OPPO targets Indian youth to drive sales

It has set aside a corpus of over Rs 150 cr for marketing, branding and setting up after-sales network

Chinese smartphone maker OPPO, which set up a manufacturing facility in Noida last month, is looking to aggressively tap Indian youth, primarily those who are college students, across major cities, to build the brand visibility and promote sales.

While the company, which entered India in 2014 and invested about Rs 100 crore to establish a manufacturing unit in Noida earlier this year, will be investing an additional Rs 50 crore for SMT line (a method for producing electronic circuits in which the components are mounted or placed directly onto the surface of printed circuit boards), it has set aside a corpus of more than Rs 150 crore for marketing, branding and setting up after sales network.

“Our pocket for marketing, branding and after sales is much bigger. India is one of the most important market for us and we are investing (in these things), more than what we are investing in setting up manufacturing base in India,” Sky Li, OPPO Global Vice President, MD of International Mobile Business and President of OPPO India, told Business Standard,

“We are very focused on quality. Unlike other players, which have taken the contract manufacturing route, we want to ensure that our products are sophisticated and of high quality,” said he. “We are primarily targeting young consumers, like college students, who are interested in fashion.”

To cater to consumer segment, Li said, the company has launched the new smartphone F1s, which brings superior camera technology with enhanced selfie and beautification features.

“Being a priority market for OPPO, we understand Indian consumer’s demand for excellent camera quality and the ongoing selfie craze”, said Li. “India is the second largest smartphone market, which has the smartphone penetration is just about 37%. It is a huge opportunity for us, and we will continue to invest in the country as and when required.”

To build the brand visibility, over the last two year, OPPO shelled out Rs 22 crore for the powered-by sponsorship for Big Boss, and partnered with Colors for shows including 24 and Comedy Nights Bachao among other things. It also collaborated with ‘YouWeCan’ Foundation, an initiative by cricketer Yuvraj Singh, to launch a charity campaign called - “Game On, Selfie On”, to raise awareness about cancer and facilitate cancer screening.

With the launch of the latest smartphone F1s, which is more focused on college students , the company is planning to organise fresh face contest across colleges so as to create brand recognition among youth.