Oppo looks to make India a global export hub for products

Sumit Walia, vice-president, Product & Marketing, Oppo India

India is a key market for Oppo as it has played an instrumental role in the Chinese device maker’s global growth. “We have been strengthening our presence in India with investments in R&D, talent and manufacturing,” Sumit Walia, vice-president, Product & Marketing, Oppo India, tells Sudhir Chowdhary in a recent interaction. Excerpts:

The competition seems to be super aggressive during this festive season. How is Oppo preparing itself for it?

Oppo has had a promising 2019 so far and based on the momentum we have witnessed, we have aggressively planned for the festive period. Ahead of the festive season, we strategically introduced our Reno2 series and A series 2020 across compelling price points to cater to diverse consumer needs and the response has been very encouraging. Our recently announced Reno2F will be made available in the market before Dussehra.

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Apart from the unique device portfolio, Oppo is also focusing on providing compelling offers for consumers. We are offering a Complete Damage Protection offer that will make sure customers can use their Oppo devices without worrying about any kind of damage to their new device. Apart from this, we are giving offer and discounts such as cashback on bank debit/credit cards, no-cost EMI, exchange offers and special offers worth Rs 300 crore.

How much market share are you expecting through this festive season?

Our endeavour is to offer technologically advanced products and services to our consumers and reinforce Oppo’s leadership in innovation. We see a large growth opportunity in India and are poised to cross double-digit share mark by the end of this year.

Will you be focusing online or are you partnering with any e-commerce to boost your sale targets?

Oppo thrives on consumer engagement and to that end, we are always on the lookout for creating interesting touchpoints with consumers. As a next step, we have launched our own e-commerce store to make products easily accessible to the consumers. Along with this, we will continue to focus across channels to provide our consumers with a host of offers/services on different platforms. We will continue to partner with leading players like Amazon and Flipkart for our product portfolio.

What are the key attributes for your success in India?

India is a key market for Oppo as it has played an instrumental role in the brand’s global growth. Our success in India can be majorly attributed to our consumer-first approach and staying true to our commitment to offer innovative and superior quality products.

Our journey in India has so far been extremely promising. In our endeavour to provide the best device experience to our customers, we have introduced many industry-first technologies such as the first rotating camera, VOOC fast charging, Hybrid Zoom, shark-fin rising camera, panoramic screen amongst others.

Keeping customers at the core of our strategy and constantly elevating user experience, we have been strengthening our presence in India with investments in R&D, talent and manufacturing. We have an ongoing investment of Rs 2,200 crore in the Greater Noida manufacturing facility and aim to make India a global export hub for Oppo. Currently, we have over 60,000 sales points and 500-plus exclusive service centres in India to deliver a seamless consumer experience. All these efforts combined have led to an astounding growth of 41% YoY for Oppo, as reported by IDC.

Are you coming up with any specific TVC or brand campaign during this season?

Yes, marketing has played an integral role in helping us connect with our consumers. In line with the launch of our India-first Reno2 series, we have rolled out a marketing campaign featuring leading Bollywood celebrities Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif and Badshah that brings alive the youthful spirit of the Reno2 series. With these talented powerhouses on board, we aim to touch the hearts of the millennial and Gen Z consumers in India. We always look for marketing initiatives that further strengthen our bond with the consumers and in line to this we have an upcoming Diwali specific digital campaign for Reno2 series that highlights our exciting festive offers for consumers.