPPO can only become a wolf first.
Girls are not easy to marry
However, OPPO’s series of public relations and communication activities are based on strong back-end support. After the beautiful dream is drawn, will consumers be willing to Dreaming together is still an unknown answer for enterprises.
Judging from the current market response, OPPO has established sales counters in many major domestic terminal stores, successfully established a terminal brand image, and achieved good results in MP3 high-end market sales. "Judging from the current sales of OPPO in the MP3 market, it should be among the top three in the domestic market." said Wang Changchun, general manager of BBK.
But the MP3 market is definitely different from VCDs and repeaters. The latter is a unique domestic industry with little market competition, while the former two are global industries. China's MP3 market has been included in global competition from the beginning. Whether it is SONY, Apple, or Samsung, these high-end MP3 leaders are brands with decades or even hundreds of years of experience. Both in terms of technical content and brand content, these brands are much higher than any domestic MP3 manufacturer. This is one of the reasons why some domestic companies dare not easily "break ground" in the high-end market despite their technical capabilities. OPPO starts directly from the brand and competes with foreign manufacturers. Can it withstand the brand conflict?
The battle to defend the MP3 Chinese brand is much more difficult than the battle to defend the color TVs of the past. Color TVs are labor-intensive products. Domestic companies can rely on cheap labor to drive away Panasonic and SONY. However, when it comes to most of the cost of MP3, domestic companies have little room to play.
There is a saying in the market: "Low price may not necessarily make you invincible, but high price certainly has enemies." Another suspicion comes from OPPO's pricing.
Will the huge public relations and promotion costs, high point promotion fees at terminal stores, and brand building costs be evenly distributed to the products and then passed on to consumers? A large part of the reason for OPPO's high price comes from its higher configurations, and these configurations are not unique to BBK. Can the "assembled" high-end brand be exclusive to OPPO for a long time? How long can OPPO, a relatively weak brand, persist in the face of foreign high-end manufacturers such as Samsung and SONY that have stronger financial and technical support?
Some commentators believe that OPPO is trying to make a fool of itself, but Zhang Dingjian, chairman of Hejiuding Product Marketing Agency, believes that BBK’s operation on the OPPO brand this time “is based on product foundation. Very good. OPPO will not survive on its brand." When further talking about OPPO's advantages, Zhang Dingjian said: "Product appearance design is the main difference between domestic MP3s and foreign products, and appearance has always been Duan Yongping's main focus. We don’t need to worry about OPPO.”
Regardless of whether the above “worries” can be successfully solved by BBK, OPPO will be at the high end of life for a relatively long time, and BBK will face the future. It is a long-term brand maintenance battle.
Marry a girl in a high profile, or build a nest to attract the phoenix?
BBK has invested heavily in establishing the high-end image of “OPPO” and actively built the “OPPO” high-end brand in terminal stores, just to sell “OPPO MP3” well?
Is the MP3 market big enough for BBK to make such a heavy bet?
BBK Audio-Visual Electronics Co., Ltd. started planning the "OPPO" brand as early as 2002. At that time, it mainly planned to produce high-end technology products such as LCD TVs, plasma TVs, and fashionable digital products to break the "BBK" brand. With the constraints of always making small household appliances (DVDs, telephones, memory repeaters, etc.). "OPPO" was launched after three years, but it was placed in the MP3 market. It is still unknown whether "OPPO" will only appear as a sub-brand of BBK MP3, or whether it will gradually expand into another high-end brand of BBK with multiple products.
"BBK may not just want to influence the domestic market." Industry insiders boldly estimated: "BBK has always been more cautious in foreign markets, and has encountered some restrictions in its overseas development due to trademarks and other reasons. The OPPO brand may It can help BBK to better develop overseas markets.”
From this perspective, BBK’s purpose of concocting “OPPO” may not be to marry a daughter, but to get married. The person wearing heavy makeup is not a girl waiting for a price, but building a nest to attract phoenixes.
Currently, all consumers can see is the highly praised “OPPO MP3”. The early public relations activities and BBK's long-standing corporate style have destined OPPO to launch a protracted war in the industry. OPPO, which has pushed itself to the top, can only persist and stand firm. Once OPPO lets go of the high-end market, penetrates its product lines downwards, or slightly ignores the subtle changes of its competitors, OPPO's early brand-building achievements will be in vain.